Midlife Creativity and Identity - Philip Miles

Midlife Creativity and Identity

Life into Art

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
216 Seiten
2018
Emerald Publishing Limited (Verlag)
978-1-78754-334-8 (ISBN)
89,75 inkl. MwSt
This book explores the artistic routines and inspirations of amateur and professional musicians, fine artists and literary authors experiencing midlife. Based on ethnographic insight, it argues that creativity is driven by the pursuit of a 'mezzanine' in-between state where the anarchy of possibility is an antidote to the realities of middle age.
Where does 'art' come from, and what is the 'meaning' of creativity? What inspires an artist in the middle phase of life and what value is placed on the pursuit of originality? Where do innovative ideas come from and how do they transmogrify into songs, art and stories? These are some of the questions posed in this ethnographic study, undertaken over three years and involving male and female musicians, artists and literary authors in the UK, some amateur and some professional but all dedicated to the invention of artistic legacy. 


This book sets out to understand the influences, spaces and routines of creative people experiencing midlife via an evocative exploration of biography, self-identity, inspiration, sociality, beliefs, emotion, career trajectory and life choices, and considered via in-situ observations of rehearsal, performance, exhibition, environment and working philosophy that contribute to the meaningful creation of novelty.  



While life experiences influence both the chosen and developed techniques of creating art and the art itself, artistic virtuosity is also arguably a conscious resistance to the banal securities of midlife in an age of inherent, perceived insecurity. Processes of creation, spaces of inspiration and the individualised value placed on artistic endeavour in uncertain times – and at an uncertain time in life – are understood via an original theory of the 'mezzanine', a sought-after in-between zone that abandons the ordinary and embraces an almost anarchic uncertainty where the promise of possibility and the pursuit of the delight of innovation provide an antidote to the banal 'everyday' and the routine expectancies of middle age.

Philip Miles is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. His research interests are within cultural sociology and include cultural materialism, popular music, art and creativity, performance, authorial routines and a contemporary focus on the sociology of English Literature.

Introduction: Life into Art
Chapter 1. Transformations
 Part I: Music, Midlife and Authenticity 
Chapter 2. Lost in Space: Music and Aura 
Chapter 3. Music, Sociality and Identity 
Part II: Art and Identity
Chapter 4. The Subterranean River 
Chapter 5. Down in the Woods 
Chapter 6. Inspiration by the Sea
 
Part III: Solitude Sitting

Chapter 7. Living a Dream and Dreaming a Living 
Chapter 8. Shifting Rhythms and a Sense of Purpose 
Chapter 9. The Mezzanine and Midlife Creativity 
Afterword: Monday Afternoon and the Millennium

Erscheinungsdatum
Verlagsort Bingley
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 433 g
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie Völkerkunde (Naturvölker)
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie Mikrosoziologie
ISBN-10 1-78754-334-X / 178754334X
ISBN-13 978-1-78754-334-8 / 9781787543348
Zustand Neuware
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