Stirring up new ideas

: Mapmaking as a tool in the practice of creative thinking

Abstract

This thesis brings into relation creative thinking, process philosophy, and the emergent and dynamic properties of mapmaking as a world-making practice. By following a speculative research project to explore mapmaking, I think with Deleuze’s image of thought to reimagine enduring framings of creative thinking that see its possibility as a question of possessing certain skills, attitudes, and behaviours. The thesis unsettles a discourse of adaptation to a pre-conceived future and responds to a need for open-ended ways of being that give access to multiple possibilities. What this work involves is an attention to processes rather than a product-orientated framing of thought. And it involves an exploration of the conditions that give rise to these processes in order to acknowledge the multi-dimensional and complex nature of everyday creative thinking. The inquiry draws upon research-creation to explore what mapmaking makes possible among a group of nine 17-year-old learners in Bristol, UK. The problem of what it means to create conditions for thought to flourish is worked through by drawing the reader into the action that unfolds during a six-week mapmaking residency. Through this exploration, possibilities are generated for mapmaking as a practice that dissolves the framings that commonly separate self and the world to give access to, and enliven, the complexity of daily life. It suggests that mapmaking practices lend themselves to the disruption of framings that stifle experience and limit expression. Lastly, the thesis works towards an image of what is missed out on when we frame learning as a function of producing either what is right or wrong. I suggest how the inquiry renders an unreliable pedagogy that gives no assurance as to what will be produced. These conditions constitute a space of anticipation and curiosity that hold promise for sustaining everyday creative thought.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Jennifer Rowsell (Supervisor) & Matt A Kedzierski (Supervisor)