Last night I attended an event at the British Library: The Neuroscience of Imagination, which included talks by scientists, philosophers, a musician, and a performance by the puppeteers Blind Summit Theatre. During the Q&A at the end, Mark Down of the BST said something about creativity:
I don't remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was that creativity can destroy you.
We usually think about creativity as the creation of something new--something out of nothing--whether it's a story or a song, a painting or a performance. Even if, like a dance or a song, it is performed this was only this one time and can't be re-experienced that way again, it is still something that is created. It's something that is added to the world, not subtracted.
So why might creativity destroy you?
Too often, I show something I have sewn to a friend or talk to someone else about a story I've written, or whatever, and that person says 'You're so creative. I'm not creative'. And my reaction--internal or external--is WHA? I just don't get it, how people completely cut off this part of themselves and say that they are not creative. To me it's like saying you're not able to breathe. I want to say to those people, maybe you haven't found your thing yet. Not everyone can sew or paint or draw or bake or write. But there has to be *something* everyone can do that's creative. And by creative, I don't mean brilliant or perfect or genius. I just mean taking nothing--or a pile of bits & pieces of fabric or wood or, hell, ping-pong balls--and making something new out of it.
Perhaps that's the point:
Making something out of nothing can be terrifying. There is danger there. You share it and you open yourself to judgment. What many people don't realize is that positive feedback can be as bad as negative feedback. If you make something that others say is wonderful, you will be expected to do it again. Even worse, you will expect it from yourself. That voice--the one that says everything you make is shit--will never shut up. You likely thought that first thing you made was crap, so when someone said it was great you learned that your own judgement of your work is wrong to some degree. So imagine how difficult it is to judge your 2nd and 3rd and 735th creation?
And what if you can't get it out of your head? What it you have this image in your head, or a melody or a voice, and no matter how hard you work or how many different ways you try, you can't get the goddamn thing out of your echo-chamber of a head and onto the page or canvas? You eat, breathe, sleep, walk this idea, but if you can't create it, you can't put it to rest.
Your creativity can destroy you.
It will steal time from your life. It will steal attention from your friends and family. It will be a constant voice in your head, asking you what the fuck you think you're doing, writing stories or painting portraits or building furniture or weaving baskets underwater or writing code or baking 17-tier cakes or making films in your back yard. And, in the end, there is no guarantee that you will ever have an audience. You may end up with a pile of stuff taking up physical space as well as huge mental space in your life.
But if you don't try, you will come to the end of your life with the regret that you never attempted to make a creative mark in your own life. And that is a sort of destruction--the destruction of your own soul--that I don't want to consider.
And, finally, consider the term 'creativity'. It isn't a product or a thing, but the possibility. One of the speakers explained creativity as problem solving. If we use that to expand your definition of creativity, we learn that just living is creative. Parenting, studying, working (at a desk or out of the office), and sports, among other activities, are all opportunities to solve problems. Creativity, then, can be a force of making rather than destroying, and we are all, ultimately, creative.
I don't remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was that creativity can destroy you.
We usually think about creativity as the creation of something new--something out of nothing--whether it's a story or a song, a painting or a performance. Even if, like a dance or a song, it is performed this was only this one time and can't be re-experienced that way again, it is still something that is created. It's something that is added to the world, not subtracted.
So why might creativity destroy you?
Too often, I show something I have sewn to a friend or talk to someone else about a story I've written, or whatever, and that person says 'You're so creative. I'm not creative'. And my reaction--internal or external--is WHA? I just don't get it, how people completely cut off this part of themselves and say that they are not creative. To me it's like saying you're not able to breathe. I want to say to those people, maybe you haven't found your thing yet. Not everyone can sew or paint or draw or bake or write. But there has to be *something* everyone can do that's creative. And by creative, I don't mean brilliant or perfect or genius. I just mean taking nothing--or a pile of bits & pieces of fabric or wood or, hell, ping-pong balls--and making something new out of it.
Perhaps that's the point:
Making something out of nothing can be terrifying. There is danger there. You share it and you open yourself to judgment. What many people don't realize is that positive feedback can be as bad as negative feedback. If you make something that others say is wonderful, you will be expected to do it again. Even worse, you will expect it from yourself. That voice--the one that says everything you make is shit--will never shut up. You likely thought that first thing you made was crap, so when someone said it was great you learned that your own judgement of your work is wrong to some degree. So imagine how difficult it is to judge your 2nd and 3rd and 735th creation?
And what if you can't get it out of your head? What it you have this image in your head, or a melody or a voice, and no matter how hard you work or how many different ways you try, you can't get the goddamn thing out of your echo-chamber of a head and onto the page or canvas? You eat, breathe, sleep, walk this idea, but if you can't create it, you can't put it to rest.
Your creativity can destroy you.
It will steal time from your life. It will steal attention from your friends and family. It will be a constant voice in your head, asking you what the fuck you think you're doing, writing stories or painting portraits or building furniture or weaving baskets underwater or writing code or baking 17-tier cakes or making films in your back yard. And, in the end, there is no guarantee that you will ever have an audience. You may end up with a pile of stuff taking up physical space as well as huge mental space in your life.
But if you don't try, you will come to the end of your life with the regret that you never attempted to make a creative mark in your own life. And that is a sort of destruction--the destruction of your own soul--that I don't want to consider.
And, finally, consider the term 'creativity'. It isn't a product or a thing, but the possibility. One of the speakers explained creativity as problem solving. If we use that to expand your definition of creativity, we learn that just living is creative. Parenting, studying, working (at a desk or out of the office), and sports, among other activities, are all opportunities to solve problems. Creativity, then, can be a force of making rather than destroying, and we are all, ultimately, creative.
RSS Feed