The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

As the age of sixteen, Albert Einstein pictured himself zooming alongside a beam of light -- an act of imagination that led to one of the greatest breakthroughs of the 20th century. Many physicists and inventors have used the mind's eye as a kind of internal theater or laboratory. Can we writers borrow their techniques to tell better stories? In this seminar on the science of creativity, we will find out about the mind's eye from masters like Einstein, Galileo, and Tesla. We will also delve into the evidence from psychology and cognitive-science studies to answer the questions that bedevil writers. How do we conjure the vivid fantasies that lead to great scenes? And why does the mental screen "go blank" sometimes? As part of this seminar, we will perform in-class experiments that reveal how the imagination works -- and why it fails.

The session may include a guest visit from a prominent expert in brain science and creativity.