Paths of My Development in the CCT Program

This paper shows the development of a view of personal transformation and social transformation, and the creation of art that depicts that view through courses in the Critical and Creative Thinking program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The paper is a focus on the courses and their impact on the view and the associated art, rather than an analysis of the view and art. Since the program is centered around critical and creative thinking, the paper also describes how thinking in critical and creative ways benefits a project of vision and art. Self-reflection is also an important component of the program, and that activity finds its way into the development of the view as well. A summary of the view of personal and social transformation is provided, as well as a summary of the digital art and comic art that depicts it. The paper finishes with a description of the expected audiences, and the envisaged steps to move that view and art forward. The purpose of the paper is to be more than a description of how a view of personal and social change, and its associated art, could be created in a specific academic program. The creation of that view and art could occur in other programs and arise in informal situations as well. The steps and process shown in this paper are provided as examples of ways of developing a view and creating art that depicts it. The paper does not build an argument for a specific path for a view or for art. Instead, it describes a landscape where spaces of critical thinking and creative perspectives existed to enable a critical view and a creative art to arise