Where does creativity end?

Today’s Thoughts - 03.02.22

Where does creativity begin and end. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?

Ken Robinson describes creativity as “the process of coming up with original ideas that have value.”

By value he means, to society. Many artists, designers, engineers, philosophers and scientists etc are not given the status of their work having value until years after the work is completed, sometimes not until after the creator's death. So where does that line exist? Between having a wild imagination, and being creative?

“Imagination is more important than knowledge” - Albert Einstein

National Geographic (2017) When Pigs Fly | 10 Days of Genius | National Geographic 03.06.2017. (Accessed: 22.12.2021)

If creativity is a process beyond the individual, is it that every single creative thought and connection should be classed as part of the continuous creative network of human evolution?

Can you create for the whole purpose and sake of being creative? - An experiment? Would it have an end result?

Is the reactive process the most important part? Is it the gathering of the information that is merged with other inspiration and information to create something new the most important part of the creative process? Going by the analysis of the description of creativity, the process is deemed unimportant until (and only if) the end result is deemed useful (valuable) to the wider society.

Yet, it’s the research and the gathering of multiple sources of available information and the creative thinking to combine certain areas of information and inspiration mixed with personal imagination, which in turn is inspired by ones past experience, that creates the object that society deems to have value, and therefore, wouldn’t it seem the process is the more important aspect of the creative process is deemed valued or not by the wider society, is the process was documented well enough, giving the opportunity for others to see and use.

Wouldn’t the connections that are made be valued by other, future creatives in their processes, each creator in turn informing the next creating an ever expanding human web of creative thoughts. Each time a human being makes a connection between two things, bearing in mind ideas of the butterfly effect theory, you can imagine how each and every ‘creative thought’ that has ever been thought has in turn contributed to the wider society, essentially, valuable.

By this observation one would say that creative thought is there for one of, if not the most valuable human resource to the continuation of the human race - from a certain point of view.

With this being said, with our current selfish Western beliefs we have created a huge gab with the misinformation of plagiarism, copying, cheating on a test. Through societies beliefs we have been conditioned to keep information to ourselves until we’re in a position to publish the findings.

The myth of the genius and the talented has contributed to this warped view of human achievement, and therefore has resulted in a world where the individual seeks praise for their personal achievements, which is based on the achievements of many.

Creatively, society, invention, it’s a continuous continuation of research idea generation and creative process to achieve a result.

We’ve become obsessed with the end product, yet in the continuation of man, there is no end, or at least we should thrive towards having no end for our species. Ideas are not personal achievements, our processes should be shared at every step of th way. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

Csikszentmihalya, M (2015) Creativity. Narrated by Sean Pratt. Available from: URL (Audible) (Downloaded: 2021)