This blog post is by David Gauntlett of the Creativity Everything lab. It was originally published on davidgauntlett.com.
In January 2023, for The Creative School’s ‘Rubix’ showcase of research and creative work, I did a Pecha Kucha talk – 20 slides, 20 seconds each – which I called ‘Uncomfortable creativity’ because of a particular starting-point I had in mind, which was to do with having to do a live music performance when I’d never done a live music performance.
But by the time I actually came to do the talk, I had a whole bunch of other things I wanted to talk about too, so now I’ve made a version for YouTube and I called it ‘Finding a path through creative practice’ because that’s closer to what it’s actually about.
I talk about embracing the discomfort of unfamiliar creative performance, the dissonant role for more established creators, and creativity as always a journey and not a destination. And I also sum up the real meaning of a practice-based PhD. All in less than seven minutes!
It includes things from Janelle Monáe, Kate Bush, Edward Said, and a photograph by Justine Woods, plus a very nice thing about sound as a body of water which comes from Simon Reynell who runs the record label, Another Timbre. (The written-down version of the thing about sound as a body of water appears towards the end of this extract from my book Creativity).