<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Hi all,</FONT></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">I enjoy reading the writing produced here and have found this list to be a great source of reading and research resources.</FONT></FONT></P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> I am a longtime lurker who has been hesitant to post, because of what I assume to be primarily a “professorial” focus.</FONT></FONT></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">I have a fine arts background, (bfa). I also assume I am older than most on this list, as I have a teenage son, (many of you seem to be in the beginning stages of family). But correct me if I am mistaken. I am not a professor, there are, after all, only so many colleges and universities... I have gone back to school and am choosing to enter the middle or high school realm of teaching.</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">If I have time to participate, it is in quick chunks, often rough. I do not have the time to carefully craft my words as most on this list. My first/natural choice in language would be communication through images. Writing is something I never became accomplished at.</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">All that said, I am currently doing a masters thesis (action research) in education that will explore the value of consciously teaching the "stages" of creativity, in conjunction with the "craft".</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">This would be in conjunction with a "typical" fine arts class, teaching the “craft” of various disciplines (printmaking, computer graphics, drawing, painting, hybrid media, etc.)</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">T</FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">hrough my years of experience as a graphic designer (by <FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">necessity) </FONT>in the corporate world , I eventually did not experience a big demarcation between traditional and hybrid media, in terms of creative process, the skill sets transfer easily, unless fear (of the unfamiliar?) is factored in. Traditional media can also encompass fear, but culturally it seems that computer anxiety in learning is different. I often found myself wanting to "command z" when working in traditional media. <FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Co</FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">nversely I have found my approach to process in using photoshop and illustrator akin the way I use process in traditional media. I offer this digression as a point of reference in the definition of process.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">My question and request:</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">1.) For the purposes of my paper, I am deconstructing the stages of the creative process. I recognize of course that creativity is not a fixed process, but do think there are some common shared processes.</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Can anyone point me in the direction of books or papers concerning the value of ambiguity in the creative process?</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">(</FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">The most exemplary art instructors I have had deftly interleave both aspects as they teach. I can count those on two fingers. What is your experience in terms of a successful melding of these aspects?)</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">2.) Another area of investigation is “teacher as translator or intermediary”, (not in a hierarchical manner, as in teacher cascading down to student,) but more in the realm of teacher being fluent in the "language" of the other and acting from there.</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">3.) The clincher of course will be how to devise a way to "collect" data in a classroom environment once I design the premise of the research. In my reading, although qualitative research is espoused as a valid way to proceed, it still appears to need a measurement contrivance which I have difficulty devising in a formal manner.</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Thanks for all your past and future contributions.</FONT></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Michelle</FONT></FONT></P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"> </FONT></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>