Theorising about art and creativity

A final category in this area involved the participants' expression of views about art and creativity, often with reference to established ideas and theories. Although the ideas the participants engaged with differed across the two groups, this was a significant process for both sets of participants and was often prompted by their experiences of arts participation. For the participants from the North East, their involvement in the performing arts course was an occasion for theorising about the creative process as they learned new techniques and engaged with ideas about the arts as part of their studies. Leanne, for example, referred to the idea that art was about the expression of emotions:

Well what makes it good, its er…just really has to have like some kind of feeling to it, emotion in it, even if you don’t know what it is it's… sometimes you just, without understanding it you just get a feeling of what its about. (Leanne, North East, interview 2)

In the above extract, Leanne refers to the idea that comprehending art can have more to do with emotions than cognitive processes. Dean also referred to ideas about the use of different media for expression in the arts, and to the process of drawing on one's own experiences to deliver a convincing performance:

you can express yourself through choreography but if you're playing a part of someone who's emotional and you're emotional yourself, you can relate to that part by thinking back to your sad memory and playing that character through that...through you (Dean, North East, interview 3)

As well as referring to these established ideas, Dean demonstrated an awareness that they formed part of a discourse within the performing arts:

We’ve been to watch theatre and we've spoke to someone, the director, he said a lot of people express their self through movement and a lot of the movement they do is related to real life. (Dean, North East, interview 3)

For the participants from the South West, being exposed to art they considered to be strange and unsettling was an occasion for discussing ideas about the nature of different art works:

I don’t know, it’s interesting, it’s very sort of like original, unique. It’s not like, its different to the sort of stuff we do nowadays or in school at the moment I suppose. It’s very much like taking its own path and we’re not probably encouraged to do that so much in school. (Emma, South West, interview 2)

Now they're just not scary, it’s just kind of...I appreciate them more because its, because it was originally just really strange to see them, but now it’s just more like you know what they are, you know why they've been done and you know that they've been done for a reason so... (Craig, interview 2)

For Emma, this led to a discussion about her opinions about art more generally: I don't know, it's like, it's like different. I suppose there's like always been like a sort of like stereotypical sort of form of art and this like - which is like sort of paintings and that kind of thing – it's just like completely different and you have to like, you look at it and you think like, or well (?) a lot of people would think, 'that isn't art', then it's like, it's nice to sort of, especially if you read about it and like find out like what the artist was thinking and why like...because when you, if you looked at it straight away, like you don't always think, like you wouldn't always think that's a piece of art work but then you sort of like read into it and you think, 'oh yeah, I see why that thing's (?), what that's representing and like, stuff like that. (Emma, interview 2)

I do find it quite interesting, especially like modern art, it's like different. I'm not so keen on like paintings and stuff to look at so much but I like the like different sort of stuff, which is like you have to think like, 'why did they do that?', like... (Emma, interview 2)

In the above extract, Emma draws on ideas such as representation and modernism to articulate her own opinion about the nature and purpose of art. Jacob engaged with similar ideas to offer an opposing view:

When people say, 'think of art', I always think of realistic paintings, rather than just shapes and colours or just blobs of colours that look like an explosion in a paint factory. I don't really think that's art. (Jacob, interview 2)

Both sets of participants engaged with established ideas and theories about art to express their own views about art and the creative process. In both cases they were prompted to discuss these ideas through their participation in the arts. While the specific ideas and theories the participants engaged with varied across the two groups, and were related to the ways in which each set of participants experienced arts participation, the precise opinions offered varied on more of an individual basis.

5.4.5 Summary

The young people's experiences of arts participation often served as occasions for considering both the role of art in their own lives and the nature of art and creativity more generally. Although there was a clear difference in the way the young people from the two groups understood the place of art and creativity in their overall lives, there were common themes in how the young people in each setting experienced and understood the creative process. For example, for the participants from both groups, experimentation and the experience of losing oneself in the moment when creating art were seen as important elements that characterised the artistic process. Both sets of participants also drew on ideas from wider discourses to express their own particular views about art and creativity.