Creative Process

What I learned about the creative process...

Several concepts introduced in CPSA250 to guide the development of our creative work manifested in my capstone. Particularly, the stages of Wallace’s Model of Creativity showed up acutely, though not always in a linear fashion. 

The Preparation stage characterized most of the Fall semester: while I initially had a topic of interest—orientalism in music—and I needed a body of research to develop a perspective on orientalism in art before I could determine my direction. I needed to understand the history of orientalism and the philosophy, process and intention of orientalist artists; The stage of Incubation occurred continuously as I reflected on where I stood and how my own artistic sensibilities could be applied. 

My main insight from the Illumination stage came from reflecting on a theme from a paper by Born and Hesmondhalgh (2000): the work of the orientalist artist was merely to reproduce the sonic elements of Eastern music for their own purposes (usually revolving around creating a fantastical sense of foreignness) rather than to create something that authentically represented the ‘thought’ of Eastern music beyond a surface level. I realized that, by contrast, the music that I create is equally inspired by both the creative philosophies of the artists I enjoy and the sound of the music itself. My approach in this project became to subvert my usual relationship with my Asian influences: to mock the sound on a surface level.

The Verification part of my process repeatedly tested this “mocking” approach in slightly different ways.