Creativity: A Smart Connection

When I have time, like on this mild early spring day, I love to walk.?Through my Ph.D studies at Concordia in Art Education in Montreal, I have developed a stronger walking practice.?Perhaps it's because I live in close proximity to Mont-Royal and have access to its many trails and natural areas that are perfect to walk through, relaxing under the green canopy and melting into the natural surroundings. ?

Concordia’s Public Scholar for Art Education, Trish Osler shares in a blog post,?that walking is a methodology for understanding. Osler notes that the things we encounter during a walk affect our experience of being in and knowing a place, "bringing us to consider objects and events as collaborators in the colonization of space". I agree with Osler that cultural and material properties and our encounters with them influence (and are influenced by) how we make sense of the world.

As I walk along the urban and residential streets around the Concordia downtown campus, down Sainte Catherine towards Westmount, passing students and residents, I?wander,?almost drifting?through public spaces.?This offers a "contemplative and felt experience that shapes a different understanding of my space".?It not only informs my life in the city but also inspires it.?And as I did today, I enjoy adding further dimensions like sound.?

Because I am experiencing the Ph.D student lifestyle these days, I often feel so limited for time.?My mind wants to always focus on more learning, more incoming information.?And so, I like to multitask on my walks and listen to informative podcasts. ?A podcast that I have found lately that has intriguing guests with strong opinions and strategies to elevate our human existence is The School of Greatness hosted by Lewis Howes.

Today, as I walked, I listened to Howes discuss the science of psychiatry with Dr. Daniel Amen. Amen, a physician, adult and child psychiatrist, and founder of Amen Clinics, shared how he has revolutionized his psychiatric practice by not just listening and observing symptoms from his patients, but by taking the time to do a brain scan.?What he learns from brain scans reveals unprecedented information that can impact his patient's health, mental health, and recovery, quicker and more effectively than a symptonal diagnosis. And the even more fascinating observation that Amen has made through his use of repeated brain scans on his patients was that our brain is capable of healing and improving based both on our health choices; eating healthy, exercising, and staying away from addictive substances, but more important on the ability of our mind to lean toward a positive bias.?? (Do your homework on this one.)

As an advocate for a stronger focus on the arts in our schools, I do agree that creativity is linked to brain enhancements and that positive or negative emotions do affect our brain chemistry. Osler further discusses this with her research linking creativity to enhanced brain activity in a recent Concordia article. Osler focuses on the origins of creative inspiration and how educators can help learners make critical connections through artistic processes.

"I’m constantly inspired by the act of creativity, but the magical moment when a brilliant idea materializes is elusive," she says. "I want to know what will increase the chances for inspiration to occur. Igniting creativity may change the way we teach in the future."

On another of Howe’s podcasts, he talked with Dr. David Sinclair?who is?a Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School. In the podcast, Sinclair talks about his research work on understanding why we age and how to slow its effects. Among other factors, Sinclair and his team have found that dopamine production lessens as we age.?And if we want to slow down our aging then we need to learn ways to control our release of positively charged dopamine. ?Dopamine is a chemical released when we do something pleasurable, and it basically makes us feel happier.

Interestingly, studies of the benefits of being creative and art therapy are becoming more and more relevant in our world.??Art therapy can be very valuable in treating issues such as depression,?anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even some phobias. It is a great way to express your emotions without words, process complex feelings, and find relief. And, you may be surprised to learn, that creating art stimulates the release of dopamine.

Mycelium seems to be a new buzz word lately, being highlighted in Judi Dench's beautiful documental ode to trees "My Passon for Trees", used in clothing designs, such as Stella Mccartney's Mylo and architectural designs, and even for titles of Art shows, like Concordia's inArte Journal's recent show at Concordia's VAV Gallery.

"On the surface, different plants appear to be separated by species and distance, but underground there is a vast, interwoven network of fungi that grows and spreads out, connecting all plants to a single organism. Mycelia are a communication framework that transmits essential information and nutrients to maintain the health and well-being of all plants connected. "

Ideas of the rhizomatic nature of mycelium are widely discussed within Art Education areas of thought such as Artography and New Materialism. The way Mycelia communicates is also how I feel like my brain functions - jumping from one neuron to another, sparking one idea from another and connecting thoughts and themes, coming to conclusions through circuitous routes. Connecting creativity and the enhancement of our brain’s capabilities is something I am passionate about. It supports my argument that in Canada, we need to give more focus to the arts in our schools.

If this topic is?interesting to you, BRAVO?(Bureau des regroupements des artistes visuels de l’Ontario) will present?ART: Between Emotions and Languages, a symposium on the neuroscience of art and creativity at the Université de l’Ontario fran?ais in Toronto from?April 5 to 7 2022. This multidisciplinary and bilingual symposium will be offered in a hybrid format (in-person and virtual mode). Three days of conferences and nine internationally renowned speakers, including the eminent French neurobiologist Jean-Pierre Changeux, also a specialist in the neuroscience of visual arts.? For more information, you can visit?https://art-entre-emotions-et-langues.com/. To register, use the promo code?BRAVOCULTURE2022!?