**4. Creative practice and STEM**

In Eliot [9] stated that 'Art required a form which could impose order and meaning on experience.' He goes on to say that '… all art emulates the condition of ritual'; however, this understanding of art as form and cohesion is challenged by outsider practices such as Art Brut. In Peter Shukie's pedagogical practice as a teacher educator [22]. Peter removes any kind of order in his classroom to allow for 'artistic expression' using raw art. Shukie describes art practice as enacting an 'alternate psychic reality' and questions 'what happens when the foundations of normality are removed' (n.p.). It is interesting to consider this as another state of mind or a process of flow [23], where the loss of inhibitions is neither conscious nor sub/unconscious. Within this state can lie a wealth of creativity, innovation and a sheer sense of being, becoming, and thriving. Some of the great artists such as Van Gogh had mental health issues yet produced work of great artistic talent. Keats in his poem 'Ode to Psyche' describes this as an 'untrodden region of my mind, where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain…And in the midst of this quietness… A rosy sanctuary I will dress.' It is within this level of mind where we lose all barriers and restrictions that we experience total freedom of thought and senses and 'face our own intuitive sense.' Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the 'cosmic artisan' reflects this experience of becoming 'otherworldly,' via informal, creative acts which are undertaken in community. They suggest that this melding together of art, philosophy and science can enable new modes of being in the world: 'In this submersion it seems that there is extracted from chaos the shadow of the 'people to come' in the form that art, but also philosophy and science, summon forth…' ([17], p. 218).

The importance of engaging the 'landscape of the mind' and realising its holistic benefits is eloquently and beautifully illustrated in 'The Queen's Gambit'; a fictional but powerful drama about a girl called Beth growing up in a 1950s orphanage. Whilst dealing with childhood trauma and battling addiction, Beth is determined to learn

chess and ultimately become a World Chess Champion. The social scenes in the film in which the janitor is teaching Beth chess depicts the distributed and relational aspect of learning within the conscious mind. However, Beth also has an addiction to sleeping drugs whereby her delusional mind allows her to visualise the chess board and create moves, allowing winning formulations and connections to be made. The technique used to demonstrate this in the film, where the chess board appears on the ceiling and moves take place, is an excellent way to show what Keats describes as the 'untrodden region of my mind, where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain'; that is, the delusional yet creative subconscious. Additionally, it supports the idea that in this uninhibited mind space we can be ultimately creative and find our true selves. Seeking out such spaces can be difficult within time-bound learning environments, but nevertheless moments of flow; that is, complete absorption in joyful activity, should continue to be encouraged and elevated once experienced.
