what is creativity?

[SWM]

What is creativity? Is it a persistent cognitive ability that some people have and others do not? Is it an occasional state that people sometimes enter into?

how does this creativity come about in your experience? How do you do it? What factors are involved? Does being creative make you more creative?

[Simplyme]

you know I always say my son is very creative as he could give you a play by play story that left you wondering if it could actually be a real life story and he is 10. I on the other hand can be creative only on occasion when it comes to drawing but find I have a very poor imagination and can not be creative unless I am in the right mood and setting.

Others I see can derive stories from thin air or draw fantastical masterpieces that just leave you in awe simply on a whim.

[Ricardo]

In my experience, after coming up with a useful creative concept, it can be impossible to effectively explain how it came about. I think in general, I have sort of an "incubation period" if I'm trying to come up with something, so I may go several minutes without a useful starting point at all.

I read a book about dreaming, and I was surprised at how many well-known artistic concepts came from dreams. One famous example I do remember off the top of my head was Mary Shelley's story of Frankenstein. The book said that she dreamed that story.

[SWM]

In my experience, after coming up with a useful creative concept, it can be impossible to effectively explain how it came about. I think in general, I have sort of an "incubation period" if I'm trying to come up with something, so I may go several minutes without a useful starting point at all.

i think i have something similar to this, at first i get an impulse perhaps that i need to create something, then i get this "incubation period" where nothing really is going on and it may be days, that the thought about doing something is with me and i dont know what. then i get it through like a flash something may have triggered it like a dream, or it may be a spontaneous visionary experience. this will give me the my images or ideas that i need to bring into manifestation.

thinking about it their is different processes that take place depending on what i am creating, the above is true for visual or expressive kinds of creation.

but there is other ways the creative process takes me.

when i have to write, i cannot plan and i cannot try to piece things together, i have to sit down at my computer, and just type anything related to what i need to write about until my knowledge and ideas start to come through properly and the writing just flows out.

[janenose]

I think some are more frequently creative than others, but creativity is imagination.  I feel like when given the freedom to be creative, every person has the ability. Being creative does breed more creativity, in my experience.  It's the idea of being "on a roll".  Think about the last time you allowed yourself to be creative - without judgement.  If each of us has an area where our imagination runs quickly, we need to constantly be exploring that area, but we must know which area it is.  Painting, coloring, singing and dancing all seem to be childish at times.  Allowing what we determine to be childish can breed creativity.

[RobinVeloz]

"Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts.Another conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new."
I point this obvious definition out to you to help me explain the fact that creativity has many different sub definitions(More than 60 to be exact).

I can not leave this as it is without at least explaining in my way where creativity comes from,and why we so motivated to use this gift of ours,not just what it is.

It could have something to do with the fact that humans seek control and want to take control of their surroundings.People are very motivated to control the things around them and to discover new connections.

Another factor that may have to contributed to the creativity humans have is that we are all unconsciously synesthetic (Well that's what I believe).And this plays a great part in making connections.

There are five stages in the creative process(Graham Wallas & Richard Smith, in their work Art of Thought, published in 1926).
I found this very helpful and I hope you do too

preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions),

incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening),

intimation (the creative person gets a 'feeling' that a solution is on its way),

illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and

verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).

[SWM]

that is useful and it fits with some of my experiences and gives me some new keywords to think about the process of creativity.

[corwin137]

