Unbinding Learning

      Fostering creativity, the naturally present capacity for effective adaptation, requires “unbinding” opportunities rather than constrictions. The artist’s studio is a completely open environment, shaped to inspire and promote internal dreams and motivations. The closer we can get to this “play-based" model, where we can discover what we truly want to do, the more students will become self-generative, self-reliant and self-directed in their learning.
     Media arts intrinsically promotes this creative-based, unbinding learning environment. It opens many more avenues for discovering, applying, practicing, manipulating and presenting content. And it is capable of adapting to and interconnecting any and all subject areas and arts disciplines. It is literally, the “intermediary” that can integrate them all.

   This has parallels in recent discoveries in cognitive science.

Creativity and Learning

     “Creativity” is biological. It is adaptation and innovation, or “learning”. It is how we find within ourselves the reserve for change and novelty towards unifying with our dynamic environment. Artists are continually involved in the essence of this process. If there is one word that describes the studio method of the artist, it is evolution. Artists' works evolve. I can’t think of one great artist who doesn’t embody this process of problem solving and adaptation towards new forms of unity. Artists are unique in living almost purely within this process in free-form as individuals with internal dreams and compulsions. Therefore, they have a certain expertise in the matter. Inventors and designers would come close to this, but they remain attached to practical and utilitarian outcomes. Any other “creativity” existing in society is in relation to a system or organization, be it an environment, family or a corporation.

      We should not mystify “creativity” as an elusive principle entirely exclusive to art, because everyone is certainly capable of it. Learning and creative invention is continual and pervasive for humans, even when we sleep. Our brains are hardwired to continually scan the environment, to find pattern and anomaly, to “make sense” out of chaos, and to solve the dilemmas of complexity. Ironically, this is compelled by our desire for complacency and security. These two forces, comfort and discomfort, are in constant, dynamic tension. Educators must master their dual representation in instruction. The classroom must be both safe enough and open enough for students to take the risks that foster the creative impulse.

Child-centered Learning

By “child-centered”, I mean that all learning originates purely from internal motivations. It is the intrinsic impetus towards adaptation, as a biological and social necessity. Human beings are highly adaptive creatures, evidenced by their capacity to adjust towards any environmental condition. Over millennia, we have evolved to be learning machines. Thus, it is virtually impossible for us not to learn.


Watching children unbounded in play provides ample evidence of this natural activity. Right now, Elijah (8) and Aksel (6) are setting up their new Pokemon board game. Intensive learning is fun, invigorating, riveting. Aksel demands to learn the game. If Elijah neglects Aksel’s involvement in setting it up properly and learning the game, Aksel is infuriated. He demands to know as much as Elijah. Elijah keeps reasserting his greater knowledge. He must negotiate with Aksel to both maintain control, and to let Aksel know enough to meaningfully participate. Otherwise, Aksel threatens to quit.