Defining Creativity

March 15, 2010

If it was possible to define creativity in any meaningful way, restrictions would have to be placed on the idea, in order to contextualize it within bounds. How to isolate creativity? If it was possible to isolate creativity, then creativity itself would not be necessary.

Creativity is so ubiquitous throughout in the human condition that it isn’t helpful to ask “what actually is creativity”? A more effective question is “what actually isn’t classed as creativity”? That is a more creative question – the question of creativity requires a creative answer.

  • Creativity is not a response to a challenge where everything that needs to be said or done is known in advance. In other words, creativity is not the ability to follow instructions.
  • An antonym of “creation” is “destruction”. But destruction can be creative as well as destructive, as I’ll discuss later on at some point
  • Creativity is not a polar opposite of logical reasoning. Some people think it is.
  • Creativity does not answer questions without there being a context within which other solutions a possible. Creativity is not the realm of 100% possibilities.
  • Creativity is not realistically confined to dictionary definitions  or encyclopaedic entries, especially not Open Source Software platforms like Wikipedia.
  • Creativity is not an idea to be applied in financial accounting. This could land you in prison!

The best way to deal with the question of creativity is not to ask what it is, but rather what it is not. How creative was this post? The answer to this question is another question:  How creative are you? This is both a question and an answer. A creative person can work out how this post relates to creativity, because to ask what doesn’t come under the banner of creativity was paradoxical enough to be classed as creativity. There is indeed a relationship between paradox and creativity, which will be elaborated on at some future point. Although creativity is not universally paradoxical, and in fact paradox may be just one form of creativity, but there is a strong connection between the two. Creativity most definitely is about making connections between things, especially the right things.


Cultivating literature

March 9, 2010

Text flows, ideas flow, objects flow. Generally, things just seem to flow. Time flows too but perhaps not in the way we think it does. This blog will flow eventually, once I get the wheels in motion and the cogs turning properly. What about abstract flows? Abstract flows are intangible flows emerging from the infinity of the human imagination. These flows do not exist unless someone is there to notice them. Even then they have to be interpreted, and quite often the interpretation is the responisbility of the readers, the audience, as opposed to the author. The author of course will have their own interpretation of what they write, and their interpretation of what they write will influence what the write.

In addtion to flows (of various types), ideas can pile up on themselves. Please note I’m being very metaphorical when I talk about flows. Very metaphorical. Also, this is a random post. The product of this page is coming about live, real time, with no drafting or re-drafting or anything like that. This will change in future posts.

Change is a flow, and flow is a change. Change and flow are one and the same thing. The letters in this text change from one letter to the next. Flow, and therefore change, can be horizontal, as well as vertical and, actually, pretty much any direction between these. It is maybe more appropriate to quote direction of change in degrees as opposed to up,down,left,right. Degrees here, of course, refers to some form of metaphorical direction measured in fictional metaphorical degrees, analogous to the real mathematical version.

The future structure of this blog will be exactly that – it will have a consistent structure. According to WordPress, consistency is very important in blogging. I shall try to be just that. I will consistently discuss topics such as concrete writing in all from all kinds of areas from poetry to logic. I will discuss my own philosophy and  science generally. I have my own philosophy without ever having studied philosophy formally. I hope to offer unique perspectives as a result. I am also interested in the recursive structure of nature. Recursion appears every in life, from life itself to computer programming.

Above all, I like to cultivate literature – my own and other sources of literature. What do I mean by this? You will hopefully find out over time.


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