Creativity is a tough one to define. Yet we couldn't and wouldn't exist without it. Can you increase your creativity or is it kind of set?
This video is well worth a look. It offers insights into research on creativity across a span of disciplines, including recent observations from neuroscience.
"Creativity has always been essential for our cultural growth, but there are still many misconceptions about this elusive process. Not the left-brain/right-brain binary that we've come to believe, being creative is considerably more complex, and requires a nuanced understanding of ourself and others. Being a powerful creative person involves letting go of preconceived notions of what an artist is, and discovering and inventing new processes that yield great ideas. Most importantly, creators must push forward, whether the light bulb illuminates or not."
These are interesting thoughts on the process of creativity. Preparation is a good first step and the right place to start, I think (certainly the most obvious anyway). Incubation makes sense too, in terms of allowing thoughts/ideas to seep into the mind and expand - and then to reach Illumination. I think we’re all familiar with that light-bulb or “a-ha!” moment. The last step too is really crucial, to shape a creative piece so that it suits a particular audience.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing I’ve read on creativity is less than two pages long and actually describes the process in a very dispassionate way. It basically boils down to ignoring self-criticism. For anyone interested, you’ll find the explanation on pp16-17 of the standard edition of Sigmund Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams”.
The uncertainty element is interesting and so is having the courage to sit in that state of mind. Award-winning playwright Harold Pinter claims that he never knows what the next piece of dialogue will be, as he writes.
Collaboration is really exciting, as is copy/transform/combine. It’s interesting that the most original we can be is to combine pre-existing ideas. This is most evident for me in the modern phenomenon of mixing genres, e.g. horror/fantasy, comedy/documentary, etc.
This is definitely an excellent blog for learning about neuroscience with regard to all kinds of things, such as nutrition, creativity, quantum physics, string theory, and the leading thoughts of key current and historic philosophers and scientists in this area. If it’s topical, it’s likely it will feature.