Participatory Creativity Lab

Ki Hadjar Dewantara was an early advocate of independence from the Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. The goal of independence from colonial rule was widespread in his day in the Dutch Indies and elsewhere. Dewantara took the issue, not just as a goal, but also as a question. What should independence be for Indonesia? Working with many other people, a series of answers emerged to this question over time and played a critical role in imagining the new nation of Indonesia. An important articulation of the emerging answers was the Taman Siswa schools, which drew from the ideas of Montessori, Froebel, and Tagore, adapted to the Indonesian colonial context. This case builds on understanding of social and material interactions in creative work, considered in previous cases, and highlights the role central questions can play in the organization of creative work. The discussion also juxtaposes Mao’s conception of his revolutionary work as destroying the old to make way for the new (Chapter 5) to Dewantara’s use of the past to bridge to the future – the walking backward metaphor from improvisational theory. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.

Mao Zedong is famous as a revolutionary and the first leader of the People’s Republic of China. The revolution he led was distinctive for its reliance on a highly sophisticated and increasingly coercive education system. This case looks at the development of Mao’s ideas about education and the growth of the re-education system in ever-larger applications. That education system was effective on an enormous scale, teaching political philosophy to a peasant population that was largely illiterate at the beginning of the revolution. The system has, however, been widely criticized for indoctrination and extreme coercion. This case examines the forces and influences that contributed to the system and raises fundamental but often over-looked questions about education in general. For, aspects of the aspirations and techniques of the system Mao instigated can be readily recognized in a wide variety of educational programs. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.

Elizabeth Zimmermann spearheaded a major shift in mid- to late 20th century attitudes toward knitting and techniques of the craft in the US. Over time her mission emerged: teach American knitters to think independently as craftspeople. Purpose, audience, and social and material interactions were crucial to this work. The Mediation Model of Purpose and Power captures how Zimmermann’s purpose mediated her own motivation system and larger societal power dynamics, here magazine publishing and craft associations. Audience was crucial in the emergence of new innovations for teaching. This case also provides the opportunity to consider the role of audience on legacy – specifically, the long-term impact of her work and the evaluation of her contribution within feminist discourses of empowerment. The most distinctive opportunity this case offers is, however, an in-depth consideration of material actors within thought processes. Zimmermann’s reflections on, descriptions of, and demonstrations of her work provide evidence concerning the central role of her material to thought, insight, memory, and emergence of ideas. Her experience of knitting also exemplified the metaphor Johnstone proposed for improvisational narrative: walking backward, aware of resources from the past but stepping spontaneously into the future. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.

Under Fascist oppression in Italy, neurobiologist Rita Levi-Montalcini set up a make-shift laboratory in her bedroom and conducted research which continued after the end of World War II and would ultimately lead to a Nobel Prize. This case examines the distributed nature of her work, with particular focus on her shifts in and impact of motivation: from resignation to determination during the war and then back to peacetime work afterward. In both instances, the conceptual frame of her purpose mediated the dynamics of her personal motivation system and larger societal power dynamics. Based on this example, the Mediation Model of Purpose and Power is provided for testing in other cases and through other types of research. In addition, the case find that, at a general level, Levi-Montalcini’s work followed the metaphor Johnstone proposed for improvisational narrative: walking backward, aware of resources from the past but stepping spontaneously into an unknown future. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.

Keith Johnstone defined a widely used set of improvisational principles and techniques for the theater. Alongside his formal education, and then throughout his life, Johnstone pursued his own self-directed learning, and he taught in a variety of contexts – all of which informed the emerging ideas of improvisation. This case looks at how those ideas slowly took form through the work itself – Johnstone’s network of enterprise – focusing on the social interactions over time. From those interactions, both Johnstone’s purpose and the improvisation techniques themselves emerged. This locally distributed work was part of larger post-war economic and cultural dynamics, as well as changes within the domain of theater in Europe and America. In addition to exploring the distributed dynamics of the work, the case describes key improvisational principles that will be helpful in examining later cases in this book, especially spontaneity, status and narrative skills. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.

In the early 21st century, elBulli was one of the most famous restaurants in the world, specifically renowned for the creativity of the cuisine. This case examines the development of the core team, their distinctive point of view for over 20 years. They learned about haute cuisine through traditional systems of chef training and later used those systems to teach their ideas to others – in between, they set out on an extraordinary, self-directed exploration of new techniques and uses of ingredients. Of particular interest is the dialogic nature of the work. elBulli saw food as a language that they used to provoke dialogue within and among the diners, with the press, and with the history of haute cuisine itself. The case thus provides an opportunity to consider the roles of audience within creative work, a dialogic dynamic with multiple, connected levels from those in mind during the work to interactions among collaborators to interactions with the explicit, target audiences, here diners and the press. The multiple effects of success on creative work are also part of this case. Full case analysis presented in Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications.