StoryAlity#166 – The Newcastle School of Creativity

The Newcastle School of Creativity

Ever wondered what “The Newcastle School of Creativity” is…?

Well, like Gilgamesh, or Ulysses: wander, no more.

A pano-shot of The University of Newcastle‘s (scenic) Callaghan campus, Australia:

Here’s an article about The Newcastle School (from 2013) in Review of Communication journal:

Janet Fulton & Phillip McIntyre (2013) Futures of Communication:
Communication Studies∼Creativity, Review of Communication, 13:4, 269-289,

DOI: 10.1080/15358593.2013.872805

That article (above), explains it!

…Or explains a lot of it, anyway…?

It mentions the research work (up to: 2013) of these scholars:

Dr Phillip McIntyre, Dr Janet Fulton, Dr Michael Meany, Dr Susan Kerrigan, Dr Sarah Coffee, Dr Elizabeth Paton, & Dr Chloe Killen…!

So, that’s just some of the members of The Newcastle School. Of: Creativity.

…In case you’re ever asked!

& If you’d ever like to know more – there’s also, this book:

Paul McCartney and His Creative Practice: The Beatles and Beyond (McIntyre & Thompson 2021)

And, this book:

McIntyre, KCP, Fulton, JM, Paton, EJ, Kerrigan, SM & Meany, MM 2018, Educating for Creativity within Higher Education: Integration of Research into Media Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke UK.

In the above, leading creativity researcher Distinguished Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has written about The Newcastle School that: this

“group of researchers at Newcastle…are at the forefront of scholarship dedicated to understanding how humankind has been using creativity in the past, and how the process can be supported in the future. To my knowledge, there has been no previous center anywhere on the planet where such a close-knit and dedicated group of scholars has existed quite like this one…What makes Newcastle different is that the scholars there are focusing on the understanding of creativity itself, instead of using their creativity to advance a particular discipline or domain. This process of self-reflection is indeed unique and becoming a real necessity for planning and directing the future”

(Csikszentmihalyi in McIntyre et al, 2018, p. xii).

There is also this book:

McIntyre, P., Fulton, J., & Paton, E. (Eds.). (2016). The Creative System in Action: Understanding Cultural Production and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke UK.

Here is the ToC (Table of Contents), of the above:

And for even more detail, there is also this book – a foundational text of The Newcastle School:

McIntyre, P. (2012). Creativity and Cultural Production: Issues for Media Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Influenced by Professor Phillip McIntyre‘s ground-breaking research, The Newcastle School is famous for (among many other things!) combining Csikszentmihalyi’s bio-psycho-socio-cultural Systems Model of creativity with Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, as an analytical model (or, lens) to study: creativity, in any & all domains in culture.

For just one example of a model of Csikszentmihalyi meets Bourdieu, see below:

It may seem a “So what?” moment (seeing the above: Model), but — the model extrapolates to a 12-step algorithmic stage-model of creativity.

As one example:

As another:

The model applies to: creative [new, useful & surprising] work, in all cultural domains…

e.g. in: Music, Science, TV, Videogames, Dance, Engineering, Architecture, Publishing, Advertising, Design, Performing Arts, Radio, (et cetera).

For more detail on the above General Model of Creativity, see: Creative Practice Theory

CPT General Model (Velikovsky 2012)

More Backstory:

Within The Newcastle School, from 2013-2020, was a research group known as CAMR: The Communication & Media Research Group.

Here is a WayBack Machine version of the CAMR Group website.

Below are some posts on past academic conferences I attended at the University of Newcastle:

(…my old alma mater! – JTV)

StoryAlity #134 – The ANZCA 02016 Conference

StoryAlity #122 – The IE 02014 International Interactive Entertainment Conference

StoryAlity #114 – ASPERA Conference, 02014

And – some photographic evidence of me graduating my Ph.D from University of Newcastle, (& The Newcastle School of Creativity) in 02017:

(…just in case we can’t rely on memory, nor, the evidence of our: sense-organ systems…)

The Newcastle School also appears in this recent article on bio-cultural evolutionary creativity (and units of culture), in the Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd edn, 02020) :

Velikovsky, J. T. (02020). Technology: Memes (Units of Culture). In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed., pp. 585-604). Elsevier Science & Technology Books. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.23862-5

CCIRP

There is a new research group involving The Newcastle School, called:

CCIRP – Creativity & Creative Industries Research Program.

Current Members of CCIRP (as @ 7th June, 02020) include:

Phillip McIntyre
Susan Kerrigan
Janet Fulton
Michael Meany
Craig Batty
Pieter Aquilia
Vikrant Kishore
Rita Matulionyte
Simon Barber
Justin Morey
Paul Thompson
Clive Harrison
Sarah Coffee
Chloe Killen
Alysson Watson
Simon Ritchie
Kristi Street
Steven Henderson
Karen Nobes
Shane Bransdon
Emily Rokobauer
Vanessa Bates
JT Velikovsky

And so, that’s one summary of:

The Newcastle School of Creativity!

& Thanks for reading.

This blog post has been: a UNIT of CULTURE.

So is, this one.

( Good Gravy, it’s almost like… they’re: self-replicating…?! )

TO BE CONTINUED…

Velikovsky of Newcastle

a.k.a.

Dr Joe T Velikovsky

Information Scientist

& Communication and Media Arts & Sciences Scholar

& CCIRP Partner Investigator

& BCE (Bio-Cultural Evolution) Creativity Scholar

& Transmedia… guy

(…& Meme@play)

=========================

The above is (mostly, probably?) an Adapted Excerpt, from The Ev Cult StoryAlity PhD thesis / dissertation : “Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema” (Velikovsky 02016).

It is presented here for the benefit of fellow creativity researchers

(including screenwriters, filmmakers, artists, and scientists).

For more, see

https://evolutionary-culturology.blogspot.com/

https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky

JT Velikovsky is also a produced Feature Film Screensmith (screenwriter) & million-selling Transmedia writer-director-producer/screensmith.

He has been a professional Story Analyst for major filmovie studios, film funding organizations, and judge for the national writer’s & director’s guilds.

For even more (if you’ve not overdosed, yet) see his Transmedia Writology weblog:

http://on-writering.blogspot.com/

(i heart consilience)