From the Notebook

About Creativity

blogqz01 | 09 November, 2009 17:14

 

 

          People tend to mystify creativity.  They often will categorize people as creative, and not creative, and believe that most people are not creative.  I don’t think it is true.  In fact I think it is this belief that prevents people from being creative.

 

            I don’t deny that people are different, and some people may be even born to be more creative than other.  But there is no line drawn for being creative and not creative.  Actually, like everything else, what prevent people from being creative is lack of trying.

 

            I like to point out here that people define creativity too narrowly.  They usually associate it with some dramatic results.  Although it cannot be denied that the new, different and useful creations all reflect significant creativity, lack of such results would not necessary indicate lack of creativity.

 

            In fact, the way we define creativity is not a reflection of the truth.  Yes, creative process include a non-liner, disruptive, chaos-like process, so unlike many other activities of human minds (mostly involve logic process), you usually cannot trace back the process, but it can be break down further. 

 

            Like anything else, being creative requires knowledge, interests, dedication and judgment.  There is a common misunderstanding that talent is “God-send”, that it requires no individual efforts.    The genius would all of sudden receive a message from the God that will change the world. 

 

            This misunderstanding is related to people’s tendency to simplify things.  For them, it would be easier to just label someone being genius and attribute all their efforts as genius doing what they suppose to do.  It seems that many of these geniuses are enjoying this treatment and some may actively support this kind of thoughts in order to obtain more personal gains. 

 

            To understand creative process, we can look at the process of exploration.  Explorers first need to have the interests and drives to go out of the comfort zone to explore unknown territories.  In order to survive, they need to be equipped, possess sufficient knowledge, and have keen awareness of the environment, and relied on their judgment to make the right choices.  And, in order to succeed, they need to be persistent, and being able to learning from failures.

 

            It seems to me, courage is not the common mentioned characteristics related with creativity, but it is an essential one for people to be able to succeed.  It is a common tendency for people to stay in their comfort zone, but being with familiar things and especially familiar mentality does not often produce new and useful concepts or things. 

 

            When people talk about creativity they often believe that knowledge seems to be irrelevant, or even detriment to creativity.  This is not true.  It is narrow minded artificial rules that can often reduce creativity, not knowledge per se.

 

            The confusion about creativity and knowledge is also related to the misconception about self and knowledge.  Many people seems to believe (knowingly or without awareness) that there is an innate self residing in the self, that one would not need to obtain any knowledge in order to be the self, and obtaining knowledge would not change anything about the self.

 

            This believe seems to be closely related to the belief about soul (I will write in my later post in more detail), but the cases when humans are raised by animals other than humans clearly indicated that there is no soul to provide knowledge per se.

 

              Knowledge is clearly related to curiosity, and curiosity is due to interests.  Therefore, to be creative requires people to be interested and aware about things in life.  The knowledge obtained through this process obviously has personal stamps that it is filtered by the individual judgment and acceptance.  This kind of knowledge is not only personal, thus people can easily relate to it, it would also be more readily available in the creative process.

 

            Like knowledge, people don’t usually associate creativity with judgment.  But I believe that judgment is an essential ability in creative process.   People often are surprised by how mysterious the creative process is because they often can only see the final result, not the process.  The thought process can be a long process in the mind of creator, but when the result is presented to the world, the imperfectness has already been eliminated by the creator.

 

            Breaking down the creative process, it often includes irrepeatable and often irreversible processes that draw unusual connections between things that are normally not related.  For example, all inventions are rearrangement of the existing or known elements (depend on how far you break down the elements), so are the artistic creations.

 

            But how did the creator come about and make these unusual connections?  It is clear that it is a result of a thinking process.  Sometime, it could be the results of thinking process for other purposes.  So, open end thinking process might be more fruitful than close end process (processes that have intended purposes in mind). 

 

            Here, diversity in background and broad interests and knowledge will play an important role.  In the thinking process, the more materials and different angles that people can include the better the results could be.  To use chemical reaction as illustration for the creative process, using more different materials and combinations along with other various factors, more unexpected results will come out.   I will call this process the ‘bubbling process” (I write more in detail about this in my later posts).

