What is creativity? and How can creativity A SMALL be nurtured? PRESENTATION KENDALL JONES MARCH 2018
KEN ROBINSON Sir Kenneth (Ken) Robinson is a British author who spoke about the true meaning behind creativity, “a lot of people conflate creativity with the arts”. Ken begins on the misconceptions of creativity and how people associate the word and its meaning to being artistic, which he argues is not always the case, “creativity is not a synonym for the arts”, meaning art is not the singular depiction of what creativity is. Ken begun breaking down the word into three actions, “imagination, creativity and innovation”. These are three key words used in order to describe creativity starting with imagination, “Imagination is the ability to bring to mind things that aren’t present to our senses”. This shows that we use our imagination to think of solutions or even ponder ideas, “you can anticipate, you can hypothesize, you can speculate”. Ken talks about the ability to imagine is to think back
in the past, the future and even sometimes predict the future, though this is never usually accurate. This is where creativity kicks in and allows you to develop your imagination further, Ken mentions “Creativity is putting your mind to work”. You begin a creative process after having imagined the possible outcomes or thought of a solution, “to be creative you have to something, to be imaginative you don’t”. This means that when thinking creatively, you are actively seeking solutions or coming up with ideas as opposed to imagining possible outcomes you are extricating the creative process. The third action is innovation and Ken mentions “innovation is then putting good ideas into practice”. Once your idea has been sought out you begin a process where you are reinforcing your creative ideas. A misconception in creativity is often that where only special people are
creative, Ken argues this point, “creativity is not just a set of capacities it depends on a very wide-ranging set of practical abilities that we don’t all cultivate” Ken mentions asking people whether they are creative they think you mean artistic, “you can be creative in whatever that engages human intelligence and imagination”. All creatives develop their skills further with continuous practice, “Creativity is not the opposite, it’s not antipathetic to skills or understanding to particular disciplines in fact it depends upon them”. Ken begins to simplify creativity by mentioning its value, “creativity as we define it is the process of having original ideas that have value. The process of having original ideas that have value.” To hold creative value means to work towards a solution that is valued by the viewer/audience. Ken talks about a creative process and where creatives
find themselves at the end of the journey, “often, the idea that we end up with or the piece of work we end up with during the course of creative process is not the one that we had in mind when we started out, it’s an evolutionary process”. This means that we apply critical judgements to our thought process and our personal development, “there’s a constant process of interrogation which wraps itself around it saying, ‘is this worthwhile’, ‘is this working?’”. After having come to this solution, we return to innovation and why it becomes useful within the creative process, “Innovation has to be judged by appropriate values and judging what those values are as part of the process of creative education”.
LINDA NAIMAN
WHAT IF CREATIVITY ISN’T ABOUT THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX? WHAT IF CREATIVITY INVOLVES THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT THE BOX? - JOHN SPENCER According to Linda Naiman, “Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality”. This idea stems from having an interest in your surroundings; “creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in new ways”. Naiman talks about how we seek out ideas and reasons for something that could help us solve problems we wouldn’t normally think existed. Naiman simplifies the meaning of creativity as two processes: “thinking, then producing”, this means we will follow a mental process which will allow us to come up with a
HOW CAN CREATIVITY BE NURTURED? To me, creativity is a term narrowed down to its simplest single word “invent”. Invention is a term used to describe the coming together of an idea or concept, the building completion where creativity could be the glue holding it together. Creativity however, delves deeper than the word it portrays. The means of creating something is finding a solution to a problem, no matter how big or small. No matter how important. As we approach this difficult question, I find myself in a predicament where I am met by many other creatives, sometimes even the most experienced fall into this question, how can creativity be nurtured? When I approached my grandmother one afternoon I was overwhelmed by the paths my life could lead me. One thing I knew for certain was that I wanted to pursue a creative lifestyle surrounded by artists and inspiration however, I could not find the creative within me to do this. My grandmother came out with an idea for a lifestyle challenge; to dream. Professor Rafis Abazov wrote an article about developing your creative mind and one of his points was to “practice dreaming”. This should not be taken too literally. Creatives who seek inspiration and new ideas will follow a ‘dream’ method where they have a specific activity or ‘zen’ where their minds are free to wonder. When my grandmother told me to practice dreaming I knew that I was not allowing myself enough time to be in a creative headspace and therefore was not able to relate to the world of creativity.
DAVID KELLEY
David Kelley spoke about the act of ‘Self efficacy’, a term used by psychologist Albert Bandura. Self-efficacy is described as “the sense that you can change the world and that you can attain what you set out to do”.
David took this method into his creative context and mentioned, “if you don’t say the right creative things you’re going to be judged”. Many people from a young age begin to believe they are incapable of being creative because someone in their class had David talked about how better drawing skills than they Bandura helped his clients in did, or they were ridiculed for overcoming a fear or phobia the artwork they had produced by gently exposing them to the because it did not convey what very thing they were afraid of the child was trying to, “if you for example, snakes. didn’t let people divide the world into the creatives and
Youtuber, Vanessa Hill talks about the psychological association with creativity and where we discover ourselves as artists, “We found you don’t just use the left or right hemisphere of your brain to think creatively”. A speculation say more creative people will be in touch with a side of their brain which allows more creative though process, therefore those who do not have access to those parts will not be able to use creative thinking, “Professional artists suffering from damage to different brain regions continue to produce art showing similar creativity”. This does not mean those who are not artists cannot be creative in fact
is the opposite, “Humans spend on average 30% of our day engaged in mind wondering, a lot of these studies say that mind wondering helps get our creativity flowing”. Though we may use our creative minds to problem solve and come up with innovative ideas, there is a biological factor which could add to our creative abilities, Vanessa mentions some people are born with “extra copy of the glucose mutarotase gene” which releases serotonin in the brain that “promotes neuro connections”. This means genetically you are more likely to thrive in subjects such as music or art. This does not mean
JULIE BURSTEIN
the non-creatives like it’s some god given thing and have people realise that they are naturally creative and those natural people should let their ideas fly”. The idea from this is that we should acknowledge creativity is for everyone who is willing to open up to it without the fear of rejection or humiliation, “Reach a place of creative confidence and touch the snake”.
however, that creativity cannot be trained. Artists who refine their skill over the course of many years will still find it easier to follow out a creative thought process than those who were born with the biological advantage.
