Well, that's put me in my place then!
I think you are right that we are both arguing the same point from a different angle.
But I do still firmly believe that some people just aren't born creative, and they don't have the drive to conjour it up either. Everyone has the ABILITY to create, but some choose to be passive.
I can qualify this twice:
1. I spent a while teaching Art and Design at a secondary school after I'd left university (bearing in mind this was 10 years ago—before kids had TOTALLY lost respect) and I was amazed at how many of them actually showed signs of being very creative, but who in reality were far happier to hold it back.
I couldn't quite work this out, but the assessment given to me by an experienced art teacher whom I was working alongside was that it is perfectly natural that some people act this way.
Creative people exercise their minds, athletic types exercise their bodies—each pushes themselves to the limits of their own potential. Creative types are flexible and adaptive to situations in which they are required or desire to solve problems, and generally are motivated by their innovative thoughts. Their originality comes from their own desire to pursue their ideas and develop them.
A creative type will never stop developing an idea—they will pursue several different approaches before feeling content. Even then, they will probably feel they could have done better.
A passive person, on the other hand, will just answer the question/present a design and that's good enough. They will exercise little effort, and more often than not will give up altogether.
Is it elitist to pigeonhole people as 'creative' or 'passive'??? I don't think it is, no.
2. A very good friend of mine is a singer/guitarist/producer/studio operator. His virtuoso standard of guitar playing is comparable to Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Steve Vai etc. He's extremely fluent, and I would deem him as very creative.
We often have chats about 'the creative process', and his creativity isn't a problem solving exercise, it's simply derived from passion.
He also gives guitar lessons. It seems that many kids and adults today are getting into electric guitar. And his view is that there are THREE types of person whom he encounters...
A: The technically excellent - can play note-for-note perfect emulations of just about every classic guitar riff or chord, but has no drive, motivation or skill to do anything else
B: The No-Hoper - can't grasp the simplest concepts, can't be bothered to learn how the guitar works, and can't really play the thing at all
C: The true creative - whether or not they can PLAY the guitar, they have thoughts, ideas, motivation and inspiration. They experiment, they persist, they have fluency.
Bottom line???
EVERYBODY has creativity in them. But just like a muscle, unless you access, exercise and stimulate it, it just remains 'functional' rather than 'exceptional'. Sure enough, the root components of creativity such as inspiration, motivation, perserverance and originality are present at some level in everyone.
I've really enjoyed this discussion. I am so much of the thinking that Mr Jamez and meself are totally on the same wavelength.
I fear that my interpretation of the WORD 'creative' may conflict, but I am totally and utterly respectful of any objective discussion which doesn't lead to 'I'm right, you're not' type scenarios. And this is a great example of such a 'debate'.
I am only a smidge over 33, and I know I'm always still learning. And it's a pleasure to take part in such an intelligent, provocative and deep discussion on this forum—albeit anywhere. Something which I've missed here dearly.
It is very sobering and humbling when people extend your knowledge or help you think deeper, but that is how I feel today.
Another noteworthy characteristic of creative people is their excitement over almost any problem or phenomenon that puzzles or mystifies. Many things taken for granted by others are a challenge for creative people. In this sense, they are intellectually restless, not satisfied with what is accepted, established or known -- constantly wondering how things could or might be and always ready to consider and visualize new possibilities. They feel that it's necessary to improve upon, or add to, existing realities.
Charles Goodyear, who wasn't a scientist, is generally credited for discovering ways to rid rubber of its stickiness and odor and for improving its strength and resiliency. Chemists were of no help to him, and he plodded on alone and maintained his labors out of sheer excitement.
Creative people display originality in their thinking. Since their thought processes aren't really jammed with stereotypes, they can reach out beyond the ordinary to think of more unusual and unique solutions to problems. Originality expresses itself also in their ability to dissect firmly structured and established systems to create a new combination or a new system of relationships.
Originality doesn't always mean something radically new. Often, it involves finding a new use for an existing product. For example, when baking soda sales plummeted because people were baking fewer cookies, Church & Dwight Co. came up with a marketing innovation. As a result, its Arm & Hammer baking soda is now used to deodorize refrigerators and carpets.
Creative people often become lost in playing with ideas, forms, materials, relationships and concepts. These elements can be shaped into all kinds of unlikely and imaginative combinations. Experience has taught them that this apparently purposeless trying out and toying with possibilities strengthens at the same time as it loosens their imaginative powers. Significant creative ideas often emerge out of such a letting-go exercise.
Writer Henry David Thoreau had this playful imagining in mind when he wrote, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
A lighthearted spirit of play provides freedom from the habits, conditions and conventions that impede the novel idea. By putting the judicial censor of their conscious minds to sleep, so to speak, creative people can pass over the established order and set the stage for novel ideas and solutions.
Written by Eugene Raudsepp
A frequent contributor to the National Business Employment Weekly from 1984 to 1995, publishing more than 50 articles in the magazine. As president of Princeton Creative Research Inc., a consulting firm in Princeton, N.J., he wrote 16 books and more than 700 articles for publications around the world.
Chris[/quote]
I'm not elitist (I hope). But I've been involved in the creative process for near enough 20 years, so I hope that I speak with at least some experience!
