critical thinking and art

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in the Woods

How Art Education Fosters Critical Thinking and Why It Matters

These days, the ability to grasp the logical connection between ideas is a necessary skill.

Unless you’re a hermit living in a cave, there is so much information coming at all of us at any given moment.

Being able to discern which information is of worth – and which is not based in reality – requires critical thinking.

So What Exactly Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is often synonymous with reflective and independent thinking. It means knowing how to take in the data and then come to a reasonable conclusion. 

Those who engage in critical thinking are constantly questioning ideas and assumptions rather than just accepting what’s being peddled to the masses.

Critical thinkers want to know that the incoming information is representative of the bigger picture. If they determine that it’s not, they’ll take the necessary measures to get that additional information.

Critical Thinking Versus Being Critical

Critical thinking is not the same thing as being argumentative or critical/judgmental of other people. Sure, critical thinking can expose errors or poor reasoning.

But it’s also crucial for cooperative reasoning and then moving toward constructive tasks. Because acquiring more knowledge improves and strengthens one’s theories and arguments. And this subsequently leads to enhanced work processes.

How Art Improves Critical Thinking

Because critical thinking tends to incorporate logical and rational thinking and veers from instinct, many people see it as a hinderance to creativity.

After all, creativity requires breaking the rules, right? (Well, yes and no .)

Still, critical thinking truly requires out-of-the-box thinking. Rather than just taking popular approaches and swallowing them whole, critical thinkers challenge the consensus. This means they often have to pursue less popular thoughts or approaches.

So if you think about, critical thinking is an absolutely necessary component of creativity. Without it, how can the creative person continue to evaluate and improve upon his or her ideas?

It’s this very process of observation and study that teaches students of the arts to more intensely observe and analyze the world. And it gives them the skills that build the foundation of critical thinking.

But Why Does It Matter?

You might think that if your path leads you to work in research, law, education, management, finance or medicine, then you’ll absolutely need this skill. And you’re right.

But no matter what you   choose to do with your life, the ability to think clearly and rationally is important.

Knowing how to receive information, clearly consider it and then use it to systematically solve problems is an asset for any career. Especially in light of this new knowledge economy. To be successful in such an economy requires one to able to handle changes quickly and effectively.

There is an increased demand for workers to be able to analyze a lot of information from diverse sources, then integrate it in order to find solutions. Critical thinking promotes these skills.

It also enhances language and presentation skills. The simple act of learning to think in a more systematic and logical fashion can also improve the way one expresses ideas.

Furthermore, in having to analyze the structure of different information sources, critical thinking also improves one’s ability to comprehend.

And as we mentioned above, critical thinking actually promotes creativity. Coming up with creative solutions is more than just having new ideas. There has to be an understanding that the new ideas are useful and relevant to the required task.   Critical thinking plays an important role in this.

That’s right. Critical thinking is even important for this. It’s nearly impossible to structure a meaningful life without the ability to justify and reflect on our own values and decisions. And critical thinking provides the tools for this process.

So yeah, it’s safe to say that critical thinking definitely matters.

Learning Critical Thinking with an Arts Integration Education

Arts integration education merges the important skill of critical thinking achieved through art education and blends it in with academics.

There’s no disputing the importance of STEM. The above mentioned knowledge economy requires students to understand facets of science, technology, engineering and math.

With arts integration though, there’s the added importance of art – hence the term STEAM. Arts integration isn’t looking to bypass STEM. It strives instead to create an integrated program that includes all of those, while teaching the application of skills learned through the arts – such as critical thinking.

Arts integration helps students see the world from multiple angles, and to take a design-thinking approach in finding solutions.

Teaching young people to be careful and deliberate observers can go miles toward expanding their worldview. And this, in turn, can create a stronger democracy.

Do You Want to Explore An Arts Integration Education?

So take a look at what our students have to say . And/or request a tour of our school and see what we have to offer.

Then get ready to put those critical thinking skills toward a higher purpose.

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A Teacher Asks: Why the Renwick?

Vaija Wagle, former teacher at Washington International School. 

Welcome to the Renwick Gallery. I am Vaija Wagle. I have been a classroom teacher for the last 40 years. For 20 of those years, ideas from Project Zero , a research institute at Harvard Graduate School of Education influenced teaching and learning in my classroom. Upon retiring from the classroom, I took on the challenge of writing teacher resources for the Renwick Gallery.

As a teacher, my initial concern was that the Renwick Gallery would not be a teacher’s intuitive choice. Teachers have limited time and the artwork at the Renwick Gallery were not connected to any curriculum content. However, I soon recognized that the artwork at the Renwick Gallery presented a unique teaching opportunity.

Finding the Key

The artworks begged understanding. Using thinking patterns to understand and appreciate the artworks could offer students vital lessons to learn about critical thinking. If thinking about their thinking (metacognition) could be part of this experience, then the students might, in addition, transfer these thinking patterns across subject areas and to the world beyond.

