_The other day I read about a recent study that looked at what factors influence students' academic performance. While being conscientious played an obvious role, what surprised researchers was the importance of curiosity. The study describes curiosity as a hunger for exploration. I often find that creating art is often fuelled by this kind of 'hunger' either as a way to answer nagging questions or to solve problems.
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image source: www.last.fm
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Someone who I think of as a curious artist is conductor Lawrence “Butch” Morris.  In an interview, click here to watch, Morris discusses what he calls conduction where he communicates with the orchestra using improvised gestures rather than relying on sheet music. The resulting music becomes an exploration of each musician’s own unique musical style. This kind of risk taking where the result is unknown can be unfamiliar territory for some of the musicians. For example at 2:35 of the video Morris tells one musician to pick a note when she states that the music they are playing is not how it was written.



So what do you think, do schools encourage enough curiosity in their students?




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