The Art and Science of Building a Creative Process with Jamie Blume & Zach Morris
In this 4-part workshop, explore the artistic and scientific components to building a sustainable creative process and begin putting it into practice.
Course Description
Creativity is abstract, and for many of us, pretty elusive. In this course, we’ll dissect the process behind the creative process, exploring commonalities between creative practices across disciplines. Alongside clinical psychologist Dr. Jamie Blume and immersive theater director Zach Morris, we’ll integrate principles from their expertises to articulate and enact step-by-step plans to bring a big creative undertaking to fruition—whether that’s writing a screenplay, learning to sing, finishing that portrait, or performing a monologue. By the end of the course, students will have a concrete plan to achieve one of their artistic goals, as well as practices to help make their creative processes smoother and more sustainable in the future.Â
Syllabus At A Glance
This course includes four total sessions each lasting for 1.5 hours on consecutive Wednesdays starting May 15.
Session 1 (Wednesday, 5/15, 8–9:30 PM ET): Visions, Goals, and Functions
We’ll delve into the arc of the creative process, explore the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying creativity and goal-making, and begin articulating the specific goal we’re each working toward in our creative process.
Session 2 (Wednesday, 5/22, 8–9:30 PM ET): Making Blueprints, Laying Foundations, and Breaking Down Complex Behaviors
We’ll review the homework and dive into understanding behaviors throughout a practice. This will aid us in breaking down our goals into a refined blueprint while beginning to prioritize which component behaviors should be addressed first, second, etc.
Session 3 (Wednesday, 5/29, 8–9:30 PM ET): Building Toward our Goal, Behavioral Chains, and the Power of Reinforcers
We’ll turn our attention to examining and tackling the antecedents that exist for us as we begin these processes, as well as common hurdles that come up, and consequences that might either motivate or discourage us from continuing our practice. We’ll leave this session with a mindfully and tactfully chosen first step to execute!Â
Session 4 (Wednesday, 6/5, 8–9:30 PM ET): Checking Your Hypothesis, Iterating on the Blueprint, and Next Steps
We’ll check in on how everyone’s ABC chain went, discuss challenges, discover ways that revision is fundamental, and talk through the next steps in our behavior/practice plans. We’ll wrap up by exploring how these techniques can be employed in various facets of our daily lives.
Between Sessions
Outside of class, students will be given short assignments (20–30 minutes) to help take concepts from class and put them into practice.
Pricing Options
In addition to full-price tickets, a limited number of no-pay spots are available for this course. Please note that these tickets are reserved for those who would not otherwise be able to take this course and who expect to attend all sessions. No-pay spots are distributed via a randomized drawing two weeks before each course begins. For more information and to apply for a no-pay spot, please click here. To learn more about our pricing model and randomized selection process for no-pay spots, please visit our FAQ page.
Community Guidelines for Students
Please take a moment to review our community guidelines for students, which aim to share our classroom ethos and help set the stage for the best possible learning experience.
Atlas Obscura Online Course
Atlas Obscura Courses offer opportunities for participants to emerge with new skills, knowledge, connections, and perspectives through multi-session classes designed and taught by expert instructors. To learn more about our current course offerings, please visit www.atlasobscura.com/online-courses. For answers to commonly asked questions, check out our FAQ page here.
Founded in 2009, Atlas Obscura created the definitive community-driven guide to incredible places across the planet and is now an award-winning company that shares the world’s hidden wonders in person and online.
Once registered, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite that will provide access to each class meeting. Please save the confirmation email as you’ll use it to access all sessions of your course via Zoom.
Jamie Blume (she/her/hers) is a licensed clinical psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Her primary interests include: multidisciplinary assessments to evaluate developmental and behavioral conditions in children and adolescents; parent training in principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA); and consultation and training of other developmental therapists to utilize ABA principles to improve effectiveness of therapies for all developmental conditions. She spends her free time adventuring in the High Rockies of Colorado where she applies the ABA technology to her own life as an avid athlete and competitor.Â
Dr. Blume earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, summa cum laude, from the University of Central Florida in 2004. She completed her graduate training in 2011 at Adler University in Chicago, IL, where she earned her Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology and her Doctorate of Psychology in Clinical Psychology. She completed her postdoctoral training at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where she became faculty in Developmental Pediatrics after becoming licensed in 2012. She then completed coursework in Behavior Analysis in 2019 and became a BCBA in 2021.Â
Zach Morris (he/him/his) is a director, choreographer, writer, visual artist and Co-Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Third Rail Projects. Zach is co-creator of the immersive theater hits Then She Fell, The Grand Paradise, Sweet & Lucky with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater’s Claire Tow Theater, among others. Zach's work includes theater, dance, site-specific performance, multimedia installation art/environments, and he is particularly interested in how all of these can intersect with audience-centered experiential gatherings. Zach has been honored with numerous awards, including a Chita Rivera award, two BESSIE awards; projects he has collaborated on have garnered a Drama Desk Nomination, a Peabody Award, and an Emmy Award. His work has been presented nationally and internationally with the support of numerous grants, commissions, and residencies, and he has had the pleasure of teaching, mentoring, and creating new platforms to support the work of artists at home and abroad. Zach holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.
This is an interactive, small-group seminar that meets over Zoom. Students may be encouraged to participate in discussions, work on assignments outside of class, and workshop projects with their instructor or classmates. Due to the interactive nature of this course, we strongly recommend students attend as many live sessions as possible. Within 72 hours after each session meets, students will receive access to a recording of the live session, which they can watch for up to two weeks after the course concludes.Â
Instructors may use Google Classroom to communicate with students outside of class. While students aren’t required to use Google Classroom, instructors may use this platform to post resources, discussion questions, or assignments. This platform also offers a space for students to connect with one another about course material between sessions.
We provide closed captioning for all of our courses and can share transcripts upon request. Please reach out to us at experiences@atlasobscura.com if you have any questions, requests, or accessibility needs.
There are 35 spots available on this experience.