If a visit to the Renwick, either through reproductions in the classroom or in-person, offered an opportunity to learn about using critical thinking skills and metacognition, teachers like me might find it quite valuable. With this in mind, I set to work on the units now available in the Resources section. They use a variety of trans-disciplinary thinking patterns to appreciate and understand the Renwick’s artworks such as:

• Uncovering Hidden Stories
• Taking Multiple Perspectives
• Getting to the Heart of the Matter
• Gleaning Context from Objects
• Making Connections

Learn more about Field Trips and School Tours at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The Units’ Philosophical Core

At Project Zero , I was profoundly drawn to the idea of making cultivating understanding through critical thinking as the goal of learning. This idea promised to benefit students’ learning in the classroom, but also for life long learning beyond the classroom.

You’ll notice that the units I created:

• Constructing an understanding of big conceptual ideas : Big conceptual ideas describe physical and social patterns that govern the world, how things work or why they are the way they are. They provide an enduring and universal lens through which to view subject matter but also the world around.
• Engage active student thinking . While knowledge may be dished out and delivered, understanding can only be cultivated through critical thinking, and through the units, students are guided to use a variety of thinking patterns to construct the desired understandings.

The units are designed for a variety of age groups; elementary to middle school students or middle to high school students.

Each unit takes between 60 and 90 minutes and can be accomplished during a visit to the museum or by displaying high definition photographs of the artworks available on the website.

Each unit uses a particular thinking pattern to look closely at a select artwork, and form informed and relevant interpretations.

There are metacognitive breaks along the way to help students become cognizant of the thinking pattern they are using to engage with the artworks.

A closing moment of reflection is built in to allow the students to revisit the experience and think about what they gained both in terms of ideas the artwork generated and patterns of thinking used.

Examples of how the various thinking patterns can be used to successfully teach curriculum content are also provided.

Practical Testing

As a teacher, I know that there is nothing better than a chance to actually teach the units and receive feedback. So, I took multiple opportunities to test the units in the gallery and at workshops across the city and gather feedback from participating students and teachers. I also reflected on what worked and what didn’t.

My highlight was when we presented the unit on Hidden Stories (the importance of seeking side and hidden stories to better understand the main story) to a high school art class at St. Alban’s School. Having visited the classroom some days before, my host teacher wrote to me and said that the students had returned from their art class and informed their teachers in the history and literature classes that they ought to be looking for side and hidden stories!! This, to me, is the ideal outcome. With all this feedback I set to revise the units.

Thinking Through Craft  resources were funded by a generous gift from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.

Top 7 Benefits of Art Education for Critical Thinking

If you're an art student, you understand how dynamic art education is! Art is a learning that comes in various forms. For a long time, there has been a great value in art education in enhancing analytical skills.

If you're an art student, you understand how dynamic art education is! Art is a learning that comes in various forms. For a long time, there has been a great value in art education in enhancing analytical skills.

Studies show that developing thinking skills through visual art is an excellent approach to developing critical thinking skills in students. When an image is perceived, it develops a critical thinking ability in students, which has been proven to nurture analytical skills.

Like assignment writing services , art education relies on critical thinking as its foundation, aiming to assist students in producing high-quality work. In this article, we will delve into the significance of art education and its role in fostering creativity and critical thinking among students. Importance of Art Education to Develop Critical Thinking

Art education is a dynamic field with numerous essential elements that contribute to the broader educational landscape. Beyond aiding students in acquiring analytical skills, art education provides a multitude of benefits. It's accurate to assert that art and critical thinking are interconnected.

To cultivate analytical skills and articulate them through visual expression, art education becomes indispensable. This parallels the necessity of college paper writers , crucial for enhancing writing skills during your college journey, enabling success in exams and assignments.

Let's explore the myriad advantages that art education offers, including the development of creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and proficiency in various disciplines.

1.   Creativity and Critical Thinking

Art has its base in various forms; it could teach painting, drawing sketches, or anything else.

Whatever it is, art education lies in enhancing creativity, a skill that must be in today's changing world. When you encourage students to engage in such creative experiments, you allow them to explore the creativity and unique perspective art education offers.

It goes hand in hand with critical thinking as well. When students indulge in any form of art, they are prompted to analyze, interpret, and critique the artwork.

This practice enhances their ability to assess information, form their viewpoint, and make an informed judgment about it. The whole process builds a thoughtful perspective in both complex and interconnected ways.

2.   Cognitive and Emotional Development

Art students are liable to build strong cognitive and emotional skills. With the creation of art, they enhance the skills of observation, pattern recognition, and reasoning.

They can abstract these concepts into a form, holding their thinking ability accountable to form perspective and thoughts. When further enhanced, these skills grow into an ability to solve problems and analyze.

Emotional development is yet another aspect that art education touches. Art is a power of expression. Through it, students can explore their creativity and mental health.

3.   Promoting Cultural Understanding

Art is a unique ability to promote a country's or regional cultural understanding among the students. They will learn to have an appreciation for the work they perform.

