Soundings the emergence of meaning

Transcription

1 Innovation Creativity and Leadership - Research and practice Soundings the emergence of meaning Susan Ryland (PhD) University for the Creative Arts (UK) mail@susanryland.co.uk City University London Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice

2 Creativity, innovation and leadership Metaphors Journeys (Sam Elkington) Windows (Kate Hammer) Attributes Unknown / unforeseeable Risk Autonomy Ambiguity Acknowledging emotions Collaborative Experiential, in the moment, tangible Open source / peer-to-peer sharing Artists are inherently risk-takers they have courage. Increasingly, this is seen a transferable skill from the arts to business and other spheres. For example speaker: Caroline Southard (musician: flute) talking about 'tolerance for novelty'. Interventions Improv: Neil Mullarkey (dynamic dialogue) Planning for the unplanned: Sam Elkington The destructive task - creating space: Alistair Dryburgh

3 I will: discuss how new meaning is generated describe key cognitive mechanisms in creative thought - out-of-placeness (metaphor) and - overlookedness (metonymy and synecdoche) give a reflective account of the development of a new exhibition and performance: Soundings: thought over time sum up and offer conclusions. Susan Ryland Meme:brain. Digital study for Soundings: thought over time

4 Metaphor: bringing together disparate entities to find common features that provide access to more complex, abstract ideas. Metonymy : peripheral (overlooked) partwhole / partonomic / part of. A new perspective on something familiar. Synecdoche: category relations / taxonomic / kind of. Meaning expansion from a lesser to a more comprehensive category

5 Louise Bourgeois Maman outside the National Gallery of Canada

6 METONYMY: same domain relations based on contiguity PART-WHOLE relations MARCHING FEET FOR ARMY Cornelia Parker The Negative of Whispers, ( Ear plugs made with fluff gathered in the Whispering Gallery, St Paul s Cathedral, London), 1997

7 Butter bean (species-genus relations)

8 Twenty-five beans With a number of beans we encounter a process of domain annexation or microdomain annexation. Brigitte NERLICH, Synecdoche: a trope, a whole trope, and nothing but a trope? In: NERLICH, B. & BURKHARDT, A. (eds.) Tropical Truth(s). 2010: 310.

9 Metaphor: bringing together disparate entities to find common features that provide access to more complex, abstract ideas. Metonymy : peripheral (overlooked) partwhole / partonomic / part of. A new perspective on something familiar. Synecdoche: category relations / taxonomic / kind of. Meaning expansion from a lesser to a more comprehensive category See Seto 1999, Nerlich 2010, and Ryland 2011 for further information

10 Susan Ryland. Core Sample Encyclopaedia Britannica (2011). Photograph Soundings: thought over time collaborative touring exhibition Susan Ryland (artist) Helen Thomas (musician/composer) Michael Beiert (electroacoustic composer)

11 Soundings: thought over time considers how metaphors frame our world. Geological metaphors such as: deep in thought buried memories' just scratching the surface turn abstract notions of knowledge into tangible objects that can be lost and found.

12 Knowledge metaphors Ice core sample with sheet music. Light:Strip (2009) Scanner image of striplight Light 'Kept in the dark', 'See what you mean', 'Shed/throw some light on the matter' Encyclopaedia Britannica core sample (2010) (maquette)

13 Avant garde music scores and geological studies share visual and linguistic characteristics Meta-staseis by Iannis Xenakis (1953-4) Music score for 61 musicians Volumina by György Ligeti for Organ (1961-2)

14 path track route channel road direction journey avenue bend fold crease joint articulate speculate manipulate train course steer suggest support coerce cajole conform reform mold make assemble accumulate acquire acquiesce give way release reveal remind recall realize respect retrospect represent present present now remember retreat retread resume repeat repeat repeat noise sound sonorous sonic sensuous subtle sudden softly surreptitiously nuanced balanced discrete separate associated assembled aside side-by-side suggestive shifting sliding spreading relating connecting contiguous amalgamate joining blending proximity transition translation transformation extending mapping out-of-placeness over-lookedness inbetweeness interventions intervening interval pause break review recur recall restate resound sound sonorous sonic resonance rebound rhetoric postulate proposition dispersal rehearsal retrieval retain retry recover reveal restrain re-edit real reel-to-reel tape bind blend bend contend send mend pretend defend offend resist insist persist sustain refrain rephrase utter words meaningful colourful ephemeral transient passing passage corridor cavity activity relativity relations cousins genus category continuity continuum potential tolerance integral noise tipping-point brink turning tuning touching thoughts emotions emotive welling feeling incite incisive cutting

