Say what you will about TED Talks, but they’re free. Who am I to reject easy-to-access resources? Anyway, it was NOT easy to find five TED talks given by women about creativity. I persevered though, don’t worry. I watched all the videos and made notes of important ideas and quotes for you to consider as you watch along. Have fun!
1 | Who decides what art means? | Hayley Levitt with TED Ed
- “You write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see—and I don’t.” – Georgie O’Keeffe
- How much should the artist’s intention affect your interpretation of their art?
- Intentional Fallacy (proposed by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardley): the belief that valuing an artist’s intentions is misguided because, 1) we cannot always have conversations with the artist about their work, and 2) the intention could distract the viewer from the qualities of the work.
- Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels: the artist’s interpretation is the only acceptable way to interpret art.
2 | Teaching art or teaching to think like an artists? Cindy Foley @ TEDxColumbus
- Teaching for creativity: embody the habits that artists employ, such as comfort with ambiguity, idea generation, and transdisciplinary research (aka research that serves curiosity).
- #1 obstacle to creative work: discomfort with ambiguity. Artists accept ambiguity as part of the process.
- “Imagine if the future of education was not about discrete disciplines, but rather was about disciplines like math, art, and science being in service to ideas.”
3 | A crash course in creativity | Tina Seeling @ TEDxStanford
- Innovation Engine: Inside = you, Outside = the world around you.
- Imagination: Promote imagination by framing and re-framing problems, connecting and combining ideas, and challenging assumptions
4 | The Value of Art and How It Can Impact Our Lives | Umika Mediratta @ TEDxLagoadasPatas
- Art is a reflection of your inner self
- You don’t need the skill of art to understand art
- When you look at a work of art, it gives something back to you. And that is what it means to you. It is your personal relation with that art piece.
5 | Art as Empowerment: The Virtue of Art Therapy | Ann Lawton @ TEDxUWRiverFalls
- Art therapy utilizes the art making process to help groups, individuals communities heal physically, mentally, emotionally
- We can make metaphors and physical symbols when words are too difficult to communicate
- Art is subjective and only artists can make sense of their images, which gives them back control