What is Creativity?

[Mandy Lawrence]

I wanted to respond to the previous post but in order to do that I had to start a new discussion. I don't see this as a new discussion but a continuation on the theme.

Somebody once asked Kurt Cobain what his influences were and he said everything.

I thought that was simple and profound at the same time.

Creativity, well for me it is having something inside me that needs to get out and it comes out through my writing or through developing on an idea by taking images in my head (or words) drawing or getting images and messing about with them on photoshop and linking the image to a saying or a slogan. Sometimes the process of creating is more rewarding than the end result and sometimes the end result is so different from the starting point. But the journey is mostly positive even if it cojmes from anger or frustration...because ultimately the feelings and thoughts have found some means of expression other than internalisation.

But that is how it takes me! I would like to find out how it takes others.

[Jill]

I am not sure about all this really. Can the answer to 'What is creativity' really be 'everything'? What about filling in a tax form or cleaning the loo! Surely they can't be included for a start! Then there is the matter of being a consumer and buying things rather than making them or sitting back and watching something others have created whether it is a film or a soap or even a football match. Surely that is being passive and consuming rather than being creative?
Maybe I am being too fussy but I am sure there must be somethings that creativity isn't as well as a lot of things that it includes.
One things that is definitely not creative is any attempts I have made at art! When I have been manic I have been driven to draw and paint things. But they always look like rubbish afterwards in the cold light of sanity. I have also had many urges to write things that make a great deal of sense when I am mad and afterwards find they are nonsense! But I do believe I have got some creativity in the form of ideas that come into my head and build into plans for projects like this Creative Cafe. But I have no idea how or why I get these ideas. They just seem to appear in my mind from nowhere.
Anyway I don't think I can go along with Curt and the everything theory of Creativity but perhaps you can still convince me!

[Cathy]

new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts.

For me to be creative is to have an idea or concept and communicate or express this. That is such a short definition but is probably all I need to add. To me it is an essential part of my life and one that when it at times deserts me leaves me feeling bereft and lonely - as long as I can create something I know that I am living, breathing and exist in some meaningful way.

[Ed Kaitz]

You raise legitimate poinst Jill, and I do not know what was in Kurt's mind when he said that. It sounds to me, like in your understanding, creativity is an act, a "doing" rather than a "receptivity" or state of Being. And I think you are right in the generally accepted way of talking. I'm sort of metaphysically/philosophically oriented and so I take the perspective that Consciousness itself, or rather lets just say "Basic Awareness" or "Conscious Being" is primal creativity. I feel the natural mode of Being in the world, before all the conceptual filters are taught or thrown upon us, is like what babies have, is basic creatvity..

I appreciate concerns that what I am saying is NOT of utility to others out there, including yourself, who want a more pragmatic definition based on "doing" and manifesting "ideas" or "visions" that arise in our head, our imagination.

In alignment with that, I bring up Carl Jung, the Collective Unconscious, and the notion that "all thoughts, ideas, imaginings ALREADY EXIST and are floating around in a eternal collective soup of possibility, and that we, through our conscious and subconsicous mental activities suddenly "latch onto" one of these ideas, make it ours, and makie it real in the physical world on Earth.

This raises the old question of "The Muse" and is one take on that? Anyone else want to share a take on where those Creative Dreams come from?

Ed

[Katherine Haynes]

Creativity does not require the end result to be any good! To be creative is to have ideas and follow them through to wherever they take you. I think it also covers those who have ideas but commission others to carry them out. To be able to follow these orders is not necessarily creative - to follow blindly is not creative, to contribute ideas about how to make it better or to see a problem and find a way round it is, as is seeing an unsual way of doing things. Creativity is about ideas and inginuity - not doing the standard thing (in my oppinion anyway).

Including the quote from Cobain is a nice anecdote, but not really talking about the same thing. - I agree completely that everything and anything has the potential to inspire (cleaning the loo could inspire someone to invent a self cleaning model), but inspiration is not the same as creativity it mearly leads to it. (It's the beginning of the journey and creativity is the middle)

Hmm should of read down to the bottom of the page first as others have already said most of that.

In respose to Ed (who has clearly done quite a bit of thinking about this). I am reluctant to accept Carl Jung's theory as it takes the credit away from the person creating, the human brain is an amazing thing and should not be underestimated. The potential inspiration is certainly floating about, but the creativity comes from linking thoughts and saying "what if...?" till you arrive at something you're happy with.

[Mandy Lawrence]

Thanks to Cathy and Jill for your posts.

I don't want to change anyone's mind about how they view creativity and much as I adore Kurt, I think that was his view not a view everyone should have.

I guess creativity is a very personal thing although everyone (I think) has the capacity to create. That is what is so great about it.

And I love Cathy's photos. xxxx

[Ed Kaitz]

Hi Sue, thanks for your comments. I took the liberty of responding to you, even though I havent viewed your page, and perhaps thats not smart. Here what I had to say, and I will look at your page after.

Stimulation of thought, discussion or action. I guess we're doing that here! Sure, in that view I can see that creativity can initiate unhealthy, harmful or "bad" actions, say. But the one stimulated is bringing something to the picture, a response to the "idea" that stimulated them. That response may partially be due to unresolved emotions in the here and now, left over remmants of traumatic experience, or many other things. If anger or hatred is part of the response, yeah, a murder could be the result of the stimulation, and I take that as a bad thing.

But, it sounds like you're generally meaining stimulated in a good way? Is that correct?


Ed

[Jill]

I watched the video of this speech and thought it was interesting. Here is the link:

http://terileavens.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/importance-of-creativity/


Sir Ken Robinson spoke at the TED Conference in 2006 and provided a very moving speech regarding the importance of creativity in society. Here are some of the highlights:

Kids beginning school now will retire in 2065. We cannot predict the world 5 years from now, let alone in the next 50 years when they will be in the workforce. We need to give them the tools to accommodate all the changes that will take place.
Public school systems were not created until the 19th century, when they needed to meet the needs of industrialization. The world has changed in the last century.
More people will be graduating from public education in the next 30 years than throughout all of history.
Three points about intelligence: it is Diverse, thinking occurs in a variety of forms…visually, kinesthetically etc.; it is Dynamic, the brain is extremely interactive, and Distinct.
Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. Original ideas come from not fearing failure. The current system instills a fear of failure.
“If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no one hears him, is he still wrong?” ~ t-shirt
Education’s tasks should be to educate the whole person.