This is a general forum for discussions on the the ” Imagination and Creativity in Vygotsky’s Works” series. Join our community to comment and immerse yourself in thought-provoking discussions that explore the role of imagination and creativity.
An ongoing conversation
© 2024 Cultural Praxis - Extending Mind, Culture, and Activity.
As we enjoy our summer break, we have time to reflect on our discussions during the past year. As we plan future sessions, we don’t want to lose important threads of continuity.
This new discussion space will help us maintain a dialogue across sessions.
Also, new members who are watching the videos for the first time can use this space to join our ongoing discussion. Let’s talk!
Hello Francine and All,
This is both a test of my ability to use the Cultural Praxis platform for an on-going discussion of topics raised during the sessions on Imagination and Creativity (I&C) in the Work of Vygotsky AND an encouragement along with Francine’s to all of you out there in CP Land to join in.
I love that we have landed in such a good place after a year of the presentations of I&C. We ARE being imaginative and creative in our dialog. It IS a creative collaboration and we are set to keep it going. Several of us are in deep discussions of what to do next. What we most want is be welcoming to everyone who wants to take part in an open, inclusive, and inspired dialog that carries on and applies the ideas of Vygotsky to make the world better.
I love the name that the Cultural Praxis collective has given itself. I see myself and every one of those who take part in this dialog as developing skillsets to meet the huge challenges the world is now faced with. It beats the alternative! Whoever designed the look of the CP website did a nice job of inspiring us to join hands and kick butt!
Summer 2024 would be a good time to reflect back on the sessions we have had since March 2022. Which ones were your favorites? What stands out in your memory? What topics should we revisit?
What threads of continuity have emerged?
Time to plan for the Fall 2024 sessions and consider topics for Spring 2025.
Elena Bodrova Deborah Leong offered to give a presentation on the Tools of the Mind preschool program in September.
And we look forward to Gillian McNamee bringing us up to date on the videos being made for special needs preschoolers in Kyrgyzstan.. What else should we do?
MINDING THE GAP: A discussion thread on metaphors related to the transition from imagination to reality. Considering metaphors such as minding the gap, zigzag, looping,
and cycles. Discussed in Coffee Hour #2 with Tanya Zittoun, Coffee Hour #4 Mike Cole,
and the April 28, 2023 session with Bernard Schneuwly.
Here is the link to the videos for Coffee Hours 2 and 4:
https://culturalpraxis.net/archive-five-coffee-hours-on-imagination-and-creativity-in-vygotskys-works/
Here is the link to the April 28th session:
https://culturalpraxis.net/imagination-and-creativity-in-the-adolescent-with-bernard-schneuwly-and-david-kellogg-april-28-2023/
Reply to this message to participate in the ongoing conversation on this topic,
Our ZOOM session on Tuesday September 12th will be an opportunity to review some
of the topics raised during the previous year by focusing on Vygotsky’s texts.
We want to look at Vygotsky’s three papers on imagination & creativity and how those texts
related to Vygotsky’s earlier and later works.
This is a test of the new format for the CP web-site
Mike,
In answer to your request for a link to Blunden on Tool and Sign, the CP dialog function does not allow links as far as I can tell.
Henry
Hi Francine, Henry et al-
Then it “came to mind” that the phrase, “mind the gap,” while clever, “brings to mind” the announcements in railroad and subway stations to mind the physical gap created by technical system of transportation.
This way of interpreting the metaphor totally neglects the fact that the human eye creates via saccadic movement the resulting gap it must resolve in order to maintain, or regain, coordinated action. We know for sure that if that the life process that creates discontinuities ceases, so does life itself. This view generates as a consequence, what Lenin and Bernard refer to as a zig-zag, Tania refers to as looping, Suvorov refers to as into-image-making, and Vygotsky’s two cases of men caught at one side of ‘reality’. What develops is the complexity of the processes/things/stuff of experience in the bio-semio-sphere
that the developing human draws upon to make their imagined world real.
