Creativity

title: Creativity —

What is creativity? It might be viewed as the resolving of a tension: the tension between the way the world is now and the possibility of some future imagined state. In this way, all creativity is an act of problem solving.

A artist is solving the problem of trying to communicate an idea or a feeling within the constraint of the materials they have to work with. But if someone sees an image in a cloud, isn’t that also creative? And, if so, which problem are they solving? Perhaps the same evolutionary problem that all humans are solving through the process of pattern recognition.

What are the prerequisites for an act to be creative? Consider a person pulling their suitcase along a pavement. The conscious intention is it move from A to B. In so doing they pull the suitcase across the gaps between paving slabs, which results in a rhythmic pattern. Is this a creative process and was there any intention in the action?

Perhaps the act of creativity is not the pulling of the case but rather the translation of the wheel sounds into a pattern. The point at which the mind begins to translate the sounds into a rhythm is then the start of a creative process. Does it logically follow then that creativity is always a conscious act?

Sometimes the subconscious mind is creative. Doodling is a good example of this. While the doodler is consciously focussing on the television programme they are watching or the telephone call they are engaged in, the subconscious mind is expressing itself through scribble or image. So how can we account for this? Which problem is the subconscious mind solving and who asked it to?

There is an alternative idea: the above is reductionist. It constrains creativity to purely functional acts as responses to pre-defined problems. In this view, there is no free exploration without an objective - whether conscious or subconscious.

An alternative is to see creativity itself as a pool. It becomes an infinite resource from which one can draw. Plug or tap in, perhaps. And perhaps this “plugging in” is actually easier for the subconscious mind to do. Or, more likely, there is a delicate balance between the two.

Thinking of creativity in this way, there is no defined start or stop to the process - it is everything at all times. We might see it as a journey along a Möbius strip, where one stops occasionally to view a particular problem from whichever vantage point one is currently at.

Another metaphor is the idea of creativity as an energy source. The act of being creative is to plug into a socket or port and connect to this always-present source of energy. A creative blockage is then an inability to connect to this source for whatever reason. It is often when we rely too heavily on conscious, logical thought and intention and do not leave enough space for the subconscious to do its work. Sleep is likely vital to this process and meditation might also present a pathway into this space.

Working questions

1. What is creativity?
2. When does creativity start and stop?
3. Can creativity exist without intention?
4. Is creativity always a conscious process?
5. What does the term “creative blockage” describe?