Riding the heron: An experience of undertaking a creative visioning exercise with my critical...

8/11/2019 Riding the heron: An experience of undertaking a creative visioning exercise with my critical creative companion

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Riding the Heron: An experience of undertaking acreative visioning exercise with my critical creative

companion

Lorna Peelo-Kilroe

Flying through spaces in the imagination provides powerful imagesof understanding and insight. This was my experience when Iundertook this exercise in the beautiful Cotswolds with Dr AngieTitchen my critical creative companion as part of our creativeretreat. !e are using critical creativity approaches to increase myunderstanding of how the paradigm of critical creativity can support

and hold my methodological and philosophical assumptionstogether. I also wanted to distinguish the di"erent researchlandscapes from the paradigm of critical creativity. Angie as anexperienced critical creative companion and skilled facilitatorwanted to explore ways to support me in my #uest.

Angie and I set out on a re$ective walk to %iver &venlode which$ows through the grounds of 'lenheim (alace. Angie and I haveundertaken several re$ective walks together and we haveestablished a general preference for how we like to walk together.

'ased on the Critical Companionship Framework )Titchen *+++*++,- we agreed how we would structure our walk mutuality


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agreed a time frame and signal for the stages of our walk temporality,and because Angie knows my learning styles saliencyandparticularity,I was able to con/dently start walking knowing ouragreed signals for transitioning and how we would stay in touch 0reciprocity enabling independent exploration of our landscape.

Although this may sound #uite obvious and straightforward it is infact #uite a sophisticated process because showing consideration foreach other and our needs enables a much richer re$ection. In mycase I didn1t have to lead or follow and could be con/dent that Iwouldn1t 2get lost1 in unfamiliar surroundings or that I have to keepup. I could go at my own pace and experience my re$ection in mindbody and spirit3 a whole body experience. A lovely sense ofcompletely letting go and experiencing everything that is availableto me and that is a liberating experience in itself.

I only noticed when I re$ected back on my walks that I use someskills that I have developed when I am in work. I 2dabble1 inmindfulness initially as a way of calming my thoughts and capturingmy feelings in a grounding way particularly in times of pressure orstress. Although I am not proclaiming any level of expertise inmindfulness I have a rudimentary understanding and appreciation ofthe bene/ts particularly at times when I am under pressure or whenI am generally feeling anxious. A lovely feeling of relaxation andcuriosity takes over when I engage in re$ective walking. I focus onalmost disengaging from my cognitive brain and avoid trying tomake sense of what I see and feel. I 4ust let it be what it is in the

moment a bree5e crunching of earth and foliage underfoot or thesight and sound of perhaps a river or birds and insects singing andhumming. I am aware that I have #uestions I want to /nd answersto but I want to /nd out in a di"erent way so that my learning canbe internalised and not forgotten as is often the case with me whenI use my cognitive brain for new academic learning.

!alking towards the %iver &venlode I noticed some beautiful treesthat were gracefully imposing on the landscape and representedstrength and endurance to me at that time.


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I walked along the river bank and noticed how still the water wasand how much vegetation was growing in the river although itseemed #uite deep. There were people sitting by the river and theywere #uite noisy but somehow the intrusion didn1t derail myre$ection. I wanted to get inspiration from nature to understand mymetaphysical and theoretical bedrock for my research and let thatthought come and go as I walked. !e reached our transitioning

point which was at a bridge over the river andalong the way I had picked up a twig that wasin the shape of a two0pronged fork thatsymbolised two paths for me. I wasn1t surewhether I needed to choose a path or that Ihad arrived at the point where both paths met.I picked up a stone that representedconsistency strength and landscape.

Angie had collected somesymbolic artefacts ofnature too and we

stopped by the bridgeand slowly engaged inconversation sharing ourexperience of the walk

and what our artefacts meant. 6ne of Angie1sartefacts was a heron1s grey feather and shesaid that this symbolised the main theme ofher re$ection. !e saw a beautiful heron besidethe river at the end of the bridge perhaps theowner of the feather7

tarting our creative vision


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After we shared our re$ections we prepared to undertake thecreative visioning exercise which would explore di"erent worldviewsof research by using a metaphor in which the bedrock of eachworldview is its philosophical stance the landscape that it supportsis the research paradigm and then within the landscape the

gardens are the research studies. !e agreed the location 0 facingthe river with our backs to a tree.

!e sat down and began the exercise by closing our eyes. Creativevisioning was instantly appealing to me. I noticed that as soon as Iclosed my eyes and Angie started talking me through the 4ourney Ilinked almost instantly with my imagination. I can describe it ashaving one foot in the present and being aware of my body inrelation to where I was sitting and one foot in an imaginarylandscape. I was climbing on the back of a huge heron and $yingaway from the tree I was sitting by going up into the air and awayinto the distance to a technical research landscape. 8uiding methrough the 4ourney Angie asked me to experience the $ightimaginatively with all my senses.

