Proximity, wisdom and creativity.

I was invited by the editors to provide a single-authored chapter introducing new arguments, to debates on creativity, that come quite specifically from the sorts of perspective established by ResCen: the role of proximity, fostered systematically by ResCen's long-term engagement with six renowned, mid-career artists, is vital in activating both their own creativity, and enabling them to pursue and articulate the wisdom that accrues to it. The requirement that ResCen artists reflect systematically and as a group on process and archive their reflections on their own processes, equally allows us to explore and enquire into the role of group creativity in performing arts practice as research. The chapter responds to a selection of themes addressed by the authors, and respondants include Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose own enquiry into creativity is of fundamental importance to the field.