Overview and Creativity

1
Overview and Creativity

• MFG 202
• History of Creativity in the Arts, Sciences and
  Technology

2
What is creativity?

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

3
Elements of Creativity

• Unique (usually thinking)
• Value (usually doing)
• Intent (usually doing)
• Implementation Excellence/Continuation (doing)

4
(No Transcript)
5
Thinking in new ways

• Linear and lateral

6
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

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
ValueOrdinary Creativity (small c)

• Everyone does it
• Doing something you have never done before
• Developing a skill (which many others have also
  mastered)

10

• The average person thinks he isnt.
• --Father Larry Lorenzon

11
ValueExtraordinary Creativity (big C)

• You must impress those who judge your work
• You must make a contribution to the domain

12
Value

• Perhaps what differentiates highly creative
  ideas from ordinary ones is some combined sense
  of beauty, simplicity, and harmony.
• Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach

13
Intent Preparation

• Chance favors the prepared mind.
• Louis Pasteur
• Diligence is the mother of good luck.
• Benjamin Franklin
• It takes a lot of work to get to the point where
  one can be lucky.
• Robert Woodward, Nobel laureate in
  chemistry
• Serendipity

14
Continuance and Implementation Excellence

• Skill level (performance creativity)
• Prodigies not as surprising in skills as in
  understanding (which usually takes experience)

15
How the class helps you in thinking and doing
more creatively

• Lectures and readings
• Linear in details and sequences
• Lateral in relating one period or person to
  another
• Renaissance versus Baroque
• Bacon versus Descartes
• Lateral in comparing themes between readings
• Quizzes test doing ability

16
How the class helps you in thinking and doing
more creatively

• Exams
• Linear in identifications
• Lateral in take home
• Linear and lateral in essays (lateral for
  comparisons and linear for support)
• Timed nature of exam forces implementation
  excellence
• Creative project/paper
• Linear in execution
• Lateral in relationship to history and creativity
• The difference between an A project and a B
  project is big C

17

• Creativity is like cooking a great meal. The
  first essentials are the basic ingredients (such
  as the meat and the potatoes) which must be of
  the finest quality. This is the depth and for
  creativity it is the experience and study within
  the domain. The second important part involves
  the spices. These lift the taste to new areas.
  These are like the lateral thoughts and creative
  thinking skills. They excite the mind to new
  things. Finally, the chef must have passion for
  the meal. This is not easily explained but is
  clearly understood when it is present. It is the
  presentation, the choices, the verve when
  everything is put together. In creativity, it is
  the desire, persistence, and implementation.
• from Goleman, Daniel et al., The Creative
  Spirit, Plume, 1992, p.29-30.

18
Creativity

• Creativity in art, science and humor are
  different aspects of the same things

19
Creativity throughout History

• Affected by the environment or situation of the
  times
• Affected by personal influence
• Vitality of creativity

20

• "After civilizations have reached a peak of
  vitality, they tend to lose their cultural steam
  and decline. An essential element in this
  cultural breakdown is a loss of
  flexibility...Whereas growing civilizations
  display endless variety and versatility, those in
  the process of disintegration show uniformity and
  lack of inventiveness. The loss of flexibility
  in a disintegrating society is accompanied by a
  general loss of harmony among its elements, which
  inevitably leads to the outbreak of social
  discord and disruption.
• The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra

21
First Semester Review

• River societies
• Mesopotamia
• Egypt
• Indus River Valley
• Yellow River Valley

22
First Semester Review

• Greek culture became dominant
• Trade and interaction with other societies
• Humanism
• Philosophy
• Art and science

23
First Semester Review

• Romans applied other cultures and learning
• Greece provided the blueprint
• Practical application
• Government
• Technology
• Art
• Thieves or innovators?