Art education touches on various cultures and periods, and students gain insight into the value and histories surrounding the art. It has no language barrier, communication issues, or anything. It allows the student to go beyond their understanding and into the world of imagination to understand and appreciate the art.

Students learning art education learn about different artists and their backgrounds. This learning allows them to develop empathy and open-mindedness. They can appreciate the diversity of art and recognize the themes that connect the universe.

It goes against the stereotypes and fosters a culture of respect in cultures and celebrates them rather than fear. This equips them with global empathy and respect for different traditions and viewpoints.

4.   Integration in Curriculum

Including art in the school or education curriculum is an excellent approach to maximizing its benefits. While art is seamlessly woven into any subject, students experience firsthand connection with the knowledge.

Students studying art from a specific time can enhance their knowledge of history and gain insight into a political-social context. Art has also proven to be beneficial for science education.

This approach allows students to learn art in their own curriculum and helps enhance their learning ability.

It helps them build connections between the disciples and the complexities of real-world challenges. By integrating art, the school can prepare its students to become innovative thinkers who can apply creative and critical skills in various contexts.

5.   Embracing Versatility

Painting, drawing, sculptures, painting, photography, and other art education forms can experiment with various materials and approaches. Students could be learning digital art, fine art, or ceramics, but one thing in common is their ability to explore.

Art is not limited to a particular aspect and has various forms. Students who are involved in art education can select from a wide range of course approaches and learn about them.

We now live in a world where transdisciplinary is highly valued, so in this context, flexibility becomes priceless. Art education provides a medium for students to explore their field of want and interest and get educated in it.

6.   Exploring Career Opportunities

Along with developing analytical and emotional skills, art education has its own roots in defined career paths. Contrary to the stereotype in our society that fine art only leads to struggling artists, it opens the door to various career paths.

Students interested in art and a graduate degree can practice various occupations. When studying art, students exhibit their work and explore other avenues of art like art education, art therapy, museum curation, graphic design, art conservation, and more.

When more refined, this skill allows them to be a successful worker in this field. Further, art students are also creative, critical thinkers, and visual communicators. These skills are highly demanded in the world.

7.   Personal Achievement

While studying art has benefits and advantages, like helping in critical thinking and developing analytical skills, it is also about personal fulfillment. Students are on their journey to self-discovery and are on a road of continuous growth.

Art education provides students with an opportunity to learn about themselves and about art.

They get a feeling of fulfillment from creative, beautiful, and thought-provoking pieces. Art allows you to explore your own areas of identity, passion, and values.

Other than subject matter, art education also teaches students to learn more about themselves, the culture, work, and the values behind the artwork. This leads them to a path of personal fulfillment and self-expression that goes beyond traditional education.

In conclusion, art education is a medium that enhances various aspects of human development in students. It allows them to develop their critical thinking ability. It leads them to nurture their analytical skills through visual expression. Further, it's mentioned to be a great way to enhance creativity and promote emotional intelligence.

By including art education in the regular curriculum, students learn to be more self-aware and authentic to art's value, from cultural appreciation to its impact. Students are equipped with the tools they need to thrive in the world, like innovation, empathy, and knowledge.

In this article, we mentioned the top 7 benefits of studying art and how it positively impacts a student's mindset and creates positive learners in life.

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Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

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Inspire Thoughtful Creative Writing Through Art

A few years ago, I showed my sixth graders The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer. It's an epic painting of a young black sailor in a small broken boat, surrounded by flailing sharks, huge swells, and a massive storm in the distance. I asked my students the simple question, "What's happening?" The responses ranged from "He's a slave trying to escape" to "He's a fisherman lost at sea." The common theme with the responses, though, was the tone -- most students were very concerned for his welfare. "That boat looks rickety. I think he’s going to get eaten by the sharks," was a common refrain. Then a very quiet, shy girl raised her hand. "It's OK, he'll be fine," she said. "The ship will save him."

The room got quiet as everyone stared intently at the painting. I looked closely at it. "What ship?" I responded. The young girl walked up to the image and pointed to the top left corner. Sure enough, faded in the smoky distance was a ship.

This revelation changed the tone and content of the conversation that followed. Some thought it was the ship that would save him. Others thought it was the ship that cast him off to his death. Would the storm, sharks, or ship get him? The best part of this intense debate was hearing the divergent, creative responses. Some students even argued. The written story produced as a result of analyzing this image was powerful.

Since this experience, I have developed strategies that harness the power of observation, analysis, and writing through my art lessons.

Children naturally connect thoughts, words, and images long before they master the skill of writing. This act of capturing meaning in multiple symbol systems and then vacillating from one medium to another is called transmediation . While using art in the classroom, students transfer this visual content, and then add new ideas and information from their personal experiences to create newly invented narratives. Using this three-step process of observe, interpret, and create helps kids generate ideas, organize thoughts, and communicate effectively.

