Creative People

Creativity comes in many forms; people, art, science, technology, and many more. When we think about the world creative we tend to immediately go to an object or work of art that we have seen at some point and believe it to be creative. But like my previous post on Hitler showed, a single person can be creative in numerous ways; which is why perhaps it’s a good idea to look at a person for your inspiration rather than just an object.

A few that I have learned about this semester are:

• Lorenzo De Medici who improved his city with art.
• Leonardo da Vinci who was able to use so many different areas of expertise and put them in to one large creative lump sum; he was an artist, scientist, technologist, engineer, and writer.
• Michelangelo the create sculptor who could visualize his finished product before ever even chipping the first piece off the marble.
• Elizabeth I who solved problems using a creative mind and made her kingdom so successful that they named the era after her.
• William Shakespeare who changed plays and the English language as we know it.
• Artemisia Gentileschi one of the few woman artists that was able to thrive and burn down the many walls placed in her way.
• Lorenzo Bernini who was willing to go up against the much admired Michelangelo and take on artistic projects that no one else even dared to.
• John Locke whose political creativity showed the world that governments existed to protect fundamental rights.
• Louis XIV Who may not have been creative in a way we admire but was able to use creativity in his power to make people do exactly what he wanted them to do.
• Isaac Newton used his scientific creativity to give us the laws of motion and show the world that objects fell to the ground for a reason—gravity.
• Johann Sebastian Bach taught us that even though you can be very talented and a master in creativity you can still give back to your community and make the world a better place.
• Louis Pasteur used his knowledge and the education he had received throughout his life to learn new things and make new discoveries. He took every chance that was placed before him.

These are just a few of the many creative people that live and have lived to show us easy it can be. Who are some people in your own life (living or dead) that you deem to be your creative inspiration? And why?

Was Hitler Creative?

Hitler is one of those names associated with evil, horror, extremism, disgust, and so much more. But could it also be associated with the word creative? When we dig a little deeper into the life of Hitler and how he rose to power he is actually a very creative person. Hitler was an extremely influential speaker who would gain the love and hearts of many Germans through his silver tongue. 

After the Treaty of Versailles basically cut Germany to shreds Hitler used his creative speech to gain the admiration of the public and eventually become their Chancellor. He promised to get rid of the Treaty, to get more land for Germany, and to bring back the German pride.

He knew that the people of Germany were still very mad at von Papan for signing the Treaty of Versailles and for the rut the Treaty put Germany in. Hitler didn’t want the people to take that anger out on him so he geared it toward the Jews and made it so that all the people hated the Jews and wanted them all dead. This was obviously not a kind or exemplar way to deal with this problem but it was in fact a creative way. 

Creativity is not always used for the better; in some cases, as we can see from Hitler’s rise to power, it’s used in a way that is later seen as not beneficial, but that doesn't mean it wasn't creative at the time.

Does anyone else know of some examples of how creativity can be used for both good and bad?

Quotes to Inspire #3

“I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent” – Thomas Edison

Create with a purpose. Oftentimes if we don't have an idea of what it is we are looking for we won't find it. If we have an end result we know we want to accomplish the journey is that made that much easier. Thomas Edison says it best as he tells us all to think about what is needed and then proceed to create it.

Best Inventions

What was the most innovative or important invention ever made? Tough question isn’t it…

A few suggestions could be found from the 1700 and 1800s. Eli Whitney created rifles with interchangeable parts, prior to this invention if a gun broke the part had to be specifically made to fit that particular weapon. 

This seems nuts to us these days as it’s only common sense to make interchangeable parts for items that have a large chance of being broken. But for the time period this was a marvelous and innovative invention that saved lots of time and money.

In 1807 Robert Fulton made a steamboat which allowed ships to be free from unknown weather patterns.

And in 1869 the transcontinental railroad was completed which literally connected the entire united states from coast to coast. 

Communication was forever changed when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone (and this was once again forever changed when the internet was created in the 1990s). 

courtesy of Flickr by macinate

Then there is Thomas Edison…he invented the vote recorder, a stock ticker tape machine, the phonograph, the electric light, motion pictures, a storage batter, a cement mixer, the Dictaphone, and a duplicating machine to name a few. Thomas Edison, to this day, had more patents than any other American!

And that’s just a few from the 1700 and 1800s! There were countless inventions then and countless have been created since then.

So what do you think was the best invention ever made?

Quotes to Inspire #2

“The secret of life…is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” - Paulo Coelho, from The Alchemist

This is a great quote to learn from, the people that succeed in life are not the ones that only thought of one brilliant idea...they thought of 600 hundred bad ideas and then discovered a good one. We have to keep trying and trying if we ever want to be successful with our creativity. What kinds of bad ideas have you come up with when trying to solve a problem or be creative?

Do Rules Hinder Creativity?

Do rules hinder creativity?

Can they? Sure….do they have to? No! In fact more often than not the rules help creativity flourish. 

Take the era of Classical music for example. Music needed to have a form or structure in order to allow the composer to communicate with the listener. The form of music gives meaning to the piece and allows the composer to communicate with e audience. Without any form to music it is hard to get the listener to stay on track with the composer’s thoughts. 

If we examine the world around us we realize that it is full of rules. It is rules that make everything function properly and it is rules that help us understand our surroundings. So it would only be logical that rules would help set the mind in the right direction in accordance with how to be creative. 

To emphasize this idea further think about how broad the idea of creativity is. If someone were to tell you to do something creative today there are millions upon millions of different things you could do to fulfill that task. This can be overwhelming to our minds and when we have so many choices it’s hard to even think of one! But if someone were to tell you to do something creative while cooking today it would narrow the spectrum and allow your mind to think of specific ideas. Rules help our minds sort things into categories so that they are easier to pull from as we experience life.

So while at first when someone asks if rules hinder creativity you might think yes! With rules I won’t be able to do certain things that my mind comes up with; but in reality it is rules that help us think of those creative ideas to begin with.  

Have you had any experiences with rules and creativity where they either hindered or helped your creative processes?

Science vrs. Technology

Oftentimes we clump science and technology together as if they were one in the same; but in reality Science is something completely different from Technology.

Science is the process of understanding the environment and of organizing that knowledge (History of Creativity—Brent Strong, Mark Davis).

Technology is the combination of skill and creativity by which people master their environment (History of Creativity—Brent Strong, Mark Davis). 

Science USES technology, and technology USES science but they are not one in the same. From these definitions we can begin to understand how science changes slowly while technology is changing faster than I change my clothes.

We live in a world, and especially a country, where laptops, tablets, cell phones, TVs, and the like are being created, enhanced, and recreated every day. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t use at least ONE of the things mentioned and I’m sure if I were to count how frequently I used technology in general in just one day it would be close to the number of times I blink. 

We are also privileged to live in a time where new scientific discoveries are being made quite frequently as well; while it doesn’t compare to the number of advancements in technology, scientific discoveries are more abundant now than they were previous to the 1470’s—when the Scientific Awakening began.

Previous to this awakening there was no such thing as a scientific discovery; people believed that ancient philosophers had already discovered “truth,” so anything scientists said that was new would go against that truth. Could you imagine what life would be like if we all took this kind of view? What if we felt this way about everything in our world…our lives and work would become stagnant with no new ideas or creations. In an essence…creativity would cease to exist!

So don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong, keep your mind open to new ideas a dreams always. When our minds our open our worlds are too.