An Unfortunate Boon of Genius

  • John Baxter

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (2) 2020 Article 3 | pages 37-43
Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr
Article Copyright © 2020 John Baxter
ISSN: 2334-1149 online
DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

An Unfortunate Boon of Genius 


John Baxter
Yale University

Abstract

In this article, possible origins for extreme creativity are explored. Among these are the capacities for concentration, curiosity, and access to resources. In addition to these stable, highly-researched topics, a lesser-researched idea of parental issues or early parental death is discussed. Several exceptionally gifted individuals have come from families rife with tragedy and strife such as Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Steve Jobs. This tendency is, of course, merely correlation; direct effects of parental bereavement on children cannot be assessed with confidence. Instead, theories taken from psychological and creativity studies are used as possible explanations for this correlation. For instance, individuals who go through traumatic early parental loss may have developed cognitive defenses against adversity. When these individuals meet obstacles later in life, they are perhaps better able to solve them through their inner fortitude (Ritter et al. 2012). Genius is not guaranteed for those with rough childhoods; in fact, much research supports quite the opposite direction. Young individuals with early parental death have often been associated with delinquency (Brennan et al., 1998; Murray & Farrington, 2005). Other mechanisms of genius and contradictions to the early parental death theory are discussed.


John Baxter | Yale University | 205 Elm Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Correspondence: johnbaxter88@gmail.com | [ORCID id – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1442-0199]
Correspondence address: 6701 SW 116th Ct #209, Miami FL 33173
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.


Effective Collaboration between Professional Polish Filmmakers:The Grounded Theory Approach

  • Aleksandra Zienowicz-Wielebska
  • Aleksandra Krukowska-Burke
  • Ewa Serwotka & Pola Weiner

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 1 | pages

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Aleksandra Zienowicz-Wielebska, Aleksandra Krukowska-Burke, Ewa Serwotka & Pola Weiner

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

Effective Collaboration between Professional
Polish Filmmakers:The Grounded Theory Approach

Aleksandra Zienowicz-Wielebska

Jagiellonian University, Poland

Aleksandra Krukowska-Burke

Newman University, United Kingdom

Ewa Serwotka & Pola Weiner

Positive Sport Foundation, Poland

Abstract

Psychological factors such as achievement motivation and personality affect individuals involved in film production. Group dynamics are also highly influential during the filmmaking process, yet studies in the performing arts are limited in number, and few have focused on the psychological needs and the complexities of the film production crew which contribute to achieving a high-quality masterpiece. The present study aimed to explore the social contexts (factors and processes) in which eminent Polish filmmakers develop and flourish, using the performance psychology perspective. Twenty actors, 16 directors, 12 producers, six cameramen, five sound technicians, four costume designers, three make-up artists, three film editors, two screenwriters, and two stage designers participated in semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The resulting grounded theory of Effective Film Production Collaboration suggests that conditions (e.g. need for achievement) influence group- and individual-level factors (e.g. communication) which in turn affect the quality of collaboration, that is perceived through group cohesiveness, quality of relationships, and perseverance.

Keywords: Film, performance psychology, performing arts, effective collaboration, grounded theory

Aleksandra Zienowicz-Wielebska | Jagiellonian University, Poland | Email: zienowicza@gmail.com
Aleksandra Krukowska-Burke | Newman University, United Kingdom | Email: O.Krukowska-Burke@staff.newman.ac.uk| [ORCID id – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1498-9940]
Ewa Serwotka Pola Weiner | 3Positive Sport Foundation, Poland | Email: fundacjasportupozytywnego@gmail.com
Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The mathematical creativity of Ramanujan FRS (1887–1920)

  • Peter Merrotsy

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 7 | pages 7589

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Peter Merrostsy

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.07

The mathematical creativity of
Ramanujan FRS (1887–1920)

Peter Merrotsy

The University of Western Australia

Ramanujan, February 1919 (Source: Trinity College Library)

Ramanujan, February 1919 (Source: Trinity College Library)

Abstract

The occasion of the centenary of his death provides a poignant opportunity to reflect on the mathematical creativity of Ramanujan, on the cultural and social milieu in which he grew up, and on the educational experiences that informed his development. Attention is drawn to the deep nature of his discoveries in number theory, set alongside a sketch of the humble person who created so many wild and fantastic theorems.