Step 1: Observe

Asking students to look carefully and observe the image is fundamental to deep, thoughtful writing. Keep this in mind when choosing art to use in class. Look for images with:

• Many details: If it is a simple image, there's not much to analyze.
• Characters: There should be people or animals in the image to write about.
• Colors: Find colors that convey a mood.
• Spatial relationships: How do the background and foreground relate?

Lead your students through the image. "I like it" is not the answer we are looking for. Ask questions that guide the conversation. Encourage divergent answers and challenge them. Try these questions:

• What shapes do you see? Do they remind you of anything?
• What colors do you see? How do those colors make you feel?
• What patterns do you see? How are they made?
• Do you see any unusual textures? What do they represent?
• What is the focal point of the image? How did the artist bring your attention to the focal point?
• How did the artist create the illusion of space in the image?
• If you were living in the picture and could look all around you, what would you see?
• If you were living in the picture, what would you smell? What would you hear?

Keep your questions open-ended, and record what students say so that they'll have a reference for later. Identify and challenge assumptions. At this point, we are not looking for inferences or judgments, just observations.

Step 2: Make Inferences by Analyzing Art

Once they have discussed what they see, students then answer the question, "What is happening?" They must infer their answers from the image and give specific reasons for their interpretations.

For example, while looking at The Gulf Stream , one student said, "The storm already passed and is on its way out. You can tell because the small boat the man is on has been ripped apart and the mast is broken." That is what we are looking for in their answers: rational thoughts based on inferences from data in the picture. No two responses will be exactly the same, but they can all be correct as long as the student can coherently defend his or her answer with details from the image. When children express their opinions based on logic and these details, they are analyzing art and using critical thinking skills.

Here are some tips to model a mature conversation about art:

• Give adequate wait time. We are often so rushed that we don't give children time to think and reflect.
• Ask students to listen to, think about, and react to the ideas of others.
• Your questions should be short and to the point.
• Highlight specific details to look at while analyzing art (characters, facial expressions, objects, time of day, weather, colors, etc.).
• Explain literal vs. symbolic meaning (a spider's web can be just that, or it can symbolize a trap).

Step 3: Create

After thoughtful observation and discussion, students are abuzz with ideas. For all of the following writing activities, they must use details from the image to support their ideas. Here are just a few of the many ways we can react to art:

For Younger Students:

• Locate and describe shapes and patterns.
• Describe time of day and mood of scene.
• Describe a character in detail with a character sketch. Characters may be people, animals, or inanimate objects.
• Write a story based on this image including a brand new character.
• Give students specific vocabulary that they must incorporate into their story.

For Older Students:

• Write down the possible meaning of the image, trade with a partner, and persuade your partner to believe that your story is the correct one based on details in the image.
• Identify characters and their motives. Who are they and what do they want? Explain how you know based on details.
• Pretend that you are in the image, and describe what you see, smell, feel, and hear.
• Describe the details that are just outside of the image, the ones we can’t see.
• Introduce dialogue into your story. What are they saying?
• Sequence the events of the story. What happened five minutes before this scene, what is happening now, and what happens five minutes later? How do you know?
• Write from the perspective of one of the characters in the image.
• Explain who is the protagonist and antagonist. What is their conflict?

Thinking and Communicating

We don’t know what the future holds for our students, but we do know that they will have to think critically, make connections, and communicate clearly. Art can help students do that. During this year's commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence College, Fareed Zakaria said, "It is the act of writing that forces me to think through them [ideas] and sort them out." Art can be that link to helping students organize their ideas and produce coherent, thoughtful writing.

As you consider teaching writing through art, I recommend reading In Pictures and in Words by Kate Wood Ray and Beth Olshansky's PictureWriting.org website.

How have you used the arts to inspire creative thinking in your students? Please tell us about it in the comments.

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College Minor: Everything You Need to Know

14 fascinating teacher interview questions for principals, tips for success if you have a master’s degree and can’t find a job, 14 ways young teachers can get that professional look, which teacher supplies are worth the splurge, 8 business books every teacher should read, conditional admission: everything you need to know, college majors: everything you need to know, 7 things principals can do to make a teacher observation valuable, 3 easy teacher outfits to tackle parent-teacher conferences, using the arts to develop children’s critical thinking skills.

It’s no doubt that critical thinking is essential to education and, ultimately, success in life, but does developing this skill have to be so hard ?

As parents and teachers, we can get caught up in the “critical” aspect of critical thinking, often turning the acquisition of complex processing and problem-solving abilities into an overly serious matter of assigning elaborate math and science problems or forcing our kids to try to think in ways that their brains are not developed enough to understand. Although the development of these right-brained skills is part of the critical thinking process, we spend a meager amount of time and effort teaching the equally important creative, inquisitive thought patterns that the arts encourage.

Using Art to Harness Innate Curiosity

Children have unmatched levels of curiosity by nature, and strengthening our schools’ arts programs could be the solution to teaching the critical thinking skills that are necessary to keep the world functioning for future generations.