!hen I had reached the technical bedrock she asked me what Icould see. I didn1t have to answer her #uestions I 4ust had to usemy imagination to picture what I was looking at and engage all ofmyself in the experience for example the sound of Angie1s voicethe noises taking place around us the bree5e blowing gently andhow I was feeling. !hat was the bedrock like9 !hat was the

landscape garden like9 I knew I was engaging in the exercisebecause I could see the bedrock as grey and uniform. Then thelandscape garden was grey too and sterile looking. Individualsworking in the garden looking robotic and trying to prop up lifelessplants in a sterile soil.

8etting back on the heron1s back I was $ying away to anotherlandscape a transformational bedrock and landscape garden. Thecontrast to the technical image was huge. The transformationalgarden was colourful and lively with people interacting together andhappily attending their growing plants. I imagined that they were

actually transforming the garden as they worked. The wholeatmosphere here was one of freedom energy and engagement.

To bring the visioning exercise to a close I imagined that my herontransported me back to the tree where I was sitting and we thenslowly opened our eyes to return to the present. !e shared ourvisioning experience and how we had experienced our landscapes.

!hat did " see#In my vision of a technical garden I saw people working hard and

using all their energy on trying to get plants to grow. :aking thingsgrow was the fundamental aim in the technical garden and not for


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example painting the fence. ;owever the essential ingredients ofmoisture and heat were missing and the soil was barren and greyso the task was almost impossible and unfortunately the gardenerscouldn1t see this. If the fundamental aim in the garden was to paintthe fences then the essential ingredients would be a fence paint

brushes and individuals to do the painting. A researcher would belooking at perhaps the #uality of the paint or brushes or perhapshow long the 4ob takes. There may be a focus on how the 4ob wasplanned and levels of satisfaction with the 4ob. 'ut my researchstudy with its philosophical bedrock of virture ethics and a researchlandscape )paradigm- with an emphasis on transformation andhuman $ourishing did not seem to /t in to my image of how that myresearch landscape and garden might look.

The overall feeling in the technical garden was one ofdisappointment and resignation and it wasn1t a place that I wantedto linger in for long. Interestingly on re$ection if the tasks weredi"erent in the technical garden not focused on growing things inbarren soil then I could see perhaps a more appealing landscapewhere fences were nicely maintained and ob4ects or ornamentalfeatures could be introduces that would make it more appealing.This underlined the importance for me of choosing the rightphilosophical underpinnings for my study based on my purpose andcontext. It was important to choose well because theseunderpinnings would hold my research together as it progresses.

:y vision in the transformational garden was in stark contrast to thetechnical garden. A strong vision that wasn1t orderly or sterile but abla5e of colour and activity. The process of transformation wasdemonstrated by skilled gardeners who were moving togetherthrough the garden planting $owers and shrubs and transformingbarren soil that has been prepared to receive plants and seeds. Thegardeners were working hard and getting soil on their hands andshoes as they watered and fed the soil and plants. Their skills weredemonstrated in an intuitive way. They seemed to know what to doand how to do it as their hands expertly crafted this beautifulgarden. The garden looked so natural and in tune with the research

landscape. They were planning and exchanging opinions andcomments as they worked. In an almost straight line they weremoving together through this huge garden where everything aheadof them barren. 'ut everything they touched and planted wasgrowing. Along with the liveliness and colour that the gardenerswere creating there was an atmosphere of 4oy and satisfaction. Thiswas conveyed in their con/dent skill in what they were doing. Iwanted to linger here for a while longer because the atmospherewas so appealing to me.

!hat did " learn#


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This visioning exercise enabled me to picture in a deep and powerfulway what my research philosophical underpinnings might look like.Also at a very profound level I understood the signi/cance of wholebody engagement and bringing in creative and ancient ways ofknowing as well as rational cognitive ways of knowing so that we

can bring the whole of ourselves to our research and practicedevelopment. This consolidated for me my decision that criticalcreativity with its focus on transformation and human $ourishingwas congruent with virtue ethics and would therefore be myresearch paradigm.

Titchen et. al. )*+


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I have found the slide


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doing the right thing. This knowing comes from a process ofdeveloping moral and practical wisdom as we grow and mature intoadults supported by our character virtues. For example we may feelthat we have a strong sense of compassion or 4ustice or generositythree of the many virtues we may have. According to Aristotle who

developed the notion of virtue ethics when we develop the practicaland moral wisdom to support our virtues we become excellent inusing them. !hen we become excellent then there is no time whenwe would not choose to be 4ust or compassionate or generous and itis in applying our virtues in our everyday life that we $ourish. Thewonderful thing about virtue ethics is that one is never too late todevelop them and that they are then available to us in all facets ofour lives to help us to be more ful/lled. This /ts very well for mewith using our whole selves as with critical creativity and I amexcited now to have the opportunity to continue building on thiscombination in my research study.

Thank you Angie for this enlightening and stimulating experienceand for being my critical creative companion.

ReferencesTitchen A. ;orsfall D )*+

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