Jenni Potts

Human Knowledge Acquisition

October 15, 2002

Creativity Without Consciousness? Impossible!

“I began this book by invoking birth and the moment of stepping into the light as suggestive metaphors for consciousness.

“All human creation comes back to that point of transition when we begin manipulating existence guided by the partial revelation of that very existence….In a curious way, whatever we do invent, from norms of ethics and law to music and literature to science and technology, is either directly mandated or inspired by the revelations of existence that consciousness offers us.

“The drama of the human condition comes solely from consciousness (Damasio, 1999, pp. 315-316).”

Dancing brings me joy, and I have loved it for as long as I can remember. It is my passion. Some of the happiest moments in my life have stemmed from dance. I was on my high school dance team for three years. That experience gave me many strong friendships, endless laughter, and unforgettable memories.

I noticed that Damasio did not include art, drama, or dance in this quote, but I believe he implies their inclusion in his statement by saying “All human creation…” I am currently taking a wonderful advanced jazz dance class here at Vanderbilt. I have especially loved the emotional aspects of the class.

Previous dances I’ve done, in high school and in earlier years, have all followed the same happy emotional approach. Heaven forbid my high school dance team should stray from our cute, upbeat reputation and try to evoke any other emotions from the extremely wide spectrum that we all experience. Even when some of the music we danced to could have implied an emotion other than happiness, we still had the same smiles plastered on our faces. I can’t complain too much and must say our director knew what she was doing because the judges always liked us, constantly complimenting our great smiles, and we always won.

This class at Vanderbilt, however, has impressed me greatly since it is so different from my dance team experience. Each week we learn a new dance. Each dance possesses its own uniqueness. We have danced to angry music, loving music, jealous music, and upbeat music. After we learn and practice the dance, we divide into groups so that we may watch each other perform. It has been amazing to observe each dancer and how she interprets the music and the moves to fit her own degree of emotion. Our teacher always tells us to imagine ourselves feeling what the song says, to think of a situation in our lives, past or present, maybe even future, and dance those emotions. “Dance with feeling!” he says. Each girl will think of a distinct situation in her mind, and will exhibit different facial expressions and emphasis on different parts of the dance. My ability to recall jealousy may not provide me with as strong an emotion as another girl who may have experienced envy that very day. We will all inevitably become a different character, yet do the same steps at the same time. It’s quite remarkable! Since I have not had the chance to project emotions other than happiness into a dance in so long, this has been very cathartic to me. It has also provided many observations and learning opportunities.

As Damasio (1999) states on page 217, our autobiographical self provides us with the “memories of a personal past and memories of an anticipated future.” When we dance, we use those memories. Without our consciousness how could we dance? We could not emote what we feel and certainly couldn’t evoke emotions from our audience. Dance would have no appeal, neither for the dancers, nor for the audience. No one would want to watch people just moving lifelessly without feeling. The same applies to all the arts. They are all based on our consciousness and on the artists’ expression and extraction from the audience of emotions, memories, and thoughts. Without our autobiographical selves or consciousness, core or extended, art simply wouldn’t exist.

Damasio (1999) points out on page 144 that our bodies are constantly undergoing life and death processes. He says that “no component remains the same for long”. Some cells live for a few days or months. Even the neurons in our brain, which are never replaced, change often by learning and by making new connections, according to Damasio (1999). Consciousness gives us the sense of who we are. That sense stays stable despite our changing outside surroundings and despite the shifting world inside our bodies. Objects, events, and people around us influence our consciousness which in turn affects our emotions which then direct our actions. Many of those actions include creation. Even the simple act of talking to a friend can be considered creation. We put words together to form sentences and to express our thoughts. Those sentences and thoughts will be completely unique because we are all unique. Despite being made up of all the same elements, the same types of cells, tissues, and organs, we are individuals because of our consciousness. We each experience the world in our own different way. Based on these different experiences, we create differently. Creativity is all about individuality, how each person views and participates in the outside world and interprets those incidents into something others can see and partake in.

I remember recently seeing an acquaintance of mine while I was on my way to class. I was in an outrageously happy mood, ecstatic that the weather was starting to cool, in awe at the beauty of the clear sky and contentedly looking at the trees and listening to the birds sing as I strolled through campus. This girl on the other hand, did not even notice me pass because she was in such a cheerless mood. I doubt she was at all aware of the beauty of her surroundings, and she appeared to be crying. If I knew her better, I would have stopped to ask if she was all right, but since we had only met once, I was almost glad she didn’t notice me. Had she spotted me, she would most likely have perceived my positive mood and seen my smile, and that might not have cheered her. How is it that in exactly the same surroundings, we had such completely different emotions and feelings? How is it that being made up of the same biological materials, we were on such opposite ends of the emotional spectrum?

Accuse our consciousness, the sense that we each possess of ourselves and of who we are. I know that something must have happened to her to cause her sadness; perhaps she just received the grade from her first chemistry test and it was low. What if she and I both received the same grade on that chemistry test at the same time that day? Our reactions could still have been very different. I could have continued onward in my happiness and she could have been sad because to her that particular grade wasn’t high enough. These very different reactions are due to our consciousness. Our autobiographical selves would have dictated our separate reactions. Maybe this girl is very self motivated and wants to attend the top medical school in the country. That is part of who she is; she has always set high standards herself.

Now, this situation I’ve created is completely fictional, because I too would have been very upset if I had received a bad grade on my chemistry test. Our extended consciousness would also have influenced our reactions. With the knowledge that I want to go to medical school, I strive to have high grades. Knowing that my future can depend on my present actions and my grades if I do poorly, I would be very upset and could react tearfully. Despite our similar physical and biological framework, similar brain parts, and structures, our brains are all wired very differently. We each have a sense of self that no one else can have.

By creating, we can change the world around us. We create based on our consciousness and also based on the awareness we have of our consciousness. For example, a sense of self allowed someone long ago to realize that we are unable to get from one far away place to another without some help. Action was then taken to travel by means other than walking. Consciousness is responsible for all the great inventions of mankind. We became aware of ourselves at some point and of our limitations and of how we could improve our lives. This doesn’t just include machines, but art and organization as well as other parts of humanity. Damasio (1999) calls this “manipulating existence” which is done on a daily basis. We make new discoveries, establish technologies, and continuously conjure up and express ideas. We are constantly trying to improve our lives, our existence. Without consciousness, would any of this be possible? Where would we be?

Creativity could not exist without consciousness. We would have nothing to base creation on. New ideas would not exist. Consciousness is imperative to so many parts of our lives. We definitely take it for granted. I know I never gave consciousness a second thought prior to this course. I believe that is how most people live. Until someone points out the force and influence consciousness exerts on our existence, we do not take notice. Looking at the world around us, we realize that almost all of it is the result of our consciousness: my desk, my computer, lights, the building I’m in. The list is endless. Because of our unique sense of self, we are able to remember the past, think about the future, weigh out consequences, choose actions, and change our surroundings. We affect the world around us because of its effects on us and on our sense of self. That is quite a concept. Our surroundings affect us, our consciousness, and emotions, and we then affect our surroundings. The connections astound me.

I completely agree with this quote of Damasio’s. He totally summed up consciousness and its effects on our ability to create. The constant improvements on our existence would not subsist. Without our consciousness, we would have no creation, no expression, no invention, and worst of all, in my opinion, no art. Thanks to my consciousness, I can “dance with feeling!”

References

Damasio, Antonio R. The Feeling of What Happens. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co.,

1999.