Think back on your elementary school experience for a moment when math, science, and the more “practical” classes were largely theoretical endeavors involving unknown variables and untouchable subject matter. The arts, however, provide students with hands-on learning, real-time problem solving and the ability to bring the hypothetical down to earth.

According to Dictionary.com , critical thinking is “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded and informed by evidence.” When employed, critical thought enables us to make objective judgments about stimuli and information to find a solution to a given problem. With art education, students learn to take a slower, more observant approach to the world, giving them greater access to the clues that make solving complex problems possible.

Researchers at Walden University agree that guiding children to observe, examine and reflect on pieces of art, translates to a more careful analysis when problem-solving in other situations. Not to mention, growing students’ appreciation for art helps to improve tolerance, empathy, and resiliency, which are crucial to producing solutions that benefit society as a whole.

How to Implement Art in the Classroom

It’s one thing to understand the importance of art in critical thinking, but how can we take this, again, theoretical evidence and apply it in classrooms? Arts integration is a powerful method that employs the arts in every subject. When teaching history, for example, encourage students to draw upon their creative, left-brain functioning to act out important events, create theme-appropriate music, or illustrate interpretations of your lesson.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs get most of the attention these days, but recent movements make a place for art within this framework by creating STEAM (STEM + Arts) classrooms, which utilize self-expression and other arts integration techniques to create a balanced learning experience.

After all, careers in STEM fields – like computer programming and engineering – boil down to precise applications of artistic solutions to real-world problems. STEAM proves that creativity and practical knowledge can (and should) coexist in schools. Historically speaking, art drives science and science drives art . Therefore, the arts more than deserve a place in every classroom’s curriculum. How else would we nurture our kids’ curiosity and develop the critical thinking skills necessary to ponder, digest, and solve all of the world’s abstract problems?

How do you integrate the arts into your classroom? Drop a comment below to keep the conversation going!

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Creativity in Art, Design and Technology pp 73–83 Cite as

Art Thinking and Design Thinking

• Jill Townsley 17  
• Open Access
• First Online: 01 April 2023

2753 Accesses

1 Citations

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SCC))

A broader spectrum of creative practice is considered more closely, distinguishing between art and design as different entities within the creative tradition. Drawing distinctions between these two forms, could help us understand creativity with more breadth. Creativity may be classified across two domains in the visual arts, art thinking and design thinking. This distinction has a long tradition, however, research outside of practice-based analysis has introduced it as a multidisciplinary tool. Art thinking has in this way expanded beyond art practice and is applied as a general method for observing and utilizing patterns, in all types of creative activities.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

8.1 Introduction

A simple example or case study, ‘ Till Rolls ’ (Townsley), offers a situation where analog problems, revealed through art thinking (the process of making) are solved using design thinking and digital technology.

Artist and researcher, Hideaki Ogawa investigates art thinking in his work at FutureLab , a research stream at Ars Electronica ; the Austrian cultural, educational, and scientific institute. He asks: what is the role of art in the twenty-first century? and how may it be applied for the benefit of our future societies? To help answer this he makes a binary distinction between creativity in art and design:

Art creates creative questions and design creates the creative solutions [ 1 ].

Ogawa’s proposition re-defines a long-acknowledged contrast between art and design; by addressing creativity as a form of thinking, leading to two distinctly different outcomes. Analyzing the differences and similarities between these two disciplines could identify important breadth across the single term creativity. Such distinctions may also indicate how collaboration may contribute toward more diverse and complete creative outcomes. This knowledge is then applied to consider how creativity may develop across the digital and analog world.

8.2 Design Thinking

Ogawa outlines the considerable strength of design thinking to influence the world we live in, by providing solutions to problems, resulting in products and services that help navigate existence (Fig.  8.1 ).

Design Thinking is effective for creating and shaping creative solutions for the future [ 1 ].

https://ars.electronica.art/futurelab/en/research-art-thinking/ , reproduced with permissions

The closeness of design thinking to productivity is clear, design evolves the creative solutions, understanding and utilizing possibilities in order to produce products and services.

Design thinking as a creative method became a ubiquitous term in the 1990s, to describe the practical, cognitive, and strategic processes involved in developing design proposals. These processes include, context analysis and framing, ideation and solution generating, creative thinking, sketching and drawing, modeling, and prototyping and testing. They also involve evaluating ill-defined problems with solution focused strategies, and as such has often been an oversimplified route proxy for creative thinking [ 2 ].

However, Design Thinking is defined differently by different authors.

Brown (2008) defines it as “a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity [ 3 ]

and Leidtka and Ogilvie [ 4 ] frame design as “a systematic approach to problem solving. It starts with customers and the ability to create a better future for them”. The concept of artistic interventions has an inclusive definition by Berthoin Antal

bringing in people, practices, and products from the arts to help address issues their organizations are facing [ 5 ].

