Inspiration: a functional approach to creative practice.

14. Testing the conclusion in practice – a participatory art workshop experiment

‘The Collective Hearts’

In order to examine how the thesis findings are applicable in practice, I created and facilitated an art participatory workshop. My purpose was to examine in practice how we can facilitate a better awareness for people to their own inner initial stages in which they are inspired to create. This experiment also tested the notion that people do have such inner stages in which they come to be inspired, albeit many people’s argument that they are not creative (all participants who took part in this experiment argued that they are not creative).

In this experiment I have guided participants through a story telling into a greater awareness of their stages of inspiration, and asked them to create images or words based on their inner observations. The event was documented, and highlights of the footage was made into the video The Collective Hearts (2008; ).

Next I will explain the preparations, the structure, and the actual workshop experiment carried.