Alison Miyauchi, Design Thinkers 2009 >>
Jane Kidd, Cheongju International Craft Biennial >>
Christopher Frey, School of Visual Arts (SVA) Annual Conference - New York City, 2009 >>
Barbara Milne, Gullkistan Iceland Residency >>
Mackenzie Frère, The opening of Lieux de memoire, Quebec >>
Mireille Perron, Artist Residency CAMAC and 53rd Venice Biennale >>
Judy Sterner, Sukur World Heritage Site >>
Dick Averns, "WAR ART NOW" >>
Mitch Kern, "Good Medicine: Exploring Health and Wellness in First Nation Albertan Communities" >>
Alan Dunning, "The Permeable Body" >>
Alex Link + Richard Brown, "Rendering Comics Art: Building A Cross-Departmental Comics Curriculum" >>
Robert Geyer, "The Living Glass History Project" >>
Mitch Kern and Roger Nason (Keyano College), "Narration and Self-Representation" >>
Mireille Perron, "Medical Tabulae" >>
Wayne Giles, Walter May, Justin Waddell and Vera Gartley, "Concept Mapping: creating concept maps for play and the creative process" >>
Claudia Shepherd and Jennifer DeDominicis, "Student Advising: a new model for studio-based learning" >>
Laurel Johannesson, "Respiro" >>
Alan Dunning, "The Auratic Body: The Visual and Sonic Virtual Representation of Human Physiology" >>
Wayne Giles, Darlene Lee and Chris Frey, "Concept Mapping: creating a concept maps for innovation" >>
Dick Averns + Alex Link, "How Do Tourette Syndrome and Co-Morbidities affect Career Choice and Achievement in the Workplace?" >>
The Institute for the Creative Process at the Alberta College of Art + Design (ICP@ACAD) is unique in a Canadian post-secondary institution. The Institute exists to focus and organize the various activities, enterprises, and initiatives of ACAD with regard to the cultivation of dialogue, research, and special projects that directly address the nature of the creative process and design thinking.
The Institute is organized around a central notion: that the creative process can be identified, articulated, and applied to a wide range of issues and needs. For some, this will mean using that process as a way of crafting visual materials for business, for others it may mean using process steps to address the issues that concern many in our world: How does a community develop a sense of cohesion and common purpose? What is the optimum way to structure a learning environment? How can a corporation engender innovation within its ranks? How do various occupational groups manifest innovation in their work, and how might this be consciously approached in a variety of settings? How can wellness and health issues be addressed via a direct application and knowledge of the creative process? These and an infinite number of other topics are the business of the ICP@ACAD.
Our world requires this type of thinking. Communities want to be supportive of the "knowledge economy" even as they are in transition from earlier social models. Relationships between various groups are in flux, and societies search for solutions to the complex relationships that stem from change and migration. Artists, designers, and cultural producers of every stripe strive to express themselves in ways that can galvanize thought and stimulate new ideas, yet questions remain as to how they can sustain themselves as members of society. The corporate world needs people who can innovate, fuse ideas, and approach their endeavors within the context of a larger panorama. At the end of it all, our most worthy resource is people and their ability to consider, reason, and synthesize; we need to understand how to promote those qualities. These questions and more are in need of investigation, discourse, and finally, implementation of the creative process. That is the work of the Institute for the Creative Process at the Alberta College of Art + Design.
The process steps for design and innovation are understandable. They may be recognized by various terms: design thinking and theory, innovative process steps, and more. While we recognize that individual talents and abilities play a significant role in such undertakings, we also know that the creative/design process, the method by which solutions are found and new knowledge is discovered, is something that can be documented, researched, and applied to a broad range of issues. The mission of the ICP@ACAD is to study that process and share our findings, promote the articulation of it, and assist in applying that process to a variety of topics. The ICP will initiate projects that employ the creative and design process, apply it, and act as a vehicle for such thinking. Our world will be our laboratory.
For more information, or to discuss how the ICP might work with you, please contact:
Lance Carlson
President + CEO
(403) 284-7670
president@acad.ca
Alberta College of Art + Design has launched a comprehensive, two-year Systemic Change Initiative (SCI) to promote diversity at ACAD and develop a template for other institutions across Canada to do the same.
The SCI is intended to create an atmosphere within the institution where everyone feels involved and respected for their different ideas, backgrounds, perspectives and experiences... >>
Research + Institutes Header | Photographer John Gaucher
