Zine Making-Analyse and reflect on your experience of this project, and your own creative process during it, with reference to the ideas and theories studied on this module.

Introduction

Through embarking on creating a zine (see Appendix 1), I have observed the multiple and interwoven experiences both physically and cognitively that have underpinned my creative journey. As the creation of the zine was involved with fitting the plan and brief of my co-authors, who were aged nine to ten, my creative process faced more frequent complications, such as judgement from my from my inner critic concerning my zines reception. However, my experience of this creative process has made me conscious to the importance of the body as well as the brain, through physiological creativity, and the role bodily engagement may have upon my ability to pay attention. This essay will analyse and reflect upon my experiences of this project, focussing on embodiment, the inner critic, network associations, attention types, and the 4 Stage Model of the creative process.

Attention Types & Brain Hemispheres

Throughout my creative process, there is evidence that I used both my narrow attention and open attention depending on the task at hand, and through tailoring and recognising the attention type best suited to the task, I was able to maximise the potential of my creative process. McGilchrist (2009: pg.31) makes the distinction between the two types of attention, stating that narrow attention can be recognised as a bird distinguishing a piece of corn from piece of grit, and open attention as a bird guarding itself against possible predator’s. Therefore, narrow attention is “wilfully directed” and “narrowly focussed” and open attention “receptive, widely diffused alertness to whatever exists, with allegiances outside of the self” (McGilchrist, 2009: pg.31). Having the knowledge of these two attention types provided me with the ability to consciously question where I was focussing my attention. For example, when facing a task such as designing the layout of the intergalactic café, I was sure to engage my narrow attention to recall information about the stereotypical layout of cafes, so that the reader could decode and understand the setting. Furthermore, this knowledge allowed me to challenge my creative work from different angles and perspectives: looking at the zine from the perspective of a stranger picking up the ‘travelling zine’ from a coffee shop, and as co-authors who contributed to the end result of the zine. McGilchrist (2009: pg.12) states that “things change according to the stance we adopt towards them, they type of attention we pay to them, the disposition we hold in relation to them, agreeing with Lawrence and Cranton’s (2011: pg.313) statement, that the way we view the world depends on how see it. These statements acknowledge the objectivity of creative work, and thus the type of attention we pay to the world undoubtedly affects how we view creativity. For example, a person with limited sight will rely more upon physical embodiment than visual, and so textures, reflective sequins and movements would capture the attention and engagement more than a smooth and undistinguished zine. 

            Claxton (2015: pg.80) states that the brain has two hemispheres, “one that is focussed and analytical, and the other that is more synoptic and holistic”, thus it can be recognised that narrow attention is associated with the left hemisphere, and open attention is associated with the right hemisphere. Claxon (2015: pg.80) suggests that we have these two hemispheres “so that we can run two modes of attention simultaneously”. Therefore, it is important to note that the types of attention used are not restricted to only one at any time. From my experience, the simultaneous use of different attention types ensured each stage of my creative process had a purpose. I recognised that I was able to set myself a broad task which engaged my open attention, such as looking at examples of zines, yet simultaneously engage my narrow attention such as picking out individual features which I was drawn to, such as vibrant colours and cartoon styles. The ability to use both attention types is fundamental to varied creative work, as only engaging one type of attention can limiting the creators perspective of the world causing them to leap to conclusions, thus missing the “vivid, complex individuality of what is actually present” (Claxton, 2015: pg,180-181).

