Writing & Society Research Centre Seminar Series 2019

The secularization of modern thought famously put pressure on notions of a transcendent source for creativity. On this account, creativity had its locus in a divine, essential and immaterial donation. Most famously, this culminated in twentieth century post-structuralist and post-modern critiques that brought notions of authorship, genius and intentionality into question. More recently, there has been a revival of interest in creativity, creative processes and practices. In this return, rather than a donation from without or an epiphenomena reducible to deterministic processes, creativity now appears to be a fundamental aspect of cognition and reasoning for humans and non-humans, alike. As such, creativity appears more as a synthetic or emergent property, inseparable from thinking, acting and doing. This seminar will consider these new understandings of creativity, addressing a diverse array of interdisciplinary perspectives—from neuroscience, psychology, mathematics and logic—to directly reconsider or provide resources for thinking again about creative practice and artistic production. Professor Kate Stevens, Director of MARCS at Western Sydney University, will address her pioneering work with The Australian Dance Theatre on creative decision making and improvisation in music and dance performance. Dr Richard Garner, a category theorist in the mathematics department at Macquarie University, will challenge the formalism uncritically applied to mathematical praxis, and draw out the intuitive and creative processes central to theorizing pure mathematics. Dr Jason Tuckwell from Western Sydney University will discuss how creativity is central to technique, via logician Charles Peirce. Peirce argued that abductive reasoning was not only responsible for the creativity of scientific reasoning, but a non-specific creative force, driving evolutionary development. The session will be moderated by Dr Kate Fagan, literary theorist, poet and artist, who will bring her multidisciplinary research and experience as an artistic practitioner to reflect on the discussion.