Design thinking has been criticized by Bruce Nussbaum [ 6 ] among others for its textbook methodology that promises quick fixes for organizations at the expense of genuine creativity. Critics argue that design thinking has stripped out the messiness of the creative process when conflict, failure, emotions, and constant repetition is at the very heart of the creative process. Through focusing only on what the user wants, there is a significant risk that we may not be asking the right questions.

8.3 Art Thinking

Art Thinking on the other hand, is a much more dispersed activity, adept at raising creative questions, at looking at problems from different angles to define a landscape and propose new strategies and approaches toward the future.

Well established forms of critical thinking are key to discovering creativity in art thinking. Creativity developed with critical understanding, supports creative artwork that has contextual resonance. The aim is not to offer definitive conclusions or answers but to raise questions and to bring into some focus the ever-changing cultural landscape. This complexity is defined by Ogawa

Art is a catalyst for shaping a better future society, a way to open up new perspectives, encourage curiosity to look at what is behind the scenes and to stimulate creative solutions. Art Thinking is a process of applying artistic thinking and an artful view to a broader range of challenges [ 7 ].

With this statement Ogawa acknowledges that the creativity embedded within the art object can be very different to a design object (Fig.  8.2 ). Creativity engaged in art thinking often deals with conjecture, presenting multiple viewpoints, sometimes simultaneously, posing fuzzy questions and offering incomplete possibilities.

This creativity produces cultural collateral whose aim is not determinative or ‘smart’, often placed not to solve specific questions, but grow them. This is a risky place for an economic system that predominantly searches for solutions, where success is to cultivate the investment in wealthy returns. For the artist, this form of creativity usually engages contextual referencing, indicating the conceptual landscape the artwork intends to engage with. Successful communication of this open form is completed by the viewer, with the professional critic playing a significant role, placing art thinking within a socially contextual and cultural milieu.

The creative reach of art thinking (the ability of the art object to engage large numbers of people) is difficult to predict, as its success depends on its contextual position within society, including the space and time of its encounter. Through art thinking, creativity can be activated in a way that can be shared within society, from origin to reception, referenced through culture, and relational to the social engagement of people. Relational engagement can draw people together socially across time and space, even traveling across cultural differences. Creativity here is operating in a most powerful and often unpredictable manner, it is often referred to as ‘soft power’ [ 8 ], having the ability to co-opt rather than coerce.

8.4 Case Study ‘ Till Rolls’ —Art Thinking Collaborating with Design Thinking

In 2008, the Towner Contemporary art gallery in Eastbourne, commissioned a large-scale installation for an exhibition named ‘ Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive ’ (2011). At the beginning, the installation was proposed as a creative concept, its existence was potential, on paper only, and it was proposed three years ahead of the gallery’s opening, even before the gallery building was constructed.

Till Rolls (Fig.  8.3 ) is a temporary sculptural installation, conceived to stand on a gridded footprint 5.7 m square, and reaching a height of 3 m at its highest point. It was made only from tightly packed rolls of paper, 10,000 of them. The paper rolls are manufactured for use in shop tills (cash machines) to store accounts and print receipts. It is a simple mechanism to record countless human interactions around trade, cataloging the exchange of goods for money. Each till roll occupied its own space on the floor in a grid system, 100 rows long and 100 rows wide (Fig.  8.4 ). To form the sculpture, the center of each till roll was extruded, lifted into the space above the grid. At different heights each till roll contributed to a rolling landscape, a three-dimensional graph configuring the hills and valleys of the space above the grid.

Townsley, J. Till Rolls. Material: 10,000 Cash register ‘Till’ rolls (2011), copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

Townsley, J. Till Rolls. Detail (2011), copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

To construct Till Rolls in the gallery space presented specific contingent problems. The installation time was to be only 4 days, allowing no opportunity for reflexive thinking within the creative process. These are important decisions on shape and form, art thinking traditionally solved in the privacy of the studio, through trial and error, and within the execution of the work. In this case, creative judgments must be addressed prior to the making process, while still at the proposal stage. A strategy was needed to ensure that the work would fulfill a specific pre-conceived structure and could be built in the short timeframe. Such problems often require collaboration across other disciplines such as engineering, science, or technology, requiring the skills of design thinking.

8.5 Design Thinking in Till Rolls

The next phase of Till Rolls offers a good example of simple collaborative creativity located within design thinking, employed to solve specific problems arising from art thinking. The design questions were:

How to build the work in only four days, considering the time it takes to manually extrude each of the 10,000 till rolls?

How to identify the height of each till roll and where to place it correctly within the sculpture’s gridded footprint, so that the correct pre-conceived shape of the whole installation could be realized?

How to empower a team of gallery assistants to work independently to construct the sculpture.

To help solve these problems a collaboration was formed with digital design specialist and Principal Lecturer, Dr. Ertu Unver (University of Huddersfield).

Dr. Unver was able to see that digital 3D polygon modeling tools could offer useful creative solutions [ 9 ]. The digital space has the advantage of providing a virtual place for creative comparison across potential outcomes. It enabled the artist to make critical and creative decisions toward realizing the final shape of the installation. These are fundamental decisions integral to sculptural practice. Using digital technology in this way formed a bridge between design thinking; to solve the concrete problem, and art thinking; enabling appropriate creative possibilities for the future sculptural form.