In another thread about what we're reading (now that I think of it, I don't even think I posted it here...) I noted that I'm reading "Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion" by the stellar biologist/complexity theorist Stewart Kauffman.  Essentially, the book redefines traditional relationship to the word 'god' in favor of 'creativity'.  As such, has some great stuff to say about creativity.  Here's the summary from Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
Kauffman, a complexity theorist at the University of Calgary, sets a huge task for himself in this provocative but difficult book: to find common ground between religion and science by redefining God as not a supernatural Creator but as the natural creativity in the universe. That creativity, says Kauffman, defies scientific assumptions that the biosphere's evolution and human activity can be reduced to physics and are fully governed by natural laws. Kauffman (At Home in the Universe) espouses emergence, the theory of how complex systems self-organize into entities that are far more than the sum of their parts. To bolster the idea of this ceaselessly creative and unpredictable nature, Kauffman draws examples from the biosphere, neurobiology and economics. His definition of God as the fully natural, awesome, creativity that surrounds us is unlikely to convince those with a more traditional take on religion. Similarly, Kauffman's detailed discussions of quantum mechanics to explain emergence are apt to lose all but the most technically inclined readers. Nonetheless, Kauffman raises important questions about the self-organizing potential of natural systems that deserve serious consideration. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
Consider the woven integrated complexity of a living cell after 3.8 billion years of evolution. Is it more awe-inspiring to suppose that a transcendent God fashioned the cell, or to consider that the living organism was created by the evolving biosphere? As the eminent complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman explains in this ambitious and groundbreaking new book, people who do not believe in God have largely lost their sense of the sacred and the deep human legitimacy of our inherited spirituality. For those who believe in a Creator God, no science will ever disprove that belief. In Reinventing the Sacred, Kauffman argues that the science of complexity provides a way to move beyond reductionist science to something new: a unified culture where we see God in the creativity of the universe, biosphere, and humanity. Kauffman explains that the ceaseless natural creativity of the world can be a profound source of meaning, wonder, and further grounding of our place in the universe. His theory carries with it a new ethic for an emerging civilization and a reinterpretation of the divine. He asserts that we are impelled by the imperative of life itself to live with faith and courage-and the fact that we do so is indeed sublime. Reinventing the Sacred will change the way we all think about the evolution of humanity, the universe, faith, and reason.

[corwin137]

Oh yeah- another great book that's related to the thread is "The Artist's Way."  Great if you have artists as clients, or are an artist of any stripe.

[hypnogood]

Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new. From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness.

I think although intuitive creativity a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex.

[S. Earl Martin]

Being a singer, song writer, artist and inventor. I have found creativity to be something very illusive. I have had lyrics or ideas rolling around in my head for years in some cases. I have written and redone somethings over and over and am still not satisfied. Other times some of the best things I have done have taken me very little time in comparison. This is not always the case, but where does this inspiration come from and why are some people's creations more popular than others? As far as music sometimes it is obvious. Either the people can't sing or they have no talent. In the entertainment business it is called "it". They have "it". What "it" is no one can say, but they know "it" when they see or hear "it". The question is how do you turn on the faucet of creativity and what do you do with what comes out?

[SWM]

where does this inspiration come from and why are some people's creations more popular than others?...

...Either the people can't sing or they have no talent. In the entertainment business it is called "it". They have "it". What "it" is no one can say, but they know "it" when they see or hear "it". The question is how do you turn on the faucet of creativity and what do you do with what comes out?

exactly what is it where does it come from?

thinking about it now, it feels like an expression of somethuing internal in much the same way as we communicate our emotions. when we have prompting from with to tlak to some one, to say "hello", or "i love you" this feelings seem to come from somewhere deep inside much like with the creative process they kind of bubble up into consciousness.

[S. Earl Martin]

Good point. Some of the most creative people are also some of the most tortured mentally and even physically. Think of how many peole who have worked all their lives on something only to self destruct. When I am in an emotional crisis I write better music because the emotion motivates me to pour out my feelings. As far as inventions go when I see a need it frustrates me to an extent and that is the primary motivation to solve the need. Action is the result of focusing energy to do "work". Emotion is energy of a sort. So does the emotion give a little extra push?

[SWM]

Good point. Some of the most creative people are also some of the most tortured mentally and even physically. Think of how many peole who have worked all their lives on something only to self destruct. When I am in an emotional crisis I write better music because the emotion motivates me to pour out my feelings. As far as inventions go when I see a need it frustrates me to an extent and that is the primary motivation to solve the need. Action is the result of focusing energy to do "work". Emotion is energy of a sort. So does the emotion give a little extra push?

thinking about the idea of a tormented soul being producing great inspired works. perhaps it is the intensity of thir existence that flows through them into their work. 

i think this is also where emotion comes into creativity too, emotion drives people in one direction or the other. having emotion behind the creative process is definitely motivation.

i am a painter myself, although i dont paint as much as i would like. but when i am moved emotionally by nature or even by man made forms and images that is when i am likely to want to express my experience, i think painting for me is way to capture, explore and express an experience. this is an emotional experience inspired and expressed through a visual experience.

[S. Earl Martin]

Another aspect of creativity is what is created may or may not be socially popular at the time. That doesn't mean it isn't relivant. It just may take time to catch on or it may never be recognized. The effort was still made and what was created has relivance to the creator.