 

            However, the creative process is not just this process.  In fact, the overall creative process includes different stages, and the next important stage will require the use judgment and organizing skills (although the stage may not be clearly divided in time sequence).  In fact, what prevent most people of being truly creative is not that people cannot think of something new, but most are lack of ability to put things together and carry through the entire process to reach the end results. 

 

            Just think of it, being creative is to introduce something new, thus at some point, it is about the ability to construct something with very little guidance.  Especially in artistic creative process, the result can be completely open ended, the amount of freedom one experienced could be a heavy burden as well as opportunities.

 

            One commonly used process is actually close to constructive process.  People will often choose from the results of bubbling process, and put them together while provide missing pieces.  The difference in skill, experience and judgment will also be reflected in the stage, and mostly affect the results of the entire process. 

 

                                                                                                           

            In the creative process, passion plays a very important role.  If we assume the creative process as a roller coaster ride, then for people with passion, their mind will grab on to the subject and would not be lost through all the twist or turns.  On the other hand, if people are pressured to the process, their mind would be merely on board, and may often go out the course and get lost.

  

            A common obstacle about being creative is fear or self doubt.  People will often quickly dismiss themselves as not the creative type when inspirations come to them.  Or, they will try to put it together, but give up on the first obstacle.  

 

            Persistent is the key to all kinds of success, it is the same for creative process.  It is true that most people are not trained with the ability to carry on the creative process, but the best way to learn about a skill is through experience.

 

            It is crucial that people cannot be afraid of failure in order to be creative.  As there is no known path to follow, and challenges would arise more often than normal, success is not guaranteed.  The common fear about going on the journey of creativity is that time will be wasted while there is nothing to show for it.

 

            An important fact about creativity is that success is not so easily measured.  As the success of anything would need to be measured by its effects, the effects might not be apparent for a long time, even many years to come.  Thus, having your vision, believing your self and be patient are important in the end.

 

            Not be able to receive immediate feedbacks requires people conducting creative process to be the judge and guidance of themselves.  This is why judgment and vision are important for the creative process.   If the initial bubbling process is like a treasure hunt in wood, then what you will make with the treasure you found relies on vision and judgment. 

 

            This is why failure is not to be afraid in the creative process.  For people who are passionate about the creative process, the journey itself would be a bedazzling experience that they will treasure.  In addition, the creative process and the struggle through it will increase their knowledge, enhance their skills, and most importantly provide training for them for the eyes of judgment and vision.  

 

            In fact, the difference between one person from another is often at what one can make out of the present and the past.  Person who is mostly invested personally in the creative process would mostly likely to take all the past twists and turns into their hearts, to digest them better, thus be more prepared for the future challenges. 

 

            Overall, being creative is hard work.  It is mentally challenging, but it can also be the most fulfilling.  It is where the individuality matters, it is where people’s life experiences, their habits, preferences, interests etc. can all come into play, it is where one people could make significant difference.

 

            In fact, being creative can be not just what you can do, but what you do.  As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, being creative should not be defined by the results alone, and creativity can be expressed in everyday life as well.   People can be creative in business, professional activities, and even personal life. 

 

            We can use different things for particular purpose, we can use different method or approach to solve common problems, we can apply new things to common environment, and we can apply common things to new environment.  In fact, in a broader sense, I believe everyone is creative.  We cannot learn everything from school or others, and we encounter endless changing problems and challenges in daily life.  We often can find our solutions with the knowledge and skills that we possess.  To me, it reflected our creativity.

 

            Have a better understanding about creativity will not only make us more creative, and change our life for the better, it will also help us to open our mind.  With the understanding that the opportunities are up for grabs will lead us not too quick to dismiss new and different information and opinions, it will lead us to think more, to question common presumptions more.  This is will increase the efforts of improving our social conscious to a new level.   

**Please look for my other posts regarding the modern life, mind and matter, science and technology, arts, entertainment, education, and human knowledge system, about discussions related to issues in this post.

 

**Permission is needed to use contents of this blog.  All rights reserved.

 

General | Next | Previous | Trackbacks (0)

 
Accessible and Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS
Powered by LifeType - Design by BalearWeb