Peter Merrotsy | The University of Western Australia | Graduate School of Education | The University of Western Australia

M428, 35 Stirling Highway | Crawley WA 6009 | Correspondence: peter.merrotsy@uwa.edu.au

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

Music and embodied creative space

  • Zvonimir Stephen Nagy

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 6 | pages 6474

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Zvonimir Stephen Nagy

ISSN: print/2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.06

Music and embodied creative space

Zvonimir Stephen Nagy

Tarleton State University

Abstract

This article places the compositional work of Johann Sebastian Bach in the context of present day practice of creating music. It uses images and places from the art of memory to the act of making music in order to closely examine the relationship between musical creativity and embodiment. While focusing on the central hypothesis that exposure to specific musical practices leads to the formation of multimodal creative agency, an argument is made for the emergence of an embodied creative space. The embodiment of musical creativity is defined as a cognitive and performative causality: a relationship between the cause and effect when composing, performing, or listening to music. Expanding on this model, music making is further considered to be an embodied activity that stems from the causality of these interde-pendent attributes of creativity: the cognitive actions controlled and sustained by our mind, and the performative interactions mediated by our body and the environment. By exploring the actions and interactions commonly associated with composing and performing music, this article defines the embodied creative musical space as an interactive agency that lives at the threshold of cognition and performativity. As a result, the nature of musical creativity as an embodied, lived experience extends the social and collaborative concepts of creativity, as it becomes an interactive creative contingency. Delivered from the perspective of a composer, performer, and music scholar, the paper contributes to the growing interdisciplinary discourse on musical creativity.

Keywords: musical creativity, embodiment, memory, creative space, musical composition and
performance.

Zvonimir Stephen Nagy | Tarleton State University (Texas A&M University) | College of Liberal and Fine Arts, Stephenville, Texas, United States | Correspondence: znagy@tarleton.edu

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and, there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

A Visual Epistemology of Readymade

  • Christophe Schinckus

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 5 | pages 5363

Issue Copyright 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright 2020 Christophe Schinckus

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.05

A Visual Epistemology of Readymade

Christophe Schinckus

Taylor’s University, Malaysia

Abstract

The enunciation of the words “All” “Ready” “Made” auditory forms the adverb “Already” that actually defines the essence of a readymade. This article presents several intertextual recontextualisations of this notion are proposed through a re-narrativization of readymade (wordy) components. This collection has no other intention that unloading the concept of readymade by using art to think about art and acknowledging therefore the art’s capacity for self-reflection and auto-theorizing in line with recent call for the development of an artistic research.

Keywords: Readymade, Enunciation, Duchamp, Differance

Christophe Schinckus | The University of Georgia | 254 Park Hall, Athens, GA 30602-6205.

Correspondence: christophe.Schinckus@taylors.edu.my

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

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Dancing the digital age: a survey of the new technologies in the choreographic process

  • Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza
  • Dr. Adesola Akinleye

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 4 | pages 3752

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza & Dr. Adesola Akinleye

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.04

Dancing the digital age: a survey of the

new technologies in the choreographic process

Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza

The Latvian National Ballet

Dr. Adesola Akinleye

Middlesex University

Abstract

This article considers fifty-eight selected dance works created during the time period of 2000-2018. In doing so the work of renown artists Wayne McGregor, Garry Stewart, Dawn Stopiello and Bill T. Jones have been used as case studies to highlight how the eminence of these choreographers has engaged dance as a meeting point and merging point for humanity and ‘New technology’. The article reviews the impact of new technologies as an essential tool in the creative processes of dance and exploration of the moving-body. Innovative technologies in the 21st Century have offered choreographers new capacities for the creation of movement. These explorations into the performance space advance insights into broader questions of the human body at the intersection of arts and science. The choreographers’ exploration of the dancing form cultivates questions about how the human body extends, begins, ends and is present. As the digital age proposes new ways to (re)imagine the communication and impact of the human body we suggest these artistic collaborations also offer insights into commonalities and places of exchange across notions of art versus science. These choreographers inter-disciplinary artistic endeavors, into how the moving body transacts and is harnessed as a mode of expression reveal deeper possibilities of the ontology of the lived-experience.

