Philip,
I really like your comments concerning different environments. I would like
to add that these are not just current ones, but within the history of a
person who is "committed to the construction of a creative life (Howard
Gruber's terminology)" there are many activity systems that contribute to
the toleration, even seeking, of productive tensions. The initial barriers
(church orthodoxy, disciplinary conformity, historical challenges like in
Vygotsky's time) may intensify those initial tensions. And
Vygotsky like most-though not all- daring thinkers relies upon his/her
"thought community" to
co-construct novel approaches by realizing the limitations of existing ones.
(See Creative Collaboration, (which I am told is available in NZ through
Oxford U.P.)
Sorry for such a short reply, the conversation is particularly tempting, but
the grades have to be
sent in before I take off for my next, book talk journey.
Vera John-Steiner
-----Original Message-----
From: Phillip Capper <phillip.capper@webresearch.co.nz>
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 8:55 PM
Subject: RE: Fw: Starting Ch4 (resent)
>Bill writes:
>
>"I wonder if it is the nature of reciprocal relationship, here seen between
>collective and individual development, that makes explanation seem
>circular, as in the cause-and-effect feedback cycles that one encounters in
>cybernetics.
>
>Nevertheless, the point about activity theory accounting for *surprises*,
>not necessarily how they are taken up, or ignored and buried as
>contradictions, but how the surprises and accidents emerge in the first
>place, is a good question. Where in a tension are the seeds for innovation?
> What were the trajectories of people and things that lead to a
>particularly creative moment?"
>
>I think that the feedback loops themselves provide the basis for an answer
>to Bill's questions.
>
>In any activity there are always 'surprises' which are latent 'creative
>moments'. The 'seeds for innovation' are, for me, part of what defines a
>tension in an activity system. Their chances of germinating depend on the
>cultural/historical context which predisposes those who experience the
>tensions to act in ways which liberate their creative potential.
>
>If I - coming from an environment where surprises and contradictions are
>suppressed - enter your system where surprises are habitually seen as
>creative opportunities, then when I first encounter a surprise I will be
>inclined to react with anxiety (in the sense of the word as used by
>Cziksentmihalyi). In my old world anxiety was a signal to close down and
>eliminate the discomfort. In my new world it is a springboard for creative
>thinking - and expansive learning.
>
>Once I have internalised my new cultural context, my habitual response
>begins to change. Instead of treating situations which my experience has
>shown me are more likely to be surpriseful as being situations to be
>avoided, I begin to seek them out and even to deliberately create them. I
am
>mainly able to do that because it is what you do. Thus it seems to me that
a
>cultural predisposition to embrace tensions, also has the effect of
creating
>a greater number of latently creative moments. It also increases the
>proportion of such moments in which the creative potential is liberated.
>
>In respect of innovation and creativity I have greater difficulty in
>understanding the social processes by which a Galileo or a Vygotsky becomes
>hugely innovative and creative by battling within cultural contexts which
>seek to eliminate expansive learning. The existence of a 'tension' is self
>evident. But what is it that causes the 'seeds of innovation' to germinate
>against all the odds?
>
>
>Phillip Capper
>WEB Research
>PO Box 2855
>(Level 9, 142 Featherston Street)
>Wellington
>New Zealand
>
>Ph: (64) 4 499 8140
>Fx: (64) 4 499 8395
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bill Barowy [mailto:wbarowy@mail.lesley.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, 9 May 2001 11:24
>To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu; xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>Subject: Re: Fw: Starting Ch4 (resent)
>
>
>
>bb
>
>
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