Embodiment

The importance of embodiment was prominent throughout the creation of my zine, causing me to engage in different attention types, but also in allowing more complex ideas to develop. Claxton (2015: pg.138) states that human intelligence is stereotypically associated with five characteristics; being articulate through “language and/or other kinds of symbols, being abstract through “concepts that are less closely or less obviously tied to concrete experience”, being rational with their validity able to be checked by others, being conscious and deliberate in the control or the thinker or critic, and being effortful “rather than smooth and automatic”. However, Claxton (2015: pg.138) suggests the importance of the body in any type of work, and challenges the Cartesian view of the body having little attributes towards intellectual abilities. Rather, Claxton (2015: pg.138) supports Descartes view that the mind is “always the accompaniment of a bodily state which is the real workhorse of intelligent activity”.Through the embodied process of zine creation, I too believe that the mind does not function separately from the body, instructing and guiding the creative process. Instead, my experience revealed that my mind and body worked simultaneously and interwoven, and at one time either may influence the process of zine making more than the other. I especially found this embodiment prominent when reviewing my narrative, not only enjoying the bold colours and alien language, but also engaging with the text so that my body physically felt emotions such as joy or sadness, fully focussing my narrow attention on the zines overall effect.

Piepmeier, (2008: pg.230) recognises the embodiment that the process of zine-making entails, stating that “in a culture that celebrates ease and immediacy, zine makers are choosing to take part in a process that is deliberately messy, inefficient, and labo[u]r-intensive”. I found value in the process of zine making, and took my time to create a mock zine with a plan of what would be included on each page and the most effective layout with the scaled down images from the children. Following the planned scenes and making sure there was enough pages to include all of these scenes proved difficult, and as a result I decided to extend the length of my zine to double the amount of pages. Planning, painting and sticking images proved laborious yet cathartic, and allowed me to take my mind off of other tasks. I found pleasure in visually seeing the results of my labour, with each layer of paint marking my progress and bringing my creative vision to life. Piepmeier  (2008: pg.221) states that “[t]his personal, physical involvement means not only intentionality but also care”, investing my time and effort into this creative process. Furthermore, Piepmeier (2008: pg.221) states that “selecting paper to be the background, deciding whether to handwrite, typewrite, or word process, is a level of personal involvement that is not as often possible in electronic media”, and through my experience of this creative process, I believe that my embodied cognition associated with this project strengthened my involvement in the product.

The ‘homemadeness’ of the appearance of zines appears to be one of the appeals to this creative process, as ““scrappy messiness” functions, in part, to create a sense of fondness between reader and creator, to create connection” (Piepmeier, 2008: pg.222). This may provide insight into my choice to incorporate of my co-authors authentic handwriting and spelling mistakes into the final form of the zine. The child-like images appear endearing, and the actual language and organic spelling mistakes “humanize[s] the creator and the zine” (Piepmeier, 2008:pg.222). The zine seeks to communicate a simple but important message, to respect others, be thoughtful, and navigate conflicts or express feelings in a calm and reasonable manner. The simplistic images and simplistic message created an “embodied community”, and resultantly took me back to my childhood, providing me with a feeling of familiarity and nostalgia when reminiscing on my own childhood work.

Inner Critic

I found that during my creative process I regularly told myself that the work I was creating had no practical significance as a form of comfort, as resultantly there were no regulations or rules I had to abide to. Vygotsky (2004: pg.9) states that “in everyday life, fantasy or imagination refer to what is not actually true, what does not correspond to reality, and what, thus, could not have any serious practical significance”. Reiterating this statement allowed me to embrace my perspective and nonsensical creative ideas, for instance the idea of a coffee child being born through planting coffee beans in an intergalactic greenhouse. I felt reassured by the thought that my work had no real significance, and thus alleviated pressure and allowed me to explore my ideas further, allowing me to progress deeper in my creative process. It can be suggested that others may find this thought a hindrance to their creative process, instead interpreting this message as the voice of their inner critic questioning the importance of the work. However I didn’t not interpret it this way, and found comfort in not having to critique the acceptability or skill of my zine, instead feeling pride in my effort during the process of creation.

