[Xmca-l] Re: Question on Imagination

Thu Sep 26 23:21:17 PDT 2019

On all of our minds ... a few of us who study imagination in and through
playworlds (see lchc polyphonic autobiography) just wrote this to the New
Yorker:

We are two social scientists and an elementary school teacher who practice
and study intergenerational pretending and play and we would like to say,
in response to Franzen's piece -- "What if we stop pretending?" -- that it
is never a good time to stop pretending ... but now is probably a really
bad time to stop pretending.  While it is not often useful to be in denial,
shielding ourselves from things we fear, this activity is unrelated to
forms of collective pretending that could create ways of ending, or even
ways of continuing development, that could never have been anticipated.  As
human beings we create imagined futures to understand our pasts and so make
our presents bearable and beautiful.  When things are most difficult --
really all the time -- this creative cycle between fantasy and reality is
the best way for us to save our humanity, and maybe humanity itself, for as
long as possible.  What we all need to do now is to find ways to listen to
what the climate scientists tell us without ever stopping pretending or, in
other words, to listen to what the adult climate scientists tell us AND to
what our youngest fellow citizens, the children, told us on September 20th:
That we all must imagine world change as possible.

Beth

On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 5:09 PM HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:

> Shannon,
> I apologize for addressing my response to Michael, since it was you that
> got this thread started. Though, Michael, I certainly like what you had to
> say.
>
> While I’m at it, I would like to add that a lot of language goes “beyond
> the immediate situation”. That is certainly true of this discussion. To
> make sense of it, I have to do a lot of imagining. It is what distinguishes
> language, a unique human capacity, from the communication of other species.
> Language allows for displaced reference, the ability to refer to things and
> events removed in time and space from the immediate context of the spoken
> and written word.
>
> On the other hand, displaced reference need not be very creative. I lot of
> it is pretty mundane stuff. In the same way, imagination can be pretty
> mundane. Fantasy, may or may not be very creative. But perhaps what is
> creative for a chlld may not be for an adult. Or what is creative use of
> the imagination for me at one age, not so much when I get older?
>
> From a Vygotskian perspective, I wonder if perizhvanie involves an
> important use of the imagination: a lived experience, potentially
> traumatic, that provides a crucible for the development of personality, of
> character. I am thinking of the use of art to provide an “outlet” for those
> who suffer trauma. Sometimes language just is not able to channel the
> emotions in that way that art can. Early Vygotsky was totally into art.
> Vera John-Steiner, as a teen ager, taught children dance in the
> concentration camp where she was interned.
>
> Henry
>
>
> On Sep 26, 2019, at 2:05 PM, Walker, Dana <Dana.Walker@unco.edu> wrote:
>
> Michael,
>
> Vygotsky (1994) wrote,
>
> [A]ccording to the valid observation of Pushkin, imagination is as
> necessary in geometry as it is in poetry. Everything that requires artistic
> transformation of reality, everything that is connected with interpretation
> and construction of something new, requires the indispensable participation
> of fantasy. (p. 269-270)
>
> Zittoun & Gl Glăveanu (2018) translate and interpret “fantasy” as
> “imagination,” as Leif Strandberg in this thread notes they have done in
> Sweden in a recent publication.
>
> Jovchelovitch (2018) and co-authors define imagination in the following
> terms:
>
> Imagination is the human capacity to go beyond the immediate situation and
> play with possible realities… Liberating oneself from the immediacy of the
> perceptual field and being able to creatively recombine elements of context
> and previous experience is enabled by the interdependence between self and
> other.  Imagination is social, adaptive, and intrinsic to rational
> thinking. (p. 114)
>
> So in answer to your question, “When a writer sits down to write or a
> director stages a play or an artist creates a painting is it the same thing
> as working towards a new tool and symbol?” According to my reading I would
> say yes.  In answer to this question, “I mean that may also be a goal of
> the artist but is it the same thing?”  I think you point to a challenge for