The re-listening process is really very helpful. I’ll clean this up for posting with the session itself, but thought I would float this out there to entice others into the same excercise.
Bernard used the metaphor of cycles during his April 28th presentation.
I think this metaphor was used by Marx and/or Lenin and it figures prominently in
Vygotsky’s paper “Imagination and Creativity in Childhood”.
Several months ago, I had started to translate a paper by one of Bernard’s Swiss colleagues on the origins of Vygotsky’s cycle metaphor. I will look back in my files;
and could send Bernard an email asking for clarification.
What is the difference between zig zags and cycles, Francine? Can we get Bernard to discuss with us here? I seem unable to log into the new test site, but its the same reply function as here. We might as well try to use this facility while Andre is putting finishing touches on the new CP site.
Aha! I found you. The posts jump around: Longest ago (21 days ago -Francine/Henry), 1 day ago – F, 2 days ago – F, 5 days ago – H, 2 dats ago – Mike, 2 days ago – F, 2 hours ago – M, Now – H. That’s good data.
So how do we instruct other about how to find messages quickly? And note,
I did NOT get a notification of you responding to me.
You did not get a notification bscause what I posted earlier today was not entered as a response to your posting. I just posted my ‘prototype’ for starting a new thread as a new entry.
This is my first visit to this discussion forum. I wonder who is seeing it? Presumably those who have already posted earlier, right?
Dear Mike and all. How are you? Community members who commented here and subscribed to receive updates on this discussion should receive e-mail notifications of your comment – Just like I received now.
thanks Andre- looking good.
I think we should use the tree icon instead of the typewriter so people know that
this is a general discussion for our Imagination & Creativity seminar
What is good about this forum so far is that anyone who joins, log in, and wants to comment can. Ideally all of the people currently on I&C ought to be seeing the discussion, even if they do not login to read or comment.
A big announcement to the xlchc, xmca, and other networks that the editorial collective participates in, combined with an announcement of the next seminar seems like the least effort way to see if we can get a community of users on CP, or not.
In principle, it could be as “pushy” as xlchc-redux where everyone sees every note, but perhaps the branching here will facilitate more fine tuned discussions. The only way to find out is to start, it seems. Which is what we are doing.
What you suggest makes sense to me, Mike.
Francine just sent a link to an article by Andy Blunden on Tool and Sign in Vygotsky. I think that will turn out to be generative for our discussion.
I do not see the link, Henry. It must be on xlchc. Seem as if we
need an archive that includes all the readings so far to go with this
discussion
As far as I can tell, Mike, this dialog function does not allow links.
Here is the link to a definition for “perizhvanie” that Andy Blunden published:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10749039.2016.1225310. While it is not a true hyperlink, you can copy the address, pull up a browser, and access the the article. A doable work-around to allow people to post suggestions for readings.
I take it back! Once I post the comment, the address does become a link, such that when you click on it, it takes you to the article. Nice!
Dear all, please be aware that for security reasons, any comment with more than two hyperlinks will be up for moderation. This means that it will not appear here immediately.
André,
Mike gave Francine and me a link to new website that you are testing. I clicked on it and here I am hoping to help us towards an intuitive, quick, easy-to-use comment function.
Hello there, the link Mike sent you does not intend to lead “towards an intuitive, quick, easy-to-use comment.” That link embraces the Design Committee’s purpose of making the cultural praxis’s landing page more intuitive for newcomers. It is part of the ongoing goal of reorganizing the whole site.
Mike and I have been talking and learning how to make conversations functions here more friendly and easy. This page we are using right now is a product of our current efforts. I believe we will be moving forward with this task during the Fall. Have a good weekend!
Yes to making conversations friendly and easy for newcomers!
Thanks Andre– We are still struggling with the questions of why
its necessary to scan down the entire set before we find where to pick up the conversation and wondering why we are not seeing notifications when when others’ send notes