Creativity

Creativity seems to come from nowhere and everywhere in the mind -- a kind of ineffable place where wonderful somethings are made out of nothing.

This strange phenomenon often leads artists to believe in some kind of higher power or force, or to inspire a sense of wonder.

See intercourse for William Gibson's definition.

Like everything else, it can be learned and taught, but this is not simple. And with all learning, it is more a matter of acquiring the ability to look at a problem in a different way rather than memorization of fact.

1. The word 'create' means bringing into being something new. But there are too many people just adding junk, or messes. Too many cute little Goths writing poetry that's been written before, too many aspiring painters who think it's creative to copy someone else's painting. That's not creative; it's actually the complete opposite. It's just that `poetry' and `painting' are known as `creative fields'. But simply because you dabble in them does not make you creative. It's not creative if it's been done.

   So we must add to the definition "bringing into being something new", the phrase "...and of value". This covers artistic creativity. Yet still, many artists are not creative in the sense of 'change'. It becomes difficult to make progress when we are linked to the artistic model every time we talk about creativity. This is one of the reasons why de Bono invented the term 'lateral thinking' in 1967. (Lateral thinking is concerned with changing concepts and perceptions).

2. Creativity has become in this new age a key skill that is required more and more so. Most people have not noticed but we are already moving out of the information age and into the "concept age" or "idea age". Concepts are the 'genes' of ideas. There was a time when information was the bottleneck. Now we can get all the information we want, but that does not create value unless there is a specific need. The new bottleneck is `thinking', and creative thinking in particular. Progress in technology will provide very little increase in value. Technology is already way ahead of the value we ask it to provide. The emphasis is beginning to shift to value concepts. We need to develop the value concepts directly. Technology can then make them happen. Yet we spend millions of dollars and hours of thinking time on technology when the key area of value creation is largely neglected. It is deliberate creativity that will fashion the value concepts we so badly need.

3. Traditional brainstorming is very weak and more useful in the advertising world than elsewhere. Its very existence has prevented us from making progress in serious creativity. Edward de Bono has an interesting analogy:

   "An ordinary person is walking along a road. Someone ties that person up tightly with a rope. A violin is now produced. The tied up person cannot possibly play the violin. So we cut the rope. Does that make the person a violinist? Of course not. Yet that is precisely what we have done about creativity for the last fifty years. We have believed that if a person is inhibited then that person cannot be creative. So if we liberated that person (brainstorming) then creativity would follow. This is no more logical than expecting the untied person to become a violinist."

4. There exists a belief that some people are born creative and others can only envy them. This is ridiculous. Creativity is a skill which anybody can acquire once they set their minds towards doing so. Creativity is not a mystifying talent or divine inspiration. It is the operation of information in a self-organising information system which forms asymmetric patterns. Once we understand this then we can build deliberate tools of creativity. These are the tools of lateral thinking such as: provocation, random entry etc.

5. It is necessary to distinguish between creativity and 'crazitivity'. Far too many people believe that being zany and off-the-wall instantly means they are being creative. But while painting your face crazy colours may be unusual, it is certainly not creative, or useful. This is "show off" creativity, advocated by those who have a motivation to be creative but do not know how. Any creative idea is new and different. So people automatically assume that any different idea is creative. But difference is easy and may have little or no value.

"Think outside the box."

Normal:
       


     #############
     #           #
     #  YOU ARE  #    The good stuff is here
     #   HERE    #
     #           #
     #           #
     #############

Creative:
       


     #############
     #           #
     #   THINK   #    You are here
     #  YOU ARE  #    You want to be here
     #    HERE   #    You leave so you can get here
     #           #
     #############
                      

You end somewhere entirely different, perhaps over there

There are no doubt numerous ways one can look at creativity. Some people see creativity as a synthesis of old forms, arising from some inexplicable place. Others view creativity as the ability to think outside the box. Yet others see creativity as merely the process of change. Creativity makes use of the fact that the map is not the territory in order to create new maps of reality.

Between all of these perspectives there are three constants:

• Putting things together
• Taking things apart
• Keeping things the same

• Brahma, the God of Creation
• Shiva, the God of Destruction
• Vishnu, the God of Sustenance

Hegel's Theory of Dialectic contains these elements as well: "thesis-antithesis-synthesis"

From the perspective of thermodynamics, entropy is always increasing in the universe. When order is increased somewhere, it must decrease somewhere else. When something is put together, something else must be taken apart. When something is 'created', something else must be destroyed.

It is therefore that I propose that Creativity, in its traditional sense, can be defined as the process of taking something apart and putting something else together out its constituent elements or new elements.

Anything can be taken apart. A physical object can be deconstructed and rearranged in a new way. A world-view, paradigm, idea, belief system, etc. can be broken down and give way to the building up of a new world-view, paradigm, idea, etc. When an old way of thinking is deconstructed and something new is constructed to take its place, this is creativity.

Creativity strategy:

Psychologists using the model of Neurolinguistic Programming have developed the following cognitive model for creativity by studying the process Walt Disney used in his creative endeavors.

1. Step one: Make three circles on the floor using three different colors.
2. Step two: Label one circle "fantasy", label one circle "criticism" and label the last circle "realistic".
3. Step three: Step into the fantasy circle and allow your thoughts to wander to the fantastic. There's no need to judge any idea, simply let the ideas flow freely without stopping or constricting them. Step out of the circle and write down your ideas.
4. Step four: Step into the criticism circle and allow yourself to objectively critique the ideas from this place. What is good about it? What is bad about it? How will people receive this idea? Step out of the circle and write down your criticisms.
5. Step five: Step into the realistic circle and ask yourself how this can be translated into the real world, and if it can be translated into the real world. Step out of the circle and record your thoughts.
6. Step six: Take steps to complete your project using your new perspectives.

Creativity is the ability to combine things in a way no one else has ever thought of before.