Once decisions about the final shape of the work were made, the polygon modeling program was able to capture the digital information in a way that could be reconfigured (Fig.  8.5 a). The whole digital sculpture was then cut into 100 slices which allowed the height and position of each of the 10,000 till rolls to be plotted onto two-dimensional graphs. Each graph, once printed, could be used as a map for construction in the gallery. The graph offered the location of each till roll along the bottom axis, while the vertical axis plotted its height in centimeters. This resulted in 100 graphs collectively articulating a floorplan for the whole work and helping to systemize the process of construction (Fig.  8.5 b).

a , b Townsley J. Till Rolls 3D polygon modeling screen shots using 3D Studio Max program (2011), copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

The graphs enabled a changing group of artists assistance, gallery volunteers and community groups, to work independently across each row, with the confidence that each till roll was extruded to the right height to form the sculpture, and then placed in the correct spot on the floor of the gallery (Fig.  8.6 ).

Townsley J. Till Rolls Row 39, Graph used to assist the building of Till Rolls (2011), copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

An important outcome from collaboration, across design and art thinking, was that this temporary artwork was organized with a procedural method that could be accurately repeated. Offering opportunities for the work to be rebuilt in different galleries and contexts (Venice Arsenale, Washington DC, Huddersfield Art Gallery).

The virtual object realized through a collaboration of art and design thinking, offered space for critical analysis pertinent to both art and design procedures. It also provided the systematic procedure for the construction of the work with artist, designer, digital specialist, gallery assistance, and public volunteers, all having an individual role within the authorship of the sculptural installation (Figs.  8.7 a, b, and 8.8 ).

a , b Townsley J. Installing Till Rolls at the Towner Art Gallery (2011), copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

Townsley J. Installing Till Rolls at the Venice Arsenale, Arte Laguna Prize (2013), Copyright © Jill Townsley, reproduced with permissions

8.6 Design Thinking and Art Thinking in the Technological Space

While the difference between art thinking and design thinking as defined by Ogawa is clear, there is also a coming together of art and design especially evident in digital technology. There are many creative examples of contemporary artists expanding their studios to include designers and artists working together. Technology companies have also expanded to broaden their skills to include both artists and designers with an understanding that each offer different forms of creativity.

Art thinking created the first iPhone; design thinking made it a manufacturable, cultural phenomenon [ 3 ].

In Ogawa’s model the value of creativity in design is its preoccupation with problem solving, in contrast to creative artistic interventions that are concerned with problem finding. This makes the discourses of creativity within technology subtly different too, with the separation between them not clearly defined in the single term. John Lasseter, formerly chief creative officer at Pixar, and now head of animation at Skydance Animation, describes the equation this way: “ Technology inspires art, and art challenges the technology ” [ 10 ].

To understand how to improve new products, feedback and critique is necessary, and this is where artistic thinking can help, as Jobs points out this happens very often across traditional disciplines.

It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing [ 11 ].

Art and design students practice critique often defined by the humanities or socially through worldly experience that enables them to develop their creative work. This connects them to a cultural context, a relational world that is always changing, always infinitely complex.

8.7 Conclusions

One way to address how creativity may operate across the analog and digital divide in the future, is to look at the way visual arts and artists engage different forms of creativity across different visual art disciplines today. The aim is to consider how creative process can generate social justice and produce cultural value [ 12 ].

Defining creativity as distinctly different in its action when applied across design or art practice is a useful tool to analyze. It is also relevant to understand how creativity supports critical thinking, and even how it can drive cultural change.

Ogawa provides us with a deeper understanding of the forms of creativity that may be appropriated, through collaborative means, to realize and construct contemporary artwork. While creativity is known to be integral to all artistic endeavor, artists are also increasingly collaborating with other disciplines to broaden the forms of creativity available to them. This enables artists to develop artwork fit for our highly interfaced and conceptually broad contemporary contexts. Often this produces artwork that can interact with technological development to help define our societal selves. Creativity can investigate our relationship to external and conceptual systems, such as time, temporality and how we experience creative communication from source to interpretation through reception.

The next chapter deals with contextual referencing and its fluidity within socially agreed cultural systems.

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Townsley, J. (2023). Art Thinking and Design Thinking. In: Creativity in Art, Design and Technology. Springer Series on Cultural Computing(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24869-6_8

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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

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A Crash Course in Critical Thinking

What you need to know—and read—about one of the essential skills needed today..

Posted April 8, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• In research for "A More Beautiful Question," I did a deep dive into the current crisis in critical thinking.
• Many people may think of themselves as critical thinkers, but they actually are not.
• Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you are thinking critically.

Conspiracy theories. Inability to distinguish facts from falsehoods. Widespread confusion about who and what to believe.

