Creativity

1. Creativity Third Class, November 20 http://www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/crtvyf04 Creatiivity, Third Class

2. Agenda (Please check your name off on the list) • Finishing up • Creativity as a course topic – the essays • Types of creativity • Why is creativity important? • Grammar • Review of reading Creatiivity, Third Class

3. Finishing up (end is 12/15) If you are not going to finish by the end of the semester, your options are: • Incomplete (I – must have substantial work in) • Withdrawal (W – complete official form) • Regular grade (D or E) • Unofficial withdrawal(X) It is important to make the best choice for your situation - see a counselor and let me know. Creatiivity, Third Class

4. Ambiguity of Creativity • What exactly is Creativity? • At this point, best criterion we have to to watch for its effects on other people. The two ideas about creativity both have this aspect • Something new that meets a need or solves a problem. • A change in the culture Creatiivity, Third Class

5. Ambiguity of Creativity • At this point, we do not know enough to manage an objective criterion. • The same idea, too early, will not engage the field (Darwin, Wegener). • The same idea, too late, will not be thought of as creative, even if it was developed independently. Creatiivity, Third Class

6. Conditions for Creativity • Some spare time / effort / attention • Autonomy • Focus • Basic skills in Domain • Access to Field • Something you like, something you pay attention to, keep coming back to Creatiivity, Third Class

7. Types of Creativity • Flow (internal state, may be no product, can be very important for individual quality of life) • Everyday problem-solving • Innovation (in material culture) • Little c (but can add up) (in symbolic culture) • Big C (in symbolic culture) Creatiivity, Third Class

8. Csikszentmihalyi Doesn’t Say It, But… Why does Creativity require complexity? Isn’t simplicity better? • We solve hard problems by dividing them into pieces • More connections to be made, these are a raw material for Creativity Creatiivity, Third Class

9. 1. Why is Creativity important? • Stages of society – how did we develop? • Hunter-gatherer • Agricultural • Industrial • ? • We know quite a bit about agricultural and industrial societies, but not so much about hunter-gatherers. So… Creatiivity, Third Class

10. 2. Social ChangesTimes’ Harvest, ISP 3360 State religion Owning land Arranged Owning means of production Multiple churches Romantic love Creatiivity, Third Class

11. 3. Sectors of Culture In all cultures, as soon as artifacts become durable, we see: • Social organization • Economy: production, distribution • Who are we, how did we get here, why are we here? (Religion, myth, modern science) • Art and personal adornment • Music, narrative and performance • Systematic observation of nature (experimental science) Creatiivity, Third Class

12. 4. The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Forida • Start: map of fast-growing US regions • Met gay grad students who had gay-friendly map • The two maps were virtually identical! • Not that gays are necessarily creative, but that creative people seek diversity • These days, corporations follow them, rather than people moving towards employers Creatiivity, Third Class

13. 5. Simple Ideas About Economy • Demo – the $1 economy • Wheel-shaped economy – producers and consumers • Kick the wheel and make it spin, and we’re fat and happy • Hesitate, and we all get laid off • Other sectors work in similar ways • How to find what we want – Creativity provides raw materials, we decide Creatiivity, Third Class

14. 6. So… • Creativity is a key driver of historical and economic progress • In turn, progress and economic growth provide a complex society, excess effort, ability to focus (hunter-gatherers had to be generalists) for more creativity • Not a vicious cycle but a virtuous circle Creatiivity, Third Class

15. Grammar 1 • Essays a generally very good • Have read and understood • Good form and organization • Mechanics is the weak are Creatiivity, Third Class

16. Grammar 2 • A sentence • Verb (action) • Noun (who or what takes the action) • (Expresses a complete thought) • Examples: • John hit the ball (sentence) • Because John hit the ball (not a sentence) • Its Vs it’s Vs its’ Creatiivity, Third Class

17. Grammar 3 • Subject-verb number agreement • Subject and verb should agree as to whether the subject and verb in a sentence (and between sentences) as to singular or plural • Examples • Eliot write/writes that… • We understand/understands that… • A group of authors say/says that… Creatiivity, Third Class

18. Grammar 4 • Showing possession • ‘s is possession by a single person • Never for plural unless there is no alternative • s’ is possession by more than one person • Exceptions: • Its is already possessive • Other words also inherently possessive – their, our • Examples: • Belonging to one company – to several? Creatiivity, Third Class

19. Grammar 5 • Compound adjectives get joined with a hyphen. Examples: • just-released movie • newly-formed friendship • Set off non-restrictive phrases with commas • non-restrictive: not needed to understand sentence. Example: • Marina, who was the president of the club, was the first to speak Creatiivity, Third Class

