I would like to start off with adding on to one of the previous comments where the author mentioned that sportsmen are being creative. I immediately though of something fun that I saw a couple weeks ago on the TV show Galileo (channel Pro7). It was about a new, creative sport called “chainsurfing” (see youtube video below). At first one might think that this action is not possible due to gravity and balance issues, but on Galileo several sportsmen have tested and practiced this innovative way of surfing and it actually turned out to be for real!
Now to my understanding of “what is creativity”. I’m trying to be a little creative with this assignment, thus I will define my view of creativity through several meaningful quotes I have discovered.
Albert Einstein:
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Edwin H. Land:
“The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
Abraham Maslow:
“The key question isn’t “What fosters creativity?” But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything.”
Carl Jung:
“Without the playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.”
These quotes support my standpoint of believing that creativity is strongly linked to fantasy, which can be understood as being able to develop a mental image or a visionary idea. Fantasy is much stronger pronounced in our childhood and slowly fades as we grow up. I do believe that it is possible to train this diminished fantasy and capability of imagination. Furthermore, the quotes criticize today’s society and the loss of creative thinking. One may blame our culture as a barrier to creativity, since people are becoming afraid of overall risk taking and making mistakes. Getting back to children’s fantasy, the photo below shows a good example of what we, as adults, can learn from our young fellows!!
- Clara
I really like and also believe in this idea that creativity is linked to fantasy!
Great picture
Roland’s picture is the best example for it – without your fantasy to fill it with life, it’s just bubbles and colors in a frame. Or the one from Tom where you start with an empty screen.
i like it how all these different examples and definitions somehow relate to each other and form a bigger thing
The pictures posted by Clara and Roland are nailing it down. Creativity surrounds us in all kinds of places and life situations. We as so greatly put by Einstein have come to value the faithful servant of rational thinking and too often instead of taking the road less travelled opt for received wisdom.
I very much like this blog as a collaboration tool for our assignments. Without it everyone would just hand in the assignments and the others would never read it. As according to me CREATIVITY arises from taking a different viewpoint and/or changing your perspective on things, the posts from all of us are a great chance for us to get some new perspectives. I guess nobody holds the truth, but together we can come to a more complete picture…
I have to totaly agree roland. that’s a really good tool and helps a lot of understanding the whole topic from different points of view. for me it brings much more value than reading 10 or more papers (like we usually do).