Network Associations

Network associations were crucial to the creative process of my zine, as having an initial starting point to expand my ideas from reduced my stress, through providing me with a sense of direction. I was open to hearing about my co-authors ideas and plans for the direction of our zine, and met with them with no preconceived preferences concerning what direction the zine should take. This was beneficial to me, as I made sure to be patient and not need to seek an answer as to what direction to take. Barry (2008) states, “to be able to stand not knowing long enough to let something alive take shape” allows creative work to emerge, and so impatience and the need to be right may be viewed as the enemies to creativity. Instead, I sought inspiration through observation, and in return asked my co-authors to observe in order to encourage their own ideas. I did this through challenging them and myself to simultaneously engage our attention types, by creating prompts (see Appendix 2). I used these prompts as examples of unusual and out of the ordinary protagonists and narratives, for instance a pair of lemons whose dream is to be made into lemonade- showing them the freedom of what could be done. I found prompts helpful for myself during this creative process, as visual aids sparked network associations within my right hemisphere, making connections & being ‘in relation’ to the prompts. 

My experience with ‘clustering’ during lectures sparked my idea to provide my co-authors with prompts, as when asked to cluster our associations with a ‘nucleus’ word, I found that more unique and introspective associations and ideas were formed. Boyd (2010: pg.164) states that we “observe and interpret our world in terms of patterns of agency, humanity, individuality, personality, action and interaction”, and so constructing a potential initial starting point may have allowed my mind to subconsciously link network connections, as well as my bodily cognition relaying experiences and sensations associated with these prompts. Evidence of using my network associations during the creative process is also evident though my aesthetic choice of colour and design of the zine (see Appendix 1). The galactic colour scheme with bright pink walls, canary yellow tables, rainbow aliens in flying saucers and rainbow gradient ‘flash forward’ pages were chosen to embody the alien and galactic environment of the space café, and opposed stereotypical café environments  to allow the reader to truly feel as though they are looking at an intergalactic café.

Creative Process: The 4-Stage Model

Ideas do not simply come to mind, even if we think that they do, there is an unconscious element to thinking, planning and understanding ideas and problems that undertake the creative process. It is evident that during this subconscious process we draw upon our experiences with the world, as “transformative learning is coming to see ourselves and the world around us from different and more open perspectives” (Lawrence and Cranton, 2011: pg.313). Thus, we form webbed-connections through these experiences as well as our education. Wallas (1926) theorised that there were 4 stages of the creative process “based largely, but not exclusively, on the accounts of Helmholtz and Poincaré” (Sadler-Smith, 2015: pg.345), mathematicians who had explored their own creative-process, and found they repeated the same cycle each time. Helmholtz discovered through his own research that “to reach that stage [of creative revelation] was not usually possible without long preliminary work” (as cited by Sadler-Smith, 2015), with Poincaré too finding that 

“sudden inspirations “never happen” unless they have been preceded by “fruitless” voluntary efforts” (Poincaréin Sadler-Smith, 2015). My journey of the creative process can too be recognised as following Wallas’ (1926) proposed stages of the 4 Stage Model, and resultantly, the knowledge that the creative process is one of many conscious and unconscious stages that provided me with a calm and unpressured journey.

Lubart (2010) and Sadler-Smith (2015) provide definitions and analysis’s of each of  Wallas’ (1926)  proposed stages of the creative process.

Preparation

According to Wallas (1926) “Preparation involves a preliminary analysis of a problem, defining and setting up the problem” (as cited by Lubart, 2010: pg.296), and so can be recognised as the initiation phase of a creative process, whereby a task is set. The Preparation phase of my creative process is evident both prior to the creation of my zine, as well as during construction. For example, “setting up the problem”of planning activities to encourage my co-authors creative processes, and deciding on the most effective design for the construction of the zine may both be recognized as my Preparation stage. This stage occurs with an awareness of its presence, as Wallas (1926: pg.85, 83) states “the mode of thought in Preparation is conscious, “voluntary”… and “regulated” rather than a “wild ranging of the mind”” (as cited by Sadler-Smith, 2015: pg.345), and thus emphasizes its deliberateness as well as importance to the creative process. Furthermore, I propose the Preparation stage was crucial to the success and structure of my creative process, and that without this definitive stage, my zine may have embodied the disorganised and un-cohesive process from which it would have occurred from without this stage.

