Practical aspects of creativity
What do you imagine when you hear the word "creativity"? Emily Dickinson's poems? Monet's paintings? Maybe Tchaikovsky's music? When we talk about creativity, we usually expect it to be something giving birth to a beautiful, full of inspiration and emotions, piece of art. Isn’t it just prejudice?
The definition of creativity is quite distorted in our minds. We should remember that it’s about creating and producing something, and not all people's inventions are art, right? Everything we use in our daily life was first born as a concept in a human brain. Just think about it: we live in a world of ideas that have come to life! Indeed, scientists such as Isaac Newton are creative people. They see the problem—for example, "Why does an apple always fall on the ground?"—and come up with the solution. The formulation of the gravitational theory is a vivid example of the practical aspect of creativity. It’s not all about science. Talented social activists like Emmeline Pankhurst, businessmen like Ilon Musk, programmers like Mark Zuckenberg, and many other people have created, are creating, and will create history. The products of their activities are devoid of emotion but have great practical application.
This kind of creative skill is very useful. It helps both to cope with everyday affairs and to make globally significant discoveries. What you need to do to make your creativity practical is to channel it in a certain way. Renowned designer Dan Saffer formulated the essence of practical creativity as imagination plus knowledge limited by constraints—the corridor along which you direct your thoughts. These conditions include goals, available materials, the time limits of your work, etc. By the way, this technique can also be used to create works of art. For example, Edgar Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition" explains how the writer created the masterpiece "The Raven" following a rational plan. We used to believe that such frameworks harmed our ability to be creative, but experience has shown that such methods produce products of equal or higher quality, although usually of a different kind: practical.
Remember: creativity is not a privilege of poets and painters; it’s what surrounds us and lives inside each one of us. If we develop the skill of practical creativity, we become able to find unexplored ways and new solutions to urgent problems and thus not only improve our own lives, but also the world in general.
Article by Victoria Kogan,
Unarthodox Element Blog Contributor