Mumtaz Maricar

MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice

Mumtaz is an art educator, visual artist and art director with 26 years of experience within the various fields. She is interested in thoughts, sensations, incidences and events that present the body and mind as sites of transgression, negotiation, rebellion and potential revelation. Not to be quick in reaching out for the comfort of well-demarcated areas in perception, she is far more intrigued by covert moments that shift with ease between the grey regions of observation, experience and moments of sublimation.

As a synesthete, her works explore sound, consciousness and the formation of memories through the lens of synaesthesia. Mumtaz is passionate about continuing her research on art-making and its link to creative trance states of consciousness, building methodologies that can be employed to guide artists into entering a creative trance in order to access their consciousness, derive inspiration and create authentic, soulful and innovative art.

mumtaz.maricar@yahoo.com

Work

Teaching philosophy and research interests

As an art educator, I firmly believe in learning via embodiment and through accessing various states of consciousness. I engages students through what I call "learning via discomfort and unpredictability". Getting students to step out of their comfort zones in a well-scaffolded manner immediately flips the switch for learning which familiarity does not deliver.

I enjoy exploring cross-disciplinary methodologies, the use of various environments and the element of surprise in order to engage my students and help them retain new information and experiences. I am passionate about continuing her research on creative trance states of consciousness, cognitive psychology and embodied learning.

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Thesis abstract

Art-making and inspiration through creative trance

I have always had a love-hate relationship with painting. Conceptualising an artwork, creating studies or researching was never an issue. Neither were my technical abilities. It was the point where I picked up the brush to paint that I would more often than not freeze over. Getting into the zone of creating was never taught to us in art school. With countless examples of artists inducing and entering creative trance states in order to produce meaningful and original artworks evident throughout history, why then has this not been explored in art curricula and taught to students?

There is a lack of acceptance within the art academic community that true inspiration comes from possessing the ability to tap out of the material reality that we believe governs our physically limited world, and seamlessly tap into the act of accessing an inner consciousness led by entering a creative trance where inspiration and freedom of expression reside. Possessing the ability to do so is an all important aspect of art-making which needs to be addressed and included as part of curriculum.

Can an exploration of pedagogical methodologies that combines sonic vibrations and blind automatic drawing, induce a creative trance state for visual artists? The purpose of this research is to explore if interventions based on listening to sonic vibrations in the form of binaural beats, coupled with blind automatic drawing, can entrain the brain of visual artists who suffer from creative anxiety into inducing a creative trance state, providing a route towards inspiration gained via spiritual contact of the artist’s consciousness and opening the path towards optimal outcomes in their art-making process.

Work experience

2002 – present
Freelance art educator

2002 – present
Costume designer for television and theatre

2001 – present
Art director for film and television