24
First Semester Review

• Byzantium
• Continued the Roman Empire but lost direction
  and, therefore, creativity

25
First Semester Review

• Islam
• Highly creative
• Religion
• Art
• Architecture
• Science
• Literature

26
First Semester Review

• Middle ages creativity lost
• Absence of rule of law
• Absence of leisure time
• Absence of learning
• Corruption in the Catholic church
• Minor revival in days of Charlemagne

27
First Semester Review

• Late Middle ages creativity revival (slowly)
• Positives
• Nations
• Scholasticism
• Gothic
• Dante
• Chaucer
• Discovery
• Negatives
• Great schism in Catholic church

28
Second SemesterCreative Periods

• The Renaissance
• The Reformation
• The Scientific Awakening
• The Baroque
• The Enlightenment
• The Classical
• The Romantic
• The Impressionistic
• The Modern and Post-modern

29
Second SemesterSocietal changes

• 1500 to 1648 Dominated by the issue of what to
  believe in religion (Redefinition of the First
  Estate)
• 1649 to 1789 Dominated by the issue of the mode
  of government (Redefinition of the Second Estate)
• 1790 to present Dominated by the issue of
  social and economic equality (Redefinition of the
  Third Estate)

30
Second Semester

• National Prominence
• 15th CenturyItaly
• 16th CenturySpain
• 17th CenturyFrance
• 18th CenturyEngland
• 19th CenturyGermany
• 20th CenturyAmerica
• 21st Century?

31

• "The illiterate of the twenty-first century will
  not be those who cannot read and write, but those
  who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
• Toffler, Alvin (author of Future Shock), quoted
  in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think Like Einstein,
  Barnes Noble Books, Inc., 2000, p. 26.

32
What will you learn?

• Hopefully To put it all together!
• Example Invention of Kevlar (fiber used to make
  bullet-proof vests)

33

• "To invent, I draw upon my knowledge, intuition,
  creativity, experience, common sense,
  perseverance, flexibility, and hard work. I try
  to visualize that desired product, its
  properties, and means of achieving it. I look
  for unusual developments that can affect the
  process, the polymer, and its properties. Some
  inventions result from unexpected events and the
  ability to recognize these and use them to
  advantage."
• Stephanie Louise Kwolek (inventor of Kevlar),
  quoted in Invention and Technology, Winter 2003,
  p. 62.

34
Thank You
35
Enhancing personal creativity as a consequence of
this class

• Problem
• Encouraging personal creativity
• Giving a grade

36

• It takes a lot of work to get to the point
  where one can be lucky.
• Robert Woodward, Nobel laureate in chemistry

37

• Question What advice would you give to teachers
  to encourage creativity in young people? "I
  think you have to inspire young people to believe
  in themselves and not to fear thinking
  differently. Also, young people should be
  exposed to books about creative people and should
  be able to meet and talk with creative people.
  And I believe the creative process can be taught
  to a certain extent."
• Stephanie Louise Kwolek (inventor of Kevlar),
  quoted in Invention and Technology, Winter 2003,
  p. 62.

38

• "I have no special gift. I am only passionately
  curious."
• Einstein, quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think
  Like Einstein, Barnes Noble Books, Inc., 2000,
  p. 115.

39

• "First, the occurrence of an insight indicates a
  certain degree of mastery of a domain, something
  comparable to being able to speak a language with
  spontaneity. Everyone would agree that skillful
  speaking is controlled by processes that are in
  some sense unconscious we don't know how we
  select the words in a sentence, or exactly how it
  will end. Every sentence is a surprise and a
  miracle. Second, insights often represent a
  moment of consolidation or confirmation, a sort
  of re-cognition of what one already almost knows.
  Third, when the insight occurs, it is
  affectively laden in a way that accentuates the
  experience... "
• Wallace and Gruber, Creative People at Work,
  1989, 18.

40

• I have alluded briefly to a prime motivation
  distinction between task-oriented and
  ego-oriented behavior. Ego-orientation, or
  extrinsic motivation, refers to an attitude
  toward work that is motivated by desire for
  rewards not inherent in the task itself, rewards
  such as recognition, prestige, prizes, money,
  privileges, and power. Task-orientation, or
  intrinsic motivation, refers to an attitude
  toward work that is motivated by the intrinsic
  nature or demand-character of the task
  itself....To these complexities I would add
  another...There is a third actor in the play of
  motives, the World. One is not always free to
  choose the most alluring task, as governed by
  task- and ego-orientations. Extrinsic motivation
  must be subdivided into two categories,
  ego-orientation and world-orientation. The world
  makes its claim on us. True, not everyone
  responds in the same way. Task-orientation,
  ego-orientation, and world-orientation each have
  their appeals. Every creative person must shape
  his or her own motivational profile.
  Historically, the task-ego distinction has been
  thought adequate for many purposes. Now our
  planetary situation is more desperate and the
  world makes more urgent claims on creative people
  everywhere.
• Howard Gruber from Creative People at Work

