Madison Forsey Portfolio Reflection

A quick succession of videos:
A timelapse of a painting on a canvas
A timelapse of a young boy playing with legos
Someone jotting drawings or notes onto a journal
Two people performing what looks to be a dance routine

[0:17] The four videos are shown simultaneously. Music plays and the voiceover starts

Creativity is in everything. It’s a component of each object we use, everyday of our lives. Most people use creativity in reference to art and creation of different art forms. However, creative vision comes in all forms, from the invention of cups to calculators, paintings to clothing, they all stemmed from a single creative thought. Maybe their makers took something and made it better, or maybe they brought one of their own novel ideas to life. No matter how it happened, it was born through creativity.

[0:52] A white screen showing a quote that reads, “The first pillar of this definition is that creativity must represent something new or different. But novelty is not enough; to be creative, there is also an expectation of task or appropriateness or usefulness. Both of these concepts are necessary for something to be creative.
(Beghetto 2014)”

So what is creativity? What makes an idea, or work, creative? Who is the one to judge whether or not something is creative? These are some of the things that came to mind throughout this semester as I crafted my poetry essay and other videos related to my e-poetry project.

I agree with this quote when it states that the first pillar of creativity is novelty or originality. But the main thing I’ve learned about originality is it can come from other people’s ideas. Specifically, I’ve learned this while crafting my poetry essay and e-poetry project. We took the work of another author, thought deeply about what it meant to us, and crafted a new way to look at the piece.

[1:47] Word document showing essay

In my essay, I thought specifically about the psychological journey Sylvia Plath took in her poem, “Daddy.” This allowed me to interpret the symbols and allusions she makes in a way that was new to my reader, and myself. 

[2:04] A google search for Sylvia Plath, and web pages showing her biography

Analytical essays aren’t something that screams creativity. Often times, they are thought to be dull, mundane, and simply a summary of scholarly analysis, text, and articles. However, the way the author directs the essay is what makes something creative. How they compile, order, and present their ideas is what makes the piece a novelty. 

[2:30] Clips from e-poem

The same rule applies within the main focus of our class: e-poetry. For my e-poem, I used inspiration from Interstellar to give “Do not go gentle into that good night,” by Dylan Thomas, a new meaning. I sat down with the poem and tried to isolate certain words or images to help me create my own vision. The product is something completely new to the viewer, taking the old poem and pairing it with new sounds and visuals to curate something not only creative, but also innovative.

[3:11] A white screen with black text reading, “Tests of creativity not only measure the alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. The ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by chance; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and enjoyment of things heretofore unknown.
(Franken, 394)”

The second part of creativity, that I think is the most important, is whether or not it evokes emotion or some kind of response in the viewer. Great work should elicit a reaction from the person viewing or using it. Whether it’s a memory of their past, a hope for their future, or a new idea they hope to pursue, if something it truly creative, it should be flexible enough that people can relate and ponder it over time.

[3:47] A web page showing a folder with various literature projects

This is where the projects that we have completed in this class diverge. Scholars and academics put so much emphasis on logic and reason. People phase out the emotion and passion behind a project in order for it to have more academic integrity. I feel like my essay is an example of that. An analytical work such as this one isn’t allowed to be personal. Without personal touches, it ends up decreasing the overall creative nature of the work. Our e-poems are the exact opposite, eliciting strong emotion in the reader

[4:25] A clip of the e-poem is imposed over the web page.

Each element in my e-poem was chosen because it made me feel something. It helped me connect in a way with the piece that I hadn’t connected before. By layering my visual aid, as well as the timing of the music and text, I crafted a mood, or aura, with my poem that it hadn’t previously been associated with.

[5:03] In the bottom lefthand corner, a small screen shows a girl talking with earbuds in. 

Throughout my entire journey in English 150, the part that I have loved the most is what I call “Getting into my creative zone.” This happens for me whenever I sit down with one goal in mind, whether that be to finish my essay, film review, or e-poem. With an end goal in mind and no distractions, my creative side starts to flow. And that, to me, is the most beautiful part of creativity. When no one is pushing you, you aren’t worried about a rubric, or a deadline, your ideas flow freely, crafting something truly beautiful in the end. 

[5:36] A black screen with white text displaying a quote that reads, “‘Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.’-Edward de Bono” 

This class has taken me to two completely different ends of the spectrum, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. Not only has it broken me out of my cookie-cutter highschool view of assignments and projects, but it has brought to my attention so many different forms of creative work:

[6:08] As she speaks, images of a written poetry, the poster for the Coen Brothers’ No Country of Old Men, and the cover of the graphic novel Watchmen appear.

Essays, soundpieces, short stories, poetry, e-poems, book-to-movie movie adaptations, and even graphic novels. I’ve gone from analysis to blank canvas creation, and while they might of seemed like polar opposites to me at one point, at this moment they could not be more similar. 

[6:32] A vibrant blue background with moving white dots. In white text, sources and music credits appear.