Keywords: Choreography, Collaboration, Dance, Digital Age, New Technology, Place

Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza | The Latvian National Ballet, Latvia | preciadoazanza@gmail.com

Dr. Adesola Akinleye | Middlesex University, London | A.Akinleye@mdx.ac.uk | [ORCID id – 0000-0001-7342-8292]

Corresponding author: Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza | preciadoazanza@gmail.com

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The Finnish Poet Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983)

  • Amar Annus

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 3 | pages 2236

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Amar Annus

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.03

The Finnish Poet
Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983)

Amar Annus

University of Tartu, Estonia

Abstract

The poet Pentti Saarikoski (1937-1983) was one of the most significant Finnish writers of the 20th century. He was also a prolific translator, who received many prestigious awards for his literary production. Throughout his life Saarikoski showed evidence of a certain psychopathology and mental complications for which he was twice hospitalized. The paper argues that Saarikoski possessed a large number of autistic traits and elevated symptomatology of ADHD. The traits of these conditions are often found in persons with high creative achievement. The works of the psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald provide the theoretical background, on which the biographic evidence from Saarikoski’s childhood and adult life is analyzed. The identity diffusion under which the poet suffered can be shown as beneficial to this level of creativity. Saarikoski was an autistic writer, who visualized his poetry which eventually provided him with artistic identity. In addition to autistic traits and high intelligence, Saarikoski also sought novelty and sensation, which can be attributed to his ADHD traits.

Amar Annus | University of Tartu, Estonia | School of Theology and Religious Studies
Ülikooli 18-310, Tartu 50090 | Correspondence:
amar.annus@ut.ee

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

The Legendary Creativity of Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto as a Product of Metacognitive Awareness, Family, and Environment

  • Mike McClelland

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 2 | pages 1521

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Mike McClelland

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.02

The Legendary Creativity of
Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto

as a Product of Metacognitive Awareness,
Family, and Environment

Mike McClelland

University of Georgia

Abstract

This article compares two eminent programmers, Shigeru Miyamoto and Hayao Miyazaki, and their respective works, the video game The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and the film Princess Mononoke. It discusses their creativity in the context of their above-average access and opportunity to metacognitive skill development, ideation, production, and influence in relation to methods recommended in the research on creativity and genius. This article also looks at how their individual creativity was nurtured by family and scholarship, influenced by birth order and parental relationships, and enhanced by their geographic location and work place. The article concludes that all of these factors combined to allow Miyamoto and Miyazaki to reach legendary levels of creativity, with remarkable similarity to one another.

Keywords: Creativity, Metacognition, Gaming, Anime, Japan

Mike McClelland | Department of English | The University of Georgia | 254 Park Hall, Athens, GA 30602-6205

Email: michael.mcclelland@uga.edu | Twitter: @magicmikewrites

Note: The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest, that the data reported here are not used in any other publications and there are no infringements on previous copyrights.

Sympathy for the Devil – The Creative Transformation of the Evil

  • Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla

JOURNAL OF GENIUS AND EMINENCE, 5 (1) 2020

Article 1 | pages 414

Issue Copyright © 2020 Tinkr

Article Copyright © 2020 Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla

ISSN: 2334-1149 online

DOI: 10.18536/jge.2020.01.01

Sympathy for the Devil –

The Creative Transformation of the Evil

Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla

Heidelberg University

Abstract

Mythologies, religions, philosophies, and ideologies show that all cultures are concerned with human destructivity. The same is readily apparent in many modern creative works of eminence. In their famous song, “Sympathy for the Devil,” Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones refer to Goethe’s Faust, where the Devil is characterized strangely as “a portion of that power/ which always works for the Evil and effects the Good … a part of Darkness which gave birth to Light”. These verses remind one of ancient myth but also of modern ideas of the interplay of creation and destruction. The poetry of Goethe, the scientific psychoanalysis of Freud, and the aesthetic enactments of Madonna Ciccone and Mick Jagger show that the creative transformation of destructiveness provides a chance to cope with evil. Through his poetic and autobiographic self-reflection Goethe described how men are composed of constructive and destructive forces, light and dark, good and evil. This dialectic of drives and activities is also fundamental for the Freudian scientific model of the mind and its interrelation with the body and the social environment. Humans can only survive when they transform their destructive inclinations into constructive activities. The creative transformation of destructiveness is also a central issue in today’s pop culture. Paradigmatically the song ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ describes the atrocities humans are able to commit. The song is exemplary for the transformation of violence into music, dance, and shared aesthetic experience. This is also valid for the provocative enactments of Madonna. Behind her sometimes seemingly shameless enactments one can find a serious working through of depression and aggression. Fundamental elements of aesthetic pleasure in art, science, and social activity stem from the creative transformation of human destructiveness.

Keywords: Holy Bible, Iliad, Upanishads, Hesiod, Confucius, Laotse, Buddha, Plato, Goethe, Freud, Mick Jagger, Madonna Ciccone, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, Creativity, Destructivity, Order, Chaos, Good, Evil, Construction, Destruction, Love, Hate