While we were away, we went to a workshop on the Italian artist Bruno Munari and his concept of fantasy, and how fantasy interrelates with invention, imagination and creativity (I already blogged about Munari here). Such interesting thoughts and energy there! So many things that I need to digest and think about, but here are just a few that I'd like to share with you.
Two fascinating things that emerged in the workshop were Munari's belief that the amount of fantasy people have correlates with the number of connections they can make between the things they've learned or experienced, and how creativity - which Munari says is the practical application of fantasy - requires training and practice in order to grow. In other words, the more cultural knowledge one can draw on and the more occasions one has to experiment and make connections within that knowledge, the more creative a person will become. Creativity, we were told during the workshop, will help an individual in two fundamental areas: problem solving and community life. This was the first time I'd ever heard creativity described as a positive social force, and was a concept that really, really spoke to me.
According to Munari, in fact, because creativity is continuously evolving, forming and transforming, a person whose creativity has been stimulated will be better able to grasp the essentials of a problem and to solve it. Also, creative people are constantly drawing ideas from their cultural environment and giving new ideas back, making them more pro-active members of their community.
Listening and discussing all of this - and so much more - was a good reminder of how crucial it is both to provide our children with a wide range of cultural stimuli, and to give them loads of occasions to play that will help them make connections between the things they've learned, thus developing their fantasy and creativity.
As part of the workshop, we discussed a few simple games and activities aimed at enhancing fantasy and creativity. These involved very few materials, because, once again, the emphasis was on cultural input and making connections, and not on an abundance of materials - another thing I really liked! When we got home, we immediately tried one of them. It involves tearing up scrap paper into randomly-shaped pieces, not the usual square or rectangular pieces with neat edges. You draw on these, and see what happens.
The boys were a little unsure at first, but once they started they found the novelty of drawing on odd-shaped pieces of paper quite addictive. What I found very interesting was that Nicholas made drawings that were inspired by the strange forms of his pieces of paper, whereas Jeremy seemed almost to be compensating for their irregular shapes.
What didn't surprise me at all, however, was to see Rebecca utterly refuse to take part in our drawing project, and stubbornly continue stringing her new pasta necklace, and even frowning at our unwillingness to stop drawing and join her in her stringing. (I've said it before: she is quite a determined little girl!)
I've added some of Bruno Munari books to my Amazon list in my right sidebar (unfortunately not many are translated into English), including his workshop books on drawing a tree and the sun. They are delightful books, with many different ideas, techniques and points of view.
For Italian speakers, this book by Munari is a gem, and is really worth reading.