41

• There are two basic tools of synthetic
  creative activities the science of chemistry
  with its laws and principles, and the body of
  experimental, manipulative techniques. Beyond
  that, chemical synthesis is entirely a creative
  activity, in which art, design, imagination, and
  inspiration play a predominant role.
• Robert Woodward from Art and Science in the
  Synthesis of Organic Compounds

42

• Most people would sooner die than think, in
  fact, they do so.
• -Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

43
Improving your Creativity

• Liberal education
• Reading
• Travel
• General inquisitiveness
• Be persistent
• Think outside the lines

• Be confident
• Be perceptive
• Move away from normal environment
• Use creativity tools
• Listen to this Spirit and intuition

44

• "The wireless telegraph is not difficult to
  understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a
  very long cat. You pull the tail in New York and
  it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the
  same, only without the cat."
• Einstein, Albert, quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How
  to Think Like Einstein, Barnes Noble Books,
  Inc., 2000, p. 61.

45

• "Could the answers you've been seeking be on the
  other side of your head? Your brain is really
  two brains. You use one of them more, but the
  other brain is just as clever in a different way.
  It too has been diligently gathering information
  on your problem, and may have a solution for you.
  However, because of your dominant brain, the
  other brain has had trouble making its opinions
  known. Give your other brain an avenue to
  express its ideas. To divine a solution from
  your other brain, switch hands and techniques...
  If you use words to examine problems, switch to
  pictures. Use words if you think visually... If
  you have been trying to solve your problem
  objectively, you might have a completely
  different perspective if you become emotional
  about it instead."
• Thorpe, Scott, How to Think Like Einstein,
  Barnes Noble Books, Inc., 2000, p. 104-105.

46

• "My invention of Kevlar involved both
  intuition and the scientific process. It also
  involved some good luck and perseverance, when
  conditions looked most hopeless. An eye trained
  to observe small differences in progress and
  product helped too. And creativity made a
  difference."
• Stephanie Louise Kwolek (inventor of Kevlar),
  quoted in Invention and Technology, Winter 2003,
  p. 62.

47

• During the painful process of disintegration the
  society's creativity its ability to respond to
  challenges is not completely lost...Creative
  minorities will appear on the scene and carry on
  the process of challenge-and-response. The
  dominant social institutions will refuse to hand
  over their leading roles to these new cultural
  forces, but they will inevitably go on to decline
  and disintegrate, and the creative minorities may
  be able to transform some of the old elements
  into a new configuration. The process of
  cultural evolution will then continue, but in new
  circumstances and with new protagonists.
• The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra

48

• "Part of the ethos of this class the Spanish
  grandees was to despise work and practicality
  one could choose only between two careers
  soldier or priest, the red and the black or their
  variants explorer or civil servant, the one
  being a kind of soldier, the other a kind of
  'cleric', that is, able to read and write. This
  mighty aloofness from worldly goals offers the
  spectacle, unique in the west, of a society at
  least partly 'anti-materialistic.' Again like old
  Russia ('Muscovy' in the 16C), it lacked a
  bustling middle class and was thus bound to
  resist new ideas, since these often travel as
  by-products of trade and are put forward as
  advantageous. Denouncers of 'bourgeois values'
  should meditate on Spain and its long isolation
  from mainstream European developments. Not until
  the turn of the 19C, when the Spanish-American
  War put an end to the pride of empire, did Spain
  begin to prosper again and seek modernity."
• Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence,
  Perennial, 2000, p106.

49
Creativity and doing

• Creativity and doing can be expressed as a
  mathematical expression (a function, f)
• Creativity f (attitude x knowledge x
  imagination x evaluation)
• Noller, Ruth (quoted in Exploring the Nature
  of Creativity, Jon Michael Fox and Ronni Lea Fox,
  Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 2000, p.13.