[-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology

[Simon Biggs]

There are lot's of really interesting posts arriving on empyre tonight and
they demand close reading to get the fullness of their meanings.

I just want to pick up on a detail in Davin Heckman's post:

> What could be more cliched than the first word a
> child tries to master--  "NO!"  Yet it is precisely at this moment of
> the expression that the child tries to enter into human community--to
> realize him or herself within a community.  The child who says, "No,"
> wants to participate on equal terms, through communication.

Our child surprised us with his first word (I guess they all do), pointing
to the ceiling (in the evening) and saying "light". The biblical reference
wasn't lost on us at the time and we didn't stop rolling around on the floor
for a few minutes.

However, I wonder why Davin suggests the child's first word is "no". I
assume the cliché is "mama" or "dada" (the latter with it's own art world
references).

The word "no" as linguistic naissance, as individuated ontology, evokes an
Aristotlean apprehension of identity and creativity, a
proto-Platonic/Christian view that assumes a duality of the human and
nature, the individual and the collective. Are we to be fixed as light and
shadow? We are not black and white photographs...although the Lacanian
evocations here are seductive (many artists played with this theoretical
rhetoric in the 1970's and 80's).

I am hoping it is possible to find another way through this maze. It would
seem many in this discussion agree that creativity and identity are
intrinsically linked. Some seem to accept that this is not something that
happens in isolation but socially, a sharing. Is the most important thing we
can create "art"?

Best

Simon


Simon Biggs
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk  simon at littlepig.org.uk
Skype: simonbiggsuk
http://www.littlepig.org.uk/

Research Professor  edinburgh college of art
http://www.eca.ac.uk/
Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
http://www.elmcip.net/
Centre for Film, Performance and Media Arts
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/film-performance-media-arts



Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201