20. Grammar 6 • Joining sentences • It is never wrong to leave two complete sentences separate. • Two disparate sentences should never be joined. • To emphasize a connection, you may join tow complete sentences with: • a semicolon (;) • a joining word (and, but, so etc.) and comma (,) Creatiivity, Third Class

21. Grammar 7 • Joining sentences (continued) • Examples of joining sentences • “I do” sounds simple, but it is a lifetime commitment. • John went to the store; he bought orange juice. • An incomplete sentence must be joined to a complete sentence with a comma. Example: • Because we are growing quickly, our company has to move often. Creatiivity, Third Class

22. Grammar 8 • In-class exercise… Creatiivity, Third Class

23. From Flow (audiotape) • My notes from audiotape on on course wb site • (1A.88) The amateur gardener • (2A.15) Comparing enjoyment and pleasure • (2A.157) Aspects of a complex personality • (2A.324) The assembly-line worker Creatiivity, Third Class

24. Review of Reading Creatiivity, Third Class

25. Corporate Creativity • Good reception in this class • Often, people in this class are surprised to think that a corporation could be creative • Actually, for most of the day, 100% of our surroundings are due to corporate creativity Creatiivity, Third Class

26. Corporate Creativity Advantages a corporation may have • Diversity, including job rotation • But focus and experience are also necessary (DB at Ford) • More resources, including people • Different personalities – innovator doesn’t have to be all things in bringing idea to fruition Creatiivity, Third Class

27. Corporate Creativity Alignment: • Two-say agreement on goals • Must have some level of inspiration • Tom Peters: Nobody even got excited about “we’re no worse than anybody else.” Creatiivity, Third Class

28. Creating Minds • Gardner also wrote “multiple Intelligences” • Pg 363 • Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, Gandhi. Not one nice person. • “made” modernism • Cognitive – what is going on inside the mind? • Pervasive influence, they influence you even if you don’t know them or like their work • Really revolutionary (web page about this) Creatiivity, Third Class

29. Creating Minds • Creative within one domain, must be accepted by a culture • Regular creative activity – ten-year rule for major breakthroughs • Effort at presenting themselves as creative • Faustian bargain • Personal and professional support at the time of breakthrough Creatiivity, Third Class

30. Creating Minds • Can be viewed as going back to child-like content and methods • (DB) Often mastered classical and romantic methods before innovating • Picasso – book • (DB) General contribution: incorporation of ancient images (Stravinsky, Graham, Picasso) Creatiivity, Third Class

31. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Freud: unconscious • Einstein: relativity – see later • Picasso: art depicts, not the objective world, but our subjective reaction to it • Stravinsky: rhythm in music • Graham: freeform dance, expressiveness, rise of American arts and America generally Creatiivity, Third Class

32. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Eliot: loss of moral certainty, questioning of authority • From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:“Let us go then, you and IWhen the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table.” Creatiivity, Third Class

33. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Eliot: • from The Waste Land“I think we are in a rat’s alleyWhere the dead men lost their bones.” • from The Hollow Men“This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper.” Creatiivity, Third Class

34. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Eliot: • from Little Gidding, Pt 5, in the Four Quartets(retelling of Homer’s Odyssey?)“We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd to know the place for the first time.”Eliot being positive????? Creatiivity, Third Class

35. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Eliot: • Other poetry spekas of the moral bankruptcy of authorities – they are no better that we are. • I think this led to our current mixing of public and private lives. They used to be separate, but now are mixed. Example follows Creatiivity, Third Class

36. Mixing public and private lives • Duke of Windsor resigned as King of England in 1936 to marry American commoner Wallis Simpson. The British press and royalty kept this affair silent for eighteen months. • Compare this with how the press and the public handled President Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. Creatiivity, Third Class

37. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Gandhi: Merging of protest and publicity using non-violence to apply moral pressure to bring down a repressive regine. (We now tend to think that the protesters are right.) Creatiivity, Third Class

38. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Einstein: Special Relativity. (Speed of light = 1 ft per nanosecond) Creatiivity, Third Class

39. Creating Minds Special contributions (DB): • Einstein: • What happens if we do not see the car moving at 110% of the speed of light? • We see the railroad car and the car as shorter, car moves 6.6 feet instead of 20, we see it moving at 96.6% of the speed of light, instead of 110% • People on railroad car don’t see it as shorter, though. They see us as “thinner.” Creatiivity, Third Class

40. Creativity • Questions, comments? • Done! Creatiivity, Third Class