            Wallas (1926: pg.83) argues that those who are well educated may find the Preparation stage easier than the uneducated, as knowledge “gives him [the creator] a wider range in the final moment of association, as well as a number of those habitual tracks of association” (cited by Sadler-Smith, 2015: pg.345). This statement may provide insight into my struggles of planning activities, as I lack experience with children of the age of my co-authors. As Preparation “draws on one’s education, analytical skills, and problem-relevant knowledge” (Lubart, 2010: pg.296), my struggle materialised through lacking prior knowledge of activities that would be enjoyed by my co-authors, whilst not too distracting. Therefore, this may be suggested why I found this task especially so challenging to resolve; as my right hemisphere had established few network associations with engaging children, through my inexperience and lack of open attention in this area.

Incubation

Wallas proposes that following the conscious stage of Preparation, the creator enters the stage of Incubation, whereby “we do not voluntarily or consciously think on a particular problem”, instead “a series of unconscious and involuntary… mental events may take place” (Wallas, 1926: pg.86, cited by Sadler-Smith, 2015: pg.345). It can therefore be suggested that during Incubation, we engage our open attention as our sole or primary attention type, remaining open to our surroundings and inspiration that may come from them, however subconsciously. As a result, incubation may be distinguished as a ‘break’ from conscious work, and that during the stage “the mind continues to work on the problem, forming trains of associations” (Lubart, 2010: pg.296). I experienced the process of Incubation after trying to plan an activity for my co-authors to engage with, as well as when determining the style and theme of my zine. After coming to an initial defined problem during Preparation, my mind soon became overwhelmed by a range of problematic and unrelated ‘answers’, which provoked me to remove myself from the work. Wallas (1926, pg.86) states that being absent from the mental work can materialise as either distraction through other work, or relaxation from all work, and upon reflection I did so through relaxation. During my stages of incubation, I found calm and clarity through physical exercise such as yoga and going for a walk, and I was able to refocus my mind back onto the task at hand after, such as when planning the visual layout of the resolution page of my zine (see Appendix 1, Page 14). Claxton states that “dance, yoga and t’ai chi all have proven effect on cognitive functions such as decision-making and problem solving” (2015: pg.10). My experience with t’ai chi during semester one inspired me to incorporate yoga or simple stretches into my daily routine. I found dedicating time to engage my body after sessions of stillness resulted in better and more concentrated work afterwards. Claxton, (2015: pg.10) states that “physical exercise needs to be accompanied by efforts to refocus and sharpen our attention”, and so it may be suggested that my success of stretching in order to refocus was dependant on my conscious effort to refresh my body and mind.

Illumination

Although I recognise my own phase of Illumination, my own experience does not align to how Wallas describes this stage. Lubart (2010: pg.296) cites from Wallas (1926) that

“Illumination can be characterised by a “flash,” a sudden enlightenment”, and so suggests that an idea or resolution breaks through consciousness suddenly and without warning. However, if Illumination is characterised by “ when the promising idea breaks through to conscious awareness” (Lubart, 2010: pg.296), then my own experience did not align to this description. I was able to recognise a promising idea or solution to my initial problem after I returned to work from my Incubation stage and began “wilfully direct[ing]” and “narrowly focuss[ing]” (McGilchrist, 2009: pg.31) my attention back to the task at hand. Wallas (cited by Lubart, 2010: pg.296) did however suggest that during the Incubation stage “an intuitive feeling that an idea is coming” may be sensed, “which occurs at the “fringe” of consciousness”. My experience of Illumination can be described as more gradual than Wallas’ initial suggestion, and instead appeared to steadily grow into my consciousness from incubation. For example, the idea to create characters varying from planets to lemons grew steadily, as I initially had the idea to prompt my co-authors in some way as a means to engage their open and narrow attention simultaneously. From this initial thought, I consciously thought of different ways by which my co-authors could form network associations, and the resolution to visually prompt them with example characters came to light.

