Improv ...

As a former jazz/rock musican and currently practicing artist, the excellent Nautilus article discussing the neurology of flow states regarding the creative process is spot on as one does NOT THINK when creating anything of significance. Ask any artist what she is thinking when doing the deed and one will most often find the answer to be "nothing" as improv does this to you. After the fact is a different story  altogether as defining the end result of a given work of art, whether it be a painting, video or the making of an awesome souffle, is easy, at least to this rube who has been creating art for over 50 years. 

Don’t look at the clock! Now tell me: How much time has passed since you first logged on to your computer today? Time may be a property of physics, but it is also a property of the mind, which ultimately makes it a product of the brain. Time measures out and shapes our lives, and how we live our lives in turn affects how we perceive the passage of time. Your sense of time is malleable and subjective—it changes in response to changing contexts and input, and it can be distorted when the brain is damaged, or affected by drugs, disease, sleep deprivation, or naturally altered states of consciousness. However, a new set of neuroscience research findings suggests that losing track of time is also intimately bound up with creativity, beauty, and rapture.

During what psychologists call “flow states,” where one is completely immersed and absorbed in a mental or physical act, people often report an altered sense of time, place, and self. It’s a transportive and pleasurable experience that people seek to achieve, and that neuroscience is now seeking to understand. A great example of flow state is found in many improvised art forms, from music to acting to comedy to poetry, also known as “spontaneous creativity.” Improvisation is a highly complex form of creative behavior that justly inspires our awe and admiration. The ability to improvise requires cognitive flexibility, divergent thinking and discipline-specific skills, and it improves with training.

Exactly :)

Arizona Moonrise