These are some of the hallmarks of the current crisis in critical thinking—which just might be the issue of our times. Because if people aren’t willing or able to think critically as they choose potential leaders, they’re apt to choose bad ones. And if they can’t judge whether the information they’re receiving is sound, they may follow faulty advice while ignoring recommendations that are science-based and solid (and perhaps life-saving).

Moreover, as a society, if we can’t think critically about the many serious challenges we face, it becomes more difficult to agree on what those challenges are—much less solve them.

On a personal level, critical thinking can enable you to make better everyday decisions. It can help you make sense of an increasingly complex and confusing world.

In the new expanded edition of my book A More Beautiful Question ( AMBQ ), I took a deep dive into critical thinking. Here are a few key things I learned.

First off, before you can get better at critical thinking, you should understand what it is. It’s not just about being a skeptic. When thinking critically, we are thoughtfully reasoning, evaluating, and making decisions based on evidence and logic. And—perhaps most important—while doing this, a critical thinker always strives to be open-minded and fair-minded . That’s not easy: It demands that you constantly question your assumptions and biases and that you always remain open to considering opposing views.

In today’s polarized environment, many people think of themselves as critical thinkers simply because they ask skeptical questions—often directed at, say, certain government policies or ideas espoused by those on the “other side” of the political divide. The problem is, they may not be asking these questions with an open mind or a willingness to fairly consider opposing views.

When people do this, they’re engaging in “weak-sense critical thinking”—a term popularized by the late Richard Paul, a co-founder of The Foundation for Critical Thinking . “Weak-sense critical thinking” means applying the tools and practices of critical thinking—questioning, investigating, evaluating—but with the sole purpose of confirming one’s own bias or serving an agenda.

In AMBQ , I lay out a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you’re thinking critically. Here are some of the questions to consider:

• Why do I believe what I believe?
• Are my views based on evidence?
• Have I fairly and thoughtfully considered differing viewpoints?
• Am I truly open to changing my mind?

Of course, becoming a better critical thinker is not as simple as just asking yourself a few questions. Critical thinking is a habit of mind that must be developed and strengthened over time. In effect, you must train yourself to think in a manner that is more effortful, aware, grounded, and balanced.

For those interested in giving themselves a crash course in critical thinking—something I did myself, as I was working on my book—I thought it might be helpful to share a list of some of the books that have shaped my own thinking on this subject. As a self-interested author, I naturally would suggest that you start with the new 10th-anniversary edition of A More Beautiful Question , but beyond that, here are the top eight critical-thinking books I’d recommend.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark , by Carl Sagan

This book simply must top the list, because the late scientist and author Carl Sagan continues to be such a bright shining light in the critical thinking universe. Chapter 12 includes the details on Sagan’s famous “baloney detection kit,” a collection of lessons and tips on how to deal with bogus arguments and logical fallacies.

Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results , by Shane Parrish

The creator of the Farnham Street website and host of the “Knowledge Project” podcast explains how to contend with biases and unconscious reactions so you can make better everyday decisions. It contains insights from many of the brilliant thinkers Shane has studied.

Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World , by David Robert Grimes

A brilliant, comprehensive 2021 book on critical thinking that, to my mind, hasn’t received nearly enough attention . The scientist Grimes dissects bad thinking, shows why it persists, and offers the tools to defeat it.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know , by Adam Grant

Intellectual humility—being willing to admit that you might be wrong—is what this book is primarily about. But Adam, the renowned Wharton psychology professor and bestselling author, takes the reader on a mind-opening journey with colorful stories and characters.

Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking , by David Pakman

The popular YouTuber and podcast host Pakman—normally known for talking politics —has written a terrific primer on critical thinking for children. The illustrated book presents critical thinking as a “superpower” that enables kids to unlock mysteries and dig for truth. (I also recommend Pakman’s second kids’ book called Think Like a Scientist .)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters , by Steven Pinker

The Harvard psychology professor Pinker tackles conspiracy theories head-on but also explores concepts involving risk/reward, probability and randomness, and correlation/causation. And if that strikes you as daunting, be assured that Pinker makes it lively and accessible.

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion , by David McRaney

David is a science writer who hosts the popular podcast “You Are Not So Smart” (and his ideas are featured in A More Beautiful Question ). His well-written book looks at ways you can actually get through to people who see the world very differently than you (hint: bludgeoning them with facts definitely won’t work).

A Healthy Democracy's Best Hope: Building the Critical Thinking Habit , by M Neil Browne and Chelsea Kulhanek

Neil Browne, author of the seminal Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, has been a pioneer in presenting critical thinking as a question-based approach to making sense of the world around us. His newest book, co-authored with Chelsea Kulhanek, breaks down critical thinking into “11 explosive questions”—including the “priors question” (which challenges us to question assumptions), the “evidence question” (focusing on how to evaluate and weigh evidence), and the “humility question” (which reminds us that a critical thinker must be humble enough to consider the possibility of being wrong).

Warren Berger is a longtime journalist and author of A More Beautiful Question .

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