> theorists of imagination and those who seek to design for imagination in
> educational settings: How do we define and use the construct of imagination
> as something distinct from all other higher psychological processes?
>
> Dana
>
> REFERENCES
>
> Jovchelovitch, S. (2015). The creativity of the social Imagination,
> development and social change in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. In V. P.
> Glăveanu, A. Gillespie, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), *Rethinking creativity:
> Contributions from cultural psychology* (pp. 76-92). New York: Routledge.
> Vygotsky, L. S. (1994). Imagination and creativity in the adolescent. In
> R. Van der Veer & J. Valsiner (Eds.), *The Vygotsky Reader* (pp.
> 266-288). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
> Zittoun, T., & Glăveanu, V. P. (Eds.). (2018). *Handbook of imagination
> and culture*. New York: Oxford University Press.
>
>
> *From: *<xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of "Glassman,
> Michael" <glassman.13@osu.edu>
> *Reply-To: *"eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Date: *Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 9:37 AM
> *To: *"laure.kloetzer@gmail.com" <laure.kloetzer@gmail.com>, "eXtended
> Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject: *[Xmca-l] Re: Question on Imagination
>
> This is interesting to me as I am wondering if there is a differentiation
> between imagination and being open to new possibilities and what
> relationship this has to how we education. Last week we were reading
> Vygotsky’s writings on early human thinking is a seminar. He said something
> that really struck me. It was about the difference in how we might treat
> teaching to track a bear. For early man it might be teaching all the
> details so you could recreate the hunt of the bear using the tracks. For
> more modern thinking it might be more about using the track to tell the
> story of a hunt for a bear opening up a new possibility for things that
> might happen. Both have their advantages. For the former you have a more
> detailed and direct instruction of what you are supposed to do. For the
> latter you are open to new possibilities as new circumstances might make
> the hunt more complex in ways you are not anticipating so you are open to
> learning new tools in sign operation or more likely in sign co-operation. A
> student actually asked, is this the same thing as imagination, actually
> bringing up the idea of having an imaginary friend. I did not know how to
> answer. Is being able to think about things in an open manner and able to
> co-operate in  creating new tools and symbols the same thing as
> imagination. When a write sits down to write or a director stages a play or
> an artist creates a painting is it the same thing as working towards a new
> tool and symbol? I mean that may also be a goal of the artist but is it the
> same thing? And we often treat imagination as a force to be unleashed, but
> does it have to do more with the way we education?
>
> Questions running around my head.
>
> Michael
>
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> *On
> Behalf Of *Laure Kloetzer
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 26, 2019 7:54 AM
> *To:* eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re: Question on Imagination
>
> Hi Shannon and all,
>
> I am also very interested if you can share all feedbacks you get on this
> topic, Shannon.
> Recently, we began organizing science fiction workshops with students to
> "extricate the future" - betting that imagination, exploring alternative
> possible worlds, is a necessary path to free the future from its
> ready-made, unavoidable clothes massively sold by multinationals and
> goverments. On going work, with quite interesting insights, esp. on how
> difficult it is to link imagination and political change.
> Also here in Neuchâtel, one of Tania Zittoun's doctoral student is working
> on close topics (imagination and political utopia).
> Finally, I think that Manolis Dafermos, or some of his colleagues and
> friends, made a movie with young people in Greece on overcoming the crisis,
> but I can not find it now, sorry...
> Best regards,
> LK
>
> Le jeu. 26 sept. 2019 à 13:05, Jaakko Hilppö <jaakko.hilppo@helsinki.fi>
> a écrit :
>
> Hi Shannon,
>
> You might find Tania Zittoun's and Alex Gillespie’s work relevant.
>
> https://libra.unine.ch/Publications/Tania_Zittoun_Mazourek/30289
> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flibra.unine.ch%2FPublications%2FTania_Zittoun_Mazourek%2F30289&data=02%7C01%7Cdana.walker%40unco.edu%7Cacea008b3e2440d1a2b608d742977e91%7Cb4dce27cd088445499652b59a23ea171%7C0%7C0%7C637051090741330134&sdata=5tCSAk9NRc663XLb7mPL7OEJYgG%2Fxb98ikusdzOw3lY%3D&reserved=0>
