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Ideas Generation and the Creative Process

Module description

This module introduces you to theoretical and practical concepts related to creative ideas generation and innovation in relation to the creative and cultural industries. Using techniques that draw on embodied approaches to creativity and design-led thinking, you will explore and analyse where ideas originate from, including sources of inspiration, how imagination and innovation works and can be captured, and how you can generate ideas in safe, encouraging environments. You will consider what modes of thought and social experiments encourage conceptual development. Performativity plays a central role in this module and will be explored through a range of cultural contexts, as well as through improvisation and play. In this way, you will develop an advanced understanding of creativity as a non-linear behaviour which can produce innovative business solutions. Problem solving skills will be enhanced through collaborative endeavours and you will apply creative processes and innovative strategies to live briefs.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims:

• To explore creativity and innovation in the context of creative organisations.
• To introduce techniques that draw on embodied approaches to creativity and design-led thinking.
• To explore and analyse methods of stimulating ideas and imaginative solutions from an individual and an organisational perspective.
• To develop creative thinking skills for identifying entrepreneurial opportunity.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Articulate an advanced understanding of creativity (theory and practice) and principles and processes of ideas generation
• 2. Identify and evaluate key features of creative management as they apply to the creative industries value chain
• 3. Apply creative processes and innovative strategies to live briefs.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Describe at an advanced level the development, production, and distribution of creative concepts and content
• 5. Demonstrate an advanced approach to the study of creative industries in terms of interdisciplinary research and engage in critical discussion and debate

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Through research for lectures, seminars, workshops and assessments, retrieve and analyse information at an advanced level
• 7. Work in a group to deliver a shared project and gain experience of project development, as well as demonstrate ability to self-document and reflect on these processes in a logbook
• 8. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback, and to improve communication skills and advanced analytic abilities in discussions.

Syllabus plan

This module will comprise:

• Lectures and seminars that focus on theoretical and practical concepts related to creative ideas generation and innovation in relation to the creative and cultural industries.
•  Workshops employing a range of approaches (e.g. embodied practice and design-led thinking) to explore where ideas originate from and how to generate ideas in safe, encouraging environments.
• Challenge-led group projects (“intensives”) focusing on developing practical ideation skills.
• Supervisions to support the development of the assessed challenge-led group project which involves devising a solution to a business challenge (e.g. a pop-up event, game or other innovative/transformative outcome.)

Sessions will be led by programme tutors and expert guest lecturers/speakers where appropriate.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Reassessment exercises will carry the same weightings as the original assessments.

The group presentation cannot be re-assessed – instead you will submit a written essay of your individual contribution to the original assessment.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Reading:

• Barton, G. (2016). Don't Get a Job... Make a Job: How to make it as a creative graduate. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
• Catmull, E., and Wallace, A. (2014). Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Bantam Press: London.
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Perennial.
• Dubina, I. N., and Carayannis, E. G. (2016). Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Across Cultures: Theory and Practices. New York: Springer.
• European Commission. (2017). Mapping the Creative Value Chains. Luxembourg. Publication Office of the European Union.
• Gray, D., Brown., and Macanufo, S. J. (2010). Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. London: O’Reilly.
• Henley, D. (2018). Creativity: Why It Matters. London: Elliott & Thompson.
• Kelley, T (2001). The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. New York: Random House.
• Kimmel, M., Hristova, D., and Kussmaul, K. (2018). Sources of embodied creativity: interactivity and ideation in contact improvisation. Behavioural Science. 8(52).
• Kristensen, T. (2004). The physical context of creativity. Creative Innovation Management. 13, pp. 89–96.
• Lovell, N. (2013). The Curve. London: Penguin.
• Malinin, L. (2019). How Radical Is Embodied Creativity? Implications of 4E Approaches for Creativity Research and Teaching. Frontiers in Psychology. Vol. 10.     
• McClure, B. (2018). ‘Disruption on the dancefloor: Understanding creativity as openness and emergence,’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Creativity at Work, eds L. Martin and N. Wilson. Berlin: Springer, pp. 583–604.
• Mould, O. (2018). Against Creativity. London: Verso.
• Oppezzo, M., and Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 40, pp. 1142–1152.
• Sawyer, R. K., and DeZutter, S. (2009). Distributed creativity: how collective creations emerge from collaboration. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 3, pp. 81–92.
• Schön, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, NY: Basic Books.
• Scott, G., Leritz, L. E., and Mumford, M. D. (2004). The effectiveness of creativity training: a quantitative review. Creativity Research Journal, 16, pp. 361–388.
• Scott-Stevenson J. (2019) Virtual Futures: A Manifesto for Immersive Experiences. Immerse [online]. Available from:  https://immerse.news/virtual-futures-a-manifesto-for-immersive-experiences-ffb9d3980f0f
• Seelig, T. L. (2012). InGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. New York: HarperOne.
• Sicart, M. (2014). Play Matters. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Wilf, E. (2019). Creativity on Demand: The Dilemmas of Innovation in an Accelerated Age. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=7966

Key words search

Creativity, imagination, ideas generations, innovation, embodied creativity, design-led thinking.