Creativity Revisited

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Creativity Revisited
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What is creativity?

• A way of thinking and doing that brings
  unexpected and original ideas to fruition.

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Teaching how to think and do

• One way is to teach how to have ideas of various
  types.

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Fluency and Flexibility
Candle making

• Flexibility
• -Ideas not based on the original concept or
  application.
• -Ideas identified by analogy

• Fluency
• -Ideas based on the original concept or
  application
• -Ideas generated by logic

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Linear and Lateral

• Creative project/paper
• Linear in execution
• Lateral in relationship to history and creativity
• Historical data
• Linear in details and sequences
• Lateral in relating one period to another
• Mesopotamian versus Egyptian creativity
• Greek versus Roman creativity

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How the Mind Works

• Information is placed in zones (files)
• Logical links are automatically created (index)
• Information from all the senses can be converted
  and stored as regular data

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To maximize our creativity

• We must learn from many disciplines

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The scope of MFG 201
Scientists
Humanists
(Derived from Snow, C.P., The Two Cultures,
Cambridge University Press, 1998)
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• Creativity is the engine that drives cultural
  evolution
• M. Csikszentmihalyi

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• There are indeed certain instances in which
  social/cultural realities largely determine the
  possibility or lack of possibility for developing
  creativity in a given field.
• D. H. Feldman

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Mesopotamian Creativity

• Agriculture
• Cities
• Differentiate occupation
• Advances in metal use
• Invasion brought new knowledge
• Hebrew religion (separated from others)

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Egyptian Creativity

• Highly innovative
• Hieroglyphics
• Religious beliefs
• Pyramids
• Valued priests
• Isolated culture

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Indian Creativity

• Often invaded
• Caste system
• Religion
• Hinduism
• Jainism
• Sikhism
• Buddhism
• Concept of zero
• Buildings

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Chinese Creativity

• Rarely invaded
• Writing methods and materials
• Bureaucracy based upon Confucius
• Gun powder
• Compass

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Greek and Hellenistic Creativity

• Trade and education
• Questioning science
• Vowels
• Oral stories
• Illiad and Odyssey
• Leisure time vs. war

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Roman Creativity

• Modified others ideas
• Etruscan arch
• Greek sculpture
• Greek drama
• Checks and balances
• Alphabet and number system
• Aqueducts and buildings
• Road system

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Byzantine Creativity

• Mosaics
• Hagia Sophia
• Icons
• Greek Fire
• Defense system
• PortsVenice
• Constantinoples fall Rise of the Renaissance

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Islamic Creativity

• Architecture
• Taj Mahal
• Dome of the Rock
• Literature
• Arabic script an art form
• Science developed
• Islamic influences added to other cultures

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Medieval European Creativity

• Gothic cathedrals
• Literature and art
• Catholic church
• Politics and war
• Language development
• Interactions - lateral-thinking
• Crusades - creativity
• Printing press

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Trends in Creativity

• War and peace/safety
• Interaction with other societies
• Borrow and improve
• Leisure

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
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Balance attributes and the environment

• Depth/breadth
• Focused/relaxed
• Smart/uncertain
• Disciplined/playful
• Realistic/imaginative

• Introverted/ extroverted
• Humble proud
• Traditional/rebellious
• Objective/passionate
• Pain/pleasure

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• So you feel that creativity comes from a
  balance of regimentation and freedom? Yes, but
  freedom is most important of all. Genius lies in
  developing complete and perfect freedom within a
  human being.
• Dr. Yoshiro NakaMats

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• Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen
  and thinking what nobody has thought.
• Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

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• Solving a problem is like looking for valuable
  antiques. You will find only junk unless you
  know what you are looking for. Great new ideas
  are too different from our current thinking, and
  too similar to nonsolutions to be casually
  recognized. But when we know what to look for,
  the probability of finding a great solution
  soars. The ancient genius Archimedes took baths
  all of his life, and each time he entered the
  bath the water rose. But only when he was
  looking for a way to measure the volume of the
  kings crown did he recognize the rising water as
  a brilliant volume-measuring solutionTo find a
  breakthrough that exciting, you must have a clear
  vision of the solutio n that you are seeking.
  Then you too can recognize your answer when you
  step into it.
• Scott Thorpe

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Examining the details of Creativity
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Historical Examination of Creativity (Case study
method)

• Look at people and times to understand creativity
  better
• What traits made them creative?
• What environmental conditions existed?
• What was the process of creativity?

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Question Take out pencil/pen and paper

• What do you think was the most creative time and
  why? (Discuss one)
• Who was the most creative person from any period
  (3500 BC to 1500 AD) and why? (Discuss one)
• What was the most creative moment/invention/creati
  on and why? (Discuss one)

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Creativity needsSkill, Talent, Personality

• Are they in-born or learned?

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Does creativity depend upon skill, talent, or
personality?

• Answer Creativity depends on all three.
• We can all develop more skills in creativity
• Not all will be equal in creativity
• Not all tennis players are equal even though most
  people can improve their tennis with skill
  development
• Skill, talent and personality all play a part in
  successful tennis
• We focused on understanding creativity and
  developing some skills
• We discussed talented people and personality
  traits that enhance creative ability

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Question

• Has your personal creativity increased and if so,
  how?
• What are you going to do in the near future to be
  more creative?

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Thank You
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Learning from many disciplines

• History
• Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China
• Greece
• Rome
• Byzantium
• Islam
• Middle Ages Europe
• Pre-Colombian Americas

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Learning from many disciplines

• Law
• Hammurabi
• Bible
• Draco
• Augustian (Roman)
• Justinian
• Magna Carta

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Learning from many disciplines

• Government
• Kings and pharaohs
• Greek democracy
• Roman Republic
• Roman Empire
• Religious
• Feudal
• Nation

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Learning from many disciplines

• Religion
• Hebrew
• Pagan
• Hindu
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Islam

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Learning from many disciplines

• Architecture
• Ziggurats and pyramids
• Egyptian and Greek temples
• Roman arches, vaults, domes
• Islamic
• Gothic

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Learning from many disciplines

• Science, engineering and technology
• "I can understand it."
• Non-changing entity
• Small whole numbers
• Aristotelian method
• Levers and catapults
• Buoyancy
• Euclidian geometry
• Roman roads
• Ptolemaic universe
• Plows
• Number systems

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Learning from many disciplines

• Sculpture
• Egyptian
• Greek
• Helenistic
• Roman
• Medieval

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Learning from many disciplines

• Painting/mosaics
• Egyptian
• Greek
• Medieval
• Islamic

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Learning from many disciplines

• Music and drama
• Greek tragedies
• Musical scales
• Gregorian chants
• Polyphony (motets, Ars Nova, troubadour)

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Learning from many disciplines

• Philosophy
• Dialectic method
• The Form
• Stoics
• Epicureans
• Scholasticism
• Buddha
• Confucius
• Lao-Tzu

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Learning from many disciplines

• Literature
• Homer
• Aesop
• Vergil
• Chivalry legends
• Dante
• Chaucer