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Process Education

"You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.." Picasso

When we propose to 'teach' someone in the creative arts, we know that we are dealing with an impossibility. Most teaching goes against the grain of the creative soul. The personality that has to enquire and question the very paradigms that we rest our educational institutions and disciplines on, can hardly be told what he is seeking. He can only be allowed to discover it for himself.

However, the traditional stance that has prevailed in creative education, is one of training youngsters in the vogue of the day. Bombarding them with images and words created by the masters of a century, hoping that some of the genius would be transferred by manner of osmosis or something, and that they would thus somehow create the same kind of work. Sadly, that is exactly what we achieve. Sad imitations of genius. Habitually stuck between gazing enviously at the pages of a designer's annual and frantically ripping it off when the dreaded deadline looms nearer.

With form only, and without any idea of how to approach their own creative process, students are doomed to fail in their quest. Inevitably their work does not measure up to the standard of their hallowed masters, and instead of a learning curve, we get a confidence curb. We train them in imitation when we do not introduce them to process.

However, to lure young people to enter into the creative process definitely requires some magic - or at least a slightness of hand. I have found that calling the thing by its name, dissecting it, and presenting them with the Fait Accompli, only creates resentment and enormous resistance. Rightly so. Nobody wants to undertake a long and endless pilgrimage into the terrifying unknown willingly.

Therefore I have made some suggestions for educators interested in a more creative teaching methodology:

Using the front of an established discipline that you love and enjoy gives you the edge and the lever of being able to surprise them by doing things that they do not expect in a 'normal' academic setting.

Personally I found it best to clothe the real stuff in the shroud of 'History of graphic design' - helping youngsters to identify with the masters and their methodology, rather than the masterpieces, (after all even the masters are only human beings.) This approach freed them from trying to imitate the master's work, and because they were consciously imitating the masters' actions, they tended to avoid imitating the masterpieces themselves. These steps lead into creative process (being made aware of other's processes, testing them and finding useful methodologies is vital for all artists. Look at the clusters of artists all through history that are intimate friends, and working colleagues, that deliver several solo magicians. Even they needed the fertiliser of other people's mistakes.)

Make sure you introduce them to several new media or techniques in the course of time. Not necessarily complex ones - little things like letraset abusing, readymade printing techniques, dialogue distortion, etc. Finding a medium that you resonate to, is half the muse. If you are lucky enough to have a role model (master) as well, you're on your way.

Build their trust in your commitment to process. I found that through several, short briefs of imitating master methodology, (Brody, Suzanna Licko,) where the student gets to trust that you as lecturer are seriously interested in the action of doing more than in the end-product - you actually have to RAVE about the creativity, the amazing results they achieve, and be seen to give marks accordingly, if that is your frame of reference.

Differentiate between process work and deadline-product orientated work, or the student will never actually let go of the fear of failure and let things happen just to see what might happen. At worst, they might only rediscover the joy of making something!

Always include them in the philosophy behind the action. Allow them to grow more conscious of their own creative process and the role they have to play in their own education.

Slowly get them closer to taking the plunge into their own creative process. They need to understand the functioning of process before you launch the big one.

This normally takes the form of a long term project of their own choosing. 1 called it "the thing you've always wanted to do" (Something that they have not yet achieved) Ask them: what are you waiting for? For someone to give you permission? Or an order? Or the 'right' time?

Stay interested, but resist the temptation to become involved in the execution. As it needs to proceed alongside their other work, they can bring in reports of how its going at intervals (written or spoken, maybe some would like to share the work with you, and maybe some won't) just to remind them of the importance and that you have not forgotten about the 100 day project - or whatever you want to call the collective happening.

The MAJOR thing is not to criticise this effort at all. Any progress is good. Even, and in most cases, especially if they came to you after three or four weeks of this project and tell you that they've decided to change the format / goal or the brief that they wrote themselves. Then you know that the student has actually engaged the muse and the transformative process has begun.

The dangers are also real and you as the mapmaker that originally sends them on this journey have to be deeply aware of this. You are making them tread on the holy ground of ancestors and exposing them to primitive and dark forces you may not understand or expect.

Creative Process shares many things with the practice of Art Therapy - and each person on their own journey through the unconscious will encounter strange things. Their childhood wounds and traumas will arise. Very often these constitute the dynamo for their creative urges - the veritable philosopher's stone that forms their psychic core. In unearthing this and facing it, many will find healing in the work they create for themselves. Some, however, will return time and again to the traumatic themes and never resolve it.

When at first I saw the tremendous effect in releasing creative and vital energy Process had on my students, 1 thought that this was the panacea for all. If all people could only live their lives in this way they would all fulfil their destinies, complete the web of human consciousness as it is unfolding and all the rest that goes with this New-Agey kind of thinking. I have found IT! I thought. The spilt religion some have found in art.

To me it is still many of those things ~ it does not, however guarantee happiness. For some people, quite the opposite (just think of the truly creative beings that ended up committing suicide, losing mental balance and ending up in insane asylums - Van Gogh, Nietsche, Camille Claudel to name but three.) So while it is definitely the most powerful way of approaching a creative life that I know of, be very sensitive to your student's resistances and make every allowance for the fact that they can only take the steps that they are ready for.

Do not force anyone into facing facts or even subjective interpretations of their personal mythology. They will do so in their own good time. Accept it, don't direct it. Anything goes! And I mean anything. As long as the student is creating something in any medium whatsoever and documenting it religiously, you have achieved your goal.

Praise every effort made. Eventually lead them into taking their own measure. As much as we have erred in education by taking the formulation of the problem out of the student's hands; we err when we take the evaluating of the work exclusively into our own hands. Sustained creative effort can only be judged by the creator - and objectivity is a creative trait, remember?

Taking Creative Process as a basic philosophy into your teaching requires patience, diligence, courage, but above all, it requires love.

Love of your subject, your student, and yourself.

There is no substitute for enthusiasm and passion. Believe that your example will make a difference. If you light ONE flame, you have diminished the darkness.

You have to be the protective environment of the cocoon that allows the pupa to transform without hampering its development - and eventually (sometimes sooner than you think) you must be willing to let the developing butterfly break out of your cocoon to spread its wings.

Do not identify with your student's creative quest. Remember your own mission and live your life without apologies.

Posted 04 August 2006, www.annisnyman.co.za, author: Anni Snyman

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