It may be suggested that not necessarily one singular concept may occur during the phase of illumination. During my own Illumination phase, multiple ideas answering my initial problem broke through my consciousness, such as providing various forms of sensory stimulation. It can be suggested that this is due to the engagement of my right hemisphere during the preceding Incubation stage, as the right hemisphere has the “ability to make more and wider-ranging connections between things”(McGilchrist, 2009: pg.42). Therefore, the engagement of this hemisphere this may explain why multiple interconnected ideas were made conscious during this stage.

Verification

Wallas’ fourth stage, Verification, emerged from Poincaré’s use of the word when explaining the process of creating mathematical work (Lubart, 2010: pg.296). This stage can be thought of as the refinement of an idea or a solution, as Lubart (2010: pg.296) states “following the illumination, there is a phase of conscious work called verification, which involves evaluating, refining, and developing ones idea”. Therefore, the Verification stage should be identified through the presence of a resolution, however this resolution should arise due to conscious work. As my own experience of the stage of Illumination varied from Wallas’ (1926) original theory, my stage of Verification too proves difficult to distinguish. It is proposed that Verification is “[t]he second period of conscious work”, and only occurs from “putting “in shape” and wording the inspiration, deducing its consequences, and its Verification” (Poincaré, as cited in Sadler-Smith, 2015: pg.345). From this definition, it can be interpreted that during Illumination the ‘rough’ concept of an idea is realized, and then only during Verification is the final idea established. My experience varied from this, as during Illumination I did not arrive at a sudden enlightenment to a ‘rough’ concept of my solution, instead a series of unsuitable concepts eventually lead me to the idea of creating characters as prompts for visual inspiration. As a result, it can be suggested that Verification in reference to this particular experience, was when I had decided on exactly what characters to use as a starting point to provide inspiration. I also experienced Verification during the constructing and designing process of my zine, for example after planning and experimenting with multiple aesthetics deciding on a vibrant ‘intergalactic’ colour pallet.

Extended Stages

It has been proposed by a number of academics that Wallas’ (1926) 4-Stage Model can be extended to a total of eight stages (Amabile, 1996; Getzels & Csikszentmihalvi, 1976; Einstein and Infeld, 1938; Isaksen and Treffinger, 1985) however, I only experienced one of the four extended stages; Frustration.

Goleman, Kauf and Ray (1992),suggest after the preparation stage, there is a Frustration stage “when the analytic mind reaches its limit on dealing with the problem,” and says that “frustration may provoke incubation”. It can be suggested that my experience of the stage of frustration embodied itself in the sensation of anxiety, with my inner critic doubting my capacity to engage and inspire my co-authors. As I lack experience communicating with children, I felt anxiety towards to prospect of navigating a session with my co-authors. From this frustration and nervousness from, I decided to in take my mind off of the work at hand, and thus it can be suggested from my experience, that the stage of Frustration initiated the next of Wallas’ stages- Incubation.

Conclusion

The ability to consciously reflect upon the stages of the creative process was something that I found helpful in directing and managing my creativity, as well as through reducing the voice of my inner critic, and my frustrations when experiencing creative block. The zine as a creative product itself engaged not only my mind, but my body in both its creation and final result, due to the time I invested into the project. As a result of this investment, “the paper, then, is a nexus, a technology that mediates the connections not just of “people” but of bodies” (Piepmeiter, 2008: pg.220), and so the zine itself embodies not just a narrative, but the emotion put into its creation.

Wallas’ 4-Stage Model (1926) allowed me to understand the importance of a relaxed mind during the creative process, and provided me with the knowledge to reflect upon my creative experience and identify areas of improvement. From Wallas’ theory, I have learned to allow my ideas to develop organically, rather than force a solution, as well as understanding engaging my narrow and open attention.

Upon reflection, during my creative process I used narrow and open attention types simultaneously, and by subconsciously doing so my creative work gained a directionality and point of view, whilst embracing varying perspectives. When discussing the differences between the brain hemispheres, McGilchrist (2009: pg.42) states that “creativity depends on the union of things that are also maintained separately”, and thus it can be suggested that in order for the creator to unlock their true creative potential, the simultaneous as well as interchanging use of attention is essential.