>
> The book was recently reviewed in MCA by Paul Harris.
>
> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2018.1433213
> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F10749039.2018.1433213&data=02%7C01%7Cdana.walker%40unco.edu%7Cacea008b3e2440d1a2b608d742977e91%7Cb4dce27cd088445499652b59a23ea171%7C0%7C0%7C637051090741330134&sdata=MjekL1ntQQKeVw8XUafDlTqaeGyW0ukcBlZD1K3oMl0%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Hope this helps
> Jake :)
> ****************************
> Jaakko Hilppö
> jaakko.hilppo@helsinki.fi
> Post-doctoral Researcher
> ORCID: 0000-0003-0236-9517
> Faculty of Education
> P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki
> +358 40 533 4643
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>
>
> Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@ils.uio.no> kirjoitti 26.9.2019 kello 10.15:
>
> Really interesting topic, Shannon; just recently Beth Ferholt and I were
> talking about the relevance of fantasy and imagination in the current
> context. My sense is that there is more to explore than actually done when
> it comes to bridging the issue with politics, though I also suspect I may
> be deeply ignorant in terms of what the actual intellectual landscape is,
> so I’ll be very interested to follow if you share more of what you are
> learning about the topic and doing. Ferholt’s work herself may be
> interesting for you? Also from Sweeden, the work of Gunilla Lindqvist is
> obviously relevant. Marilyn Fleer just published on Lindqvist’s work in
> Mind, Culture, and Activity:
> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2019.1663215
> <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F10749039.2019.1663215&data=02%7C01%7Cdana.walker%40unco.edu%7Cacea008b3e2440d1a2b608d742977e91%7Cb4dce27cd088445499652b59a23ea171%7C0%7C0%7C637051090741350120&sdata=xkDjucFVoARhXUjCAb1%2BVua2yf3cxdGowTzbidaqJ3w%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Alfredo
>
> *From: *<xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Leif Strandberg <
> leifstrandberg.ab@telia.com>
> *Reply to: *"eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Date: *Thursday, 26 September 2019 at 08:45
> *To: *Shannon Brincat <shannonbrincat@yahoo.com.au>, "eXtended Mind,
> Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject: *[Xmca-l] Re: Question on Imagination
>
> Hi
>
> In Sweden we have translated Vygotsky’s *Voobrazenie i tvorcestvo v
> detskom vozraste* - with the Swedish title *Fantasi och kreativitet I
> bandomen*. (≈ Fantasy and Creativity in Childhood)
> It is a great book.
>
> Greetings from
> Leif Strandberg
>
>
> *Från: *<xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Shannon Brincat <
> shannonbrincat@yahoo.com.au>
> *Svara till: *Shannon Brincat <shannonbrincat@yahoo.com.au>, "eXtended
> Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Datum: *onsdag 25 september 2019 23:16
> *Till: *Culture Activity EXtended Mind <xmca@potpourri.ucsd.edu>
> *Ämne: *[Xmca-l] Question on Imagination
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am trying to complete an article on imagination and world politics that
> brings in Vygotsky.
>
> I was hoping that some of you could point me in the direction of where
> Vygotsky addresses imagination (both as developmental process in humans AND
> as life-activity with its political implications). Further, do any of you
> know of any studies or publications on this theme that may be useful?
>
> Many thanks for your time.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Shannon
>
> Dr. Shannon K. Brincat
> Senior Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast
> Room T2..09 | School of Social Sciences | University of the Sunshine Coast
> | 91 Sippy Downs Dr | Sippy Downs | Queensland | 4556 | Australia
> +61 7 5430 1193
>
> https://www.shannonbrincat.com/
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> New Book available:
> *From International Relations to World Civilizations: The contributions of
> Robert W. Cox, London: Routledge, 2017.*
>
>
>
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-- 
Beth Ferholt (pronouns: she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889

Affiliated Faculty, Program in Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
Affiliated Faculty, School of Education and Communication, Jönköping
University

Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
CC bferholt@gmail.com if writing to CUNY address.
Phone: (718) 951-5205
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