So, maybe this topic can avoid the usual pitfalls of this board.

Where does creativity come from? Is it from God? Is it simply a cultivatable, yet still pseudo-random electrochemical state of hyper-neuro-interconnectivity? Or, for all intents and purposes, were the Greeks right about creativity being a gift from goddess-like sources of pure knowledge and beauty?


A couple of my thoughts:

I don't get nearly enough opportunities to court the kinds of creativity that I want to, and I believe that it comes faster/better/easier with practice.

In some ways, it is related to genius, which used to mean a guiding spirit. A person was not a genius, a person would have a genius which enabled him to create and produce amazing things.

I'm not saying anything about belief here, but I often find that my experiences (and descriptions that I hear from other people) can best be described by using the model of a Muse. Sometimes it is with me, and I feel like I am producing magic, with a large number of my favorite and best photography happening in clusters. Sometimes, I realize that it is not with me, and it's frustrating to even try.

Well, I dont have much of a strong opinion about this, basically because I havent really looked into it.

What I think, humans are born with the CAPACITY to be creative, and it is developed over time based on how you use that potential. Its part of what makes us human, superior reasoning skills.

And no ones creativity levels or areas of superiority are the same as the next persons. Ultimately designed that way for the potential of uniqueness and purpose, or random chemical and dna mutations/evolution? I guess thats up to whatever you want to believe.

I think creativity is within the person. My parents are very creative and as such my brother and I are as well. I have friends who were raised in similar environments as me and they are not creative at all. I guess the more I think about it, it deals with your upraising and intelligence. I haven't met many less intelligent people/incredibly intelligent who are creative at all. I think at certain IQ levels its becomes less what if and becomes more fact or what is perceived. I think that if you have an above average IQ you are creative, but if you get up to Mensa level or down to simpleton level its about being creative, at least in an artistic way.

does this make sense at all?

You know what, I may have framed it wrong by using the word Creativity.

I think I'm really talking about creative inspiration. When I have it, I can find/make beauty out of things with much more success than when I don't.

Like, sometimes I can walk around a place and see things in a way that works for me, and I can take pictures that blow my mind. Other times, I just don't feel it, and even if the place is amazing, I can't do anything with it.

we are holographic pixels in an infinite frame sensor. each gathering it's own light as it flows in and recording it, manifesting it so speak in a fashion particular to our spectrum and wavelength. the continuum we exist in is creative at it's most fundamental level, we can't help but follow suit in whatever way that innate quality of creativity moves us to. we just need to be exposed to the Light.

in other words, it's the fucking muses, man

To say it is just one thing is making the very mistakes that religions make in setting up their own story. That somehow it can all be packaged in a box with a neat little bow.

I think of it this way:

Everything is already known in the absolute. Truth unfolds in it's own time, based on what is already known in our subjective reality. From there, inspiration comes from an infinite number of sources and combinations. Practically speaking, if your job has to do with creativity, then you just keep drilling away at whatever your medium is. Work at it everyday without fail, and you have a higher probability of connecting with that which is already known by the universe.

click

Read this for a university course about 15 years ago. I'm re-reading it now.

I voted random crap which would include all the categories mentioned. Coincidentally it looks like I'm holding my first solo art show at TGI Fridays, and will be showing random crap. Art of infiltration. Also TGI Fridays is looking to expand franchises in Libya. Go figure.

I have no artistic ability whatsoever.
None.
I get these great ideas but I have nothing close to the skills needed to execute them. They all, even the stuff that seems pretty mechanical and easily replicated, look like crap when I'm done. I can't even frame a good picture with a camera. I gave up on producing anything close to what I can imagine in a visual media years ago.

But...
I can write a messed up, screwed up, convoluted, sidetrack incorporating, red herring equiped, plot twisted, double crossed, tripple crossed, sneaky, bloodthirsty (TPKs are possible), conspiracy riddled D&D, Top Secret, ShadowRun, CoC, Deadlands, EatherScope, or Space1889 arc like nobodys business. I base my assessment of these skills on the fact I don't have to look for players, they come looking for me.

Everyone has to be good at something I guess.

Posted by underdark I have no artistic ability whatsoever. None. I get these great ideas but I have nothing close to the skills needed to execute them. They all, even the stuff that seems pretty mechanical and easily replicated, look like crap when I'm done. I can't even frame a good picture with a camera. I gave up on producing anything close to what I can imagine in a visual media years ago. Everyone has to be good at something I guess.

A lot of artist don't actually execute their work you know.

The artist may construct the work.
The work may be fabricated.
The need not be done.

I think those are the rules.