예술적 창조성과 시각적 사고: 예술창조 과정에 관한 심리학적 연구 = Artistic Creativity and Visual Thinking: A Psychological Study on the Creation Artworks

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper was intended to investigate into the importance of visual thinking in the process of creating artworks. In detail, the main characteristics of the process of creating artworks were analyzed on the basis of the `self reports` made by a number of artists. According to the results, the process of creating artworks arises unconsciously, automatically, and abruptly for the most part, and it is then adjusted and controlled by perceptual images rather than linguistic concepts. In contrast, numerous cognitive psychologists regard the process of creating artworks as a universal, cognitive process as well as an intentional, rational process based on professional knowledge and systematic search. Nevertheless, such analyses are subject to a number of biases in that they oversimplify the complex mental phenomena involved in the process of creating artworks within the frame of the cognitive psychological principles. A recent neuroscience research has demonstrated a new type of thinking which acts quite differently from a logical investigation based on professional knowledge. According to this study, the left hemisphere of the human brain carries out an analytic processing of the detailed characteristics of an image whereas the right hemisphere executes an synthetic, simultaneous processing of the structural characteristics of a spatial relationship. Such processing by the right hemisphere manifests numerous characteristics identical to those of the process of visually processing information. Visual thinking helps avoid a mechanical use of an algorithm stemming from linguistic concepts, and are very much effective for reorganizing problems in that they facilitate a dynamic conversion of given elements, considering the constituent elements simultaneously as well as comprehensively with use of a visual image as a medium. Therefore, it is inferred that visual thinking helps conceptualize new ideas for an artwork, playing an important role in the process of creating artworks, which are expected to be a harmonious, coherent entity.