‘NESSY HILL
Julie Burstein spoke about how being creative is a developing factor to everyday life, “I realised that creativity grows out of every day experiences more often than you might think including letting go”. The act of letting go is how Julie describes moving on from things you cannot control in order to allow your mind the space it needs to bring on the next challenge.
also grows from the broken places”. When we are faced with a situation we cannot control it frightens us because we fear the inevitable, but this can spark creativity in unexpected ways, “being open to the experience that might change you”.
PHIL HANSEN
Phil Hansen suffers from permanent nerve damage due to his previous continuous practice of pointillism art. This nerve damage is what Phil refers to as the “shake”. His nerve damage worsened the more he tried to draw until eventually he chose to withdraw from art completely. Phil spoke at a Ted conference in 2013 about how his shake limited his creativity and how he felt compromised when trying to be an artist, “Embracing limitation could actually drive creativity”. Phil expresses his appreciation for this shake because it allowed him to reach new levels of creativity, “If I ever wanted my creativity back I had to quit trying so hard to think outside the box and get back into it”. This means going back to the beginning to find what it is that sparked that creative drive and look at new ways to create with these preexisting limitations, “We need to first be limited in order to become limitless”. Phil moved on to a new art form called Goodbye Art which included a series of artwork he had produced using matchsticks, food and tea lights. The concept behind this movement was to create something he could not hold on to, “As I destroyed each project I was learning to let go. Let go of outcomes let go of failures and let go of imperfections”.
the limits of what they can do sometimes pushing into what they can’t do helps them focus on finding their own voice”.
When we challenge ourselves creatively, we will find that some things we thought we couldn’t do Too often we follow what is expected were in fact things we were best at of us. If we want to become artists all along, “experience and challenge we have to learn to paint or draw, and limitations are all things we need but sometimes it isn’t necessary and to embrace for creativity to flourish”. we can get out of art exactly what The coming to terms with our life we want if we used a completely experiences allows us to embrace different medium, “artists sometimes who we are and bring on creativity that speaks from within us, “creativity talk about how pushing up against
“HUMANS SPEND ON AVERAGE 30% OF OUR DAY ENGAGED IN MIND WONDERING” - VANESSA HILL
CONCLUSION
CITATION Linda Naiman (Founder of Creativity at Work and co-author of Orchestrating Collaboration at Work) What is Creativity n.d https://www.creativityatwork. com/2014/02/17/what-is-creativity/ 10/03/2018 John Spencer (College Professor and Artist) Think Inside the Box: The Power of Creative Constraint 18/01/2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGyjGwSQXpg 01/03.2018
When I started this process, I wrote down actions in which we could nurture our creativity including practice, open mindedness, problem solving, inspiration, question and exploration. Though none of these are wrong, I have learnt that creativity is everywhere and we use it every day however, we all have different ways of approaching creativity for many different purposes. The above references are those who spoke to me on a more personal level. I found it more liberating learning the struggles of artists who follow suit very similar challenges to mine. Phil Hansen returned to art with a new perspective and made multiple attempts to nurture
his creative process by limiting himself drastically whilst choosing to embrace his difficulties. David Kelley spoke about moving away from the negative thoughts which hold us back, preventing us from being successful artists. Use the act of Self Efficacy to drive your ambition and help fulfil your creative endeavours. Julie Burstein focuses on the acts of experience and limitation. Mainly our experiences are what drives our creativity and inspiration. We choose then to create using limits we set for ourselves in order to generate something unique.
So what is creativity then? To put it simply, we are problem-solvers and we use creativity to achieve this. Creativity is a platform for us to think, refine and act upon without any true boundaries, no right or wrong answer. Creativity requires challenge and refined skill in order to be good at it. We need to be dedicated and disciplined in order to fully access our creative abilities. We have to accept the things we cannot control and not allow these set-backs to stand in our way in order to reach our full potential.
Sir Ken Robinson (Author) What is Creativity? 18/09/2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1c3M6upOXA 01/03/2018 Dr Rafis Abazov (Visiting Professor at Al Farabi Kazakj National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan) 5 Ways to Improve your Creative Thinking 11/08/2015 https://www.topuniversities.com/blog/5ways-improve-your-creative-thinking 07/03/2018
Phil Hansen (Self-taught American Artist) Embrace the Shake 21/05/2013 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YrZTho_o_is 10/03/2018 Dave Kelley (Founder of IDEO and Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. How to Build your Creative Confidence 16/05/2012 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=16p9YRF0l-g 07/03/2018 Julie Burstein (Radio Host) 4 Lessons in Creativity 12/11/2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0Pf_pfqCI 07/03/2018 Vanessa Hill (Youtuber for BrainCraft) The Secrets to Creativity 14/04/2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Y-T_guM1I 01/03/2018
What is creativity? and How can creativity A SMALL be nurtured? PRESENTATION KENDALL JONES MARCH 2018