15 Core samples and partially decayed sheet music Analogue to digital conversion

16 Fossil coral PERSON AS BOOK metaphors: 'an open book' STORY AS WEAVING: 'tangled plot', 'narrative thread'

17 Encyclopaedia Britannica core sample cutting Studio view (Susan Ryland 2012)

18 Detail of Encyclopaedia Britannica core sample (Susan Ryland 2012)

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20 Beiert & Thomas (2009) Two Similar for tap dancer, oboe and live electronics, The Cornerstone Festival, Liverpool

21 'Max Patch' created by Michael Beiert - software allocates sound fragments with letters of the alphabet. Here the word typed is 'Hello' as seen in the red band.

22 Play sound track: Rehearsal for S/core Improvisation for Oboe and electronics Susan Ryland. Pumpkin:Poetry (2012). Digital drawing.

23 Conclusion The principal cognitive mechanisms for creative thought are: metaphor metonymy synecdoche Interventions for encouraging creative thought use out-of-placeness (metaphor and irony) overlookedness (metonymy and synecdoche) The aim is to create a situation or environment where multiple (unforeseeable) possibilities can emerge Metaphor studies: Digital drawings Coral:Articulated (2012) Coral:Poetry (2012)

24 END Susan Ryland University for the Creative Arts (UK) Please cite this document as follows: Ryland, Susan (2012). Soundings: the emergence of meaning. Innovation Creativity and Leadership - Research and Practice conference. Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice. City University London.

25 REFERENCE LIST BARCELONA, A. Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: a cognitive perspective, Berlin/New York, Mouton de Gruyter, BURKHARDT, A. Between poetry and economy: Metonymy as a semantic principle. In: BURKHARDT, A. & NERLICH, B. (eds.) Tropical Truth(s): The Epistemology of Metaphor and Other Tropes. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, CHEVALLET, A. Origine et formation de la langue française. 2 parties en 3 vols. Paris: Dumoulin Imprimérie Impériale McCAFFREY, A. Innovation Relies on the Obscure: A Key to Overcoming the Classic Problem of Functional Fixedness, Psychological Science. 23(3) University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Tobin Hall, 135 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA amccaffr@psych.umass.edu NERLICH, B. Synecdoche: a trope, a whole trope, and nothing but a trope? In: NERLICH, B. & BURKHARDT, A. (eds.) Tropical Truth(s): The Epistemology of Metaphor and Other Tropes. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, RYLAND, S. Resisting Metaphors: A metonymic approach to the study of creativity and cognition in art analysis and practice (PhD thesis). University of Brighton/University for the Creative Arts, See also: SETO, K.-I. Distinguishing Metonymy from Synecdoche. In: PATHER, K. U. & RADDEN, G. (eds.) Metonymy in Language and Thought. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia. John Benjamins

26 After note Generic-parts technique and metonymy Cognitive Psychologist, Tony McCaffrey from University of Massachusetts suggests that uncovering aspects of the human semantic, perceptual, and motor systems that inhibit the noticing of obscure features would enable people to identify effective techniques to overcome functional fixedness, which is a classic inhibitor to problem solving. He claims his generic-parts technique can help people unearth the types of obscure features needed to overcome those obstacles by: devising techniques that facilitate the noticing of obscure features in order to overcome impediments to problem solving (e.g., design fixation). McCaffrey's technique uses metonymic thought processes to draw attention to, or 'highlight' peripheral elements. McCAFFREY, A. Innovation Relies on the Obscure: A Key to Overcoming the Classic Problem of Functional Fixedness, Psychological Science. 23(3)