Meanings Of Practice: Towards An Engaged, Enriched Picture of Artistic Creative Experience

Abstract Book of the 3rd International Conference on Art Studies

Year: 2026

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Meanings Of Practice: Towards An Engaged, Enriched Picture of Artistic Creative Experience

Jacob Lang

ABSTRACT:

Existential themes are evident in descriptions of the artistic creative process across media, and these are not adequately captured in extant models of creativity in social cognitive psychology. The present talk extends from an effort to interrogate two psychodynamic constructs to evaluate how they may be relevant in a more comprehensive description of the artistic creative process: (a) creative process (implicating expression and ideational representation) and (b) the spiritual (the meaning-seeking condition). This study treats artmaking as a lived situation. To deepen our knowledge about the role of existential themes in the artistic creative process, one may ask artists: (a) “What do you make?” and (b) “What is the most meaningful part of that process?” This presentation shares a research creation, reporting the process of producing semi-improvised music as a case (“critical life episode”) for analysis. The case is shared in dialogue with a literature review to approach whether and which existential themes are evident in artistic creativity. Music production was accompanied by intervals of reflective writing, permitting a rich picture of an experience across four weeks. Journal entries, field notes, and artefacts (audio recordings) were coded thematically and checked by an external auditor. This permitted a lens both on the “dance floor” (candid, reflexive artist) and the “balcony” (observer-analyst), which is a benchmark of rigour (Heifetz et al., 2009). Abundant in themes of “in-betweenness” and “cultural self-discovery” (Cooper & Lilyea, 2021), the case was a reinterpretation of a Finno-Ugrian folk melody in collaboration with players of contemporary art music.

Keywords: Arts-Based Research; Creativity; Psychology; Qualitative Research; Research Creation