Explaining Creativity

1. Explaining Creativity Celia, Katherine, & Lauren FNAR 337

2. Bubbles, Lines, and String:How Information Visualization Shapes Society Peter Hall

3. 3 Categories of Visualization: • Scientific • aims to discover new patterns in large datasets • assumption of objectivity • Journalistic • seeks to simplify and explain datasets for the public • inform and transform public opinion • Artistic • reflects cultural conditions • calls into question claims of transparency, certainty, and objectivity

4. 3 Categories - Scientific “Visualization is one of only two factors responsible for the explosive development of all modern science.” – Alfred Corsby, historian Daily simulation to predict the movement of oil along the gulf coast. Uses satellite imagery to visualize data in its geographic context. Visualization by Adam Kubach and Karla Vega, Texas Advanced Computing Center, The University of Texas at Austin.

5. 3 Categories - Journalistic “It is our job to edit, condense and reduce.” – Steve Dunes,NYT Graphics Department Hans Rosling’s 2006 TED animation debunking preconceptions of the developing world. Originally an educational tool, takes on journalistic aspects by transforming public opinion.

6. 3 Categories - Artistic “Even articles that are not controversial are sometimes targets for malicious users. The image below shows the history of the article on ‘history’. The rightmost black slice shows when a user replaced the entire article with the simple word ‘ha.’” Wattenberg, History Flow

7. Absence of critique • Data is seen as pure • Often, visual representations are critiqued only through the lens of usability • “Who made it, for whom, and for what purpose – ideology 101.”– Johanna Drucker • “Mapping has politics.” – Jeremy Crampton • Rather than describing the world, are we making up the world? (Through framing, selection, etc.) • Look for silences – what is left out?

8. Future of Visualization • Information visualization becoming more interdisciplinary. • The way the visualization is designed affects the data mining. • Hall argues that scientific, journalistic and artistic methods have much to teach each other.

9. Explaining Creativity:The Science of Human InnovationKeith Sawyer

10. Why is creativity important? • Competition with globalized markets • Ever-improving information and communication technologies • Automation of uncreative jobs • Increased demand for products of the creative industries

11. Modern Creativity Research • First wave – personalities of creators • Second wave – cognitive psychology • Third wave – socio-cultural approach • The interdisciplinary approach • What do we get from researching creativity?

12. Defining Creativity • Individualist – “Creativity is a new mental combination that is expressed in the world.” • New • Combination • Expressed in the world

13. Defining Creativity • Socio-cultural – “Creativity is the generation of a product that is judged to be novel and also to be appropriate, useful, or valuable by a suitably knowledgeable social group.” • Big C and Little C • Appropriate

14. The Four P Framework • Product –focuses on the products judged to be novel and appropriate by the relevant social group • Person – studies the personality traits and personality types associated with creativity • Process – studies the processes involved during creative work or creative thought • Press – focuses on the external forces or “pressures” acting on the creative person or process

15. Western Cultural Model • Belief 1. The essence of creativity is the moment of insight • Belief 2. Creative ideas emerge mysteriously from the unconscious • Belief 3. Creativity is more likely when you reject convention • Belief 4. Creative contributions are more likely to come from an outsider than an expert. • Belief 5. People are more creative when they’re alone. • Belief 6. Creative ideas are ahead of their time. • Belief 7. Creativity is a personality trait. • Belief 8. Creativity is based in the right brain. • Belief 9. Creativity and mental illness are connected. • Belief 10. Creativity is a healing, life-affirming activity.

16. Sawyer Chapter 3 Defining creativity through assessment

17. Introduction • 1950s and 1960s: research on creativity emerges • Big question explored by reading – creativity can be defined, but can it be operationalized and measured? • Reading divided into two parts: (1) validity of tests and (2) testing for “Big C” vs. “little c” creativity

18. The Requirements of a Good Test - Validity • Construct validity • Does the test measure the psychological construct (aka observable behaviors) it claims to measure? • Face validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity • Criterion validity • Does the test predict performance on some external criterion of creative performance? • Concurrent validity & predictive validity

19. The Requirements of a Good Test - Reliability • Reliable if test always gets the same result when applied to the same person • Three forms relevant to creativity research: • Stability across time (test-retest reliability) • Internal consistency • Inter-rater reliability

20. Construct of Creativity • Validity & Reliability – really about what creativity is and whether it exists at all • If no test for creativity can be developed that’s reliable, it probably doesn’t make sense to refer to creativity as a stable trait of a person

21. Types of Creativity Tests • Ratings of the Creative Person • Ratings of the Creative Product • Self-Reports • Remote Associates Test • Creative Functioning Test

22. Templates • Principles • FFF (functions follow form) • The Closed World • Contradiction • New Product Development • Attribute Dependency • Replacement • Displacement • Division • Multiplication • Task Unification • Advertising • Unification • Activation • Metaphor • Subtraction • Extreme consequences • Absurd Alternative • Inversion • Extreme Effort

23. Exercise Substitute a resource or component existing in the system or in its immediate neighborhood to satisfy a specific function

24. Chair Configuration Human Body 6 5 Seat Back 4 1 2 Legs 3 Floor

25. Now remove a component… Human Body 6 5 Seat Back 4 1 ???

26. What do you get?

27. Other ideas…