On Creativity

There are many interesting quotes about what creativity is:

• “Creativity is the application of imagination. Problems cannot be solved without imagining a solution and thus, any activity that involves problem solving must in turn involve creative thinking.” - Spark Forum, Falmouth University, 2022
• “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” - Duchamp, 1973, p.140
• “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” - Adams 1997, p.315
• “Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.” – Dorothy Parker
• “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” – Edward de Bono

This quote by Picasso pretty much sums up my experiences of creativity. I remember being frustrated as a child that the idea that I had in mind did not translate to the paper in front of me. I've learnt bit by bit to accept that the first idea or mental image is just the beginning of the creative process.

This leads to the next revelation, well for me it was and still is a revelation, a touch of magic. Somewhere in the creative process, a slight of hand, something unintended, can reveal a solution that just "clicks". Bob Ross refers to this as a "happy little accident."

Facing The Blank Page

For any creative, facing a blank page can be a source of anxiety and fear! What to do? Where to start?

Author Jack London suggests, “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” Here are some methods to help with the blank page impasse, to grease the wheels of creativity so to speak:

1. Brainstorming;
2. Mind Maps;
3. Round Robin;
4. Opposite Thinking;
5. Collage / Cut-up;
6. Mash-up;
7. Crazy Eights;
8. SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Rearrange);
9. Computational Creativity.

Creativity & Analytics

Prof. Tanya Krzywinska of Falmouth University raises an interesting perspective about the need to balance creativity with analytics. Many creative ideas require real world application, that is, monetisation and commercialisation structures are absolutely to be regarded as part of the creative process!

Geoff Petty suggests using as ICEDIP method which bakes creativity and analysis into the process. (Petty 2017) The acronym stands for:

• Inspiration - fun, random ideas, free, ideas on the cuff;
• Clarification - define the goals, what is useful or not, to take what really excites you from inspiration phase;
• Evaluation - Analyse what is useful in reaching the goals, also what is marketable;
• Distillation - decide what to leave in and what to leave out;
• Incubation - letting the unconscious do some of the heavy lifting, sleep on it, direct attention elsewhere;
• Perspiration - hard work!

Re-Mediation Task

In their book, "Remediation: Understanding New Media" (2000), Grusin and Bolter ask the reader to consider how all media constantly borrow from and refashion other media. In this week's challenge (Week 2) we are tasked with taking an existing artifact and remediate it, to change it in some way. For example, take a poem, song, or illustration, and modify it in some way using an ideation techniques listed above.

Choice

After some brainstorming, a bit of ICEDIP (Jeffrey Petty), a dash of search serendipity, I decided to work with Bob Dylan's song called "Subterranean Highway Blues".

David Bowie's use of 'cut ups' to create lyrics (BBC News 2016), this made me wonder if Bob Dylan employed similar methods in creating his lyrics. The video above showing Bob Dylan scrolling through text cards seems to lend weight to this idea.

So I wondered how it would be to remediate the lyrics, taking the card text he displays in the video and arrange them in different places? (The first verse is shown, click the button to view the full song. Strong text shows the original lyric, in brackets strong text is taken from other parts of the song.)

The Lyrics

Johnny's in the basement (alleyway)
mixing up the medicine (black soot)
I'm on the pavement (fire hose)
thinking about the government (scandals)
The man in the trench coat (plain clothes)
badge out, laid off (must bust)
Says he's got a bad cough (clean nose)
wants to get it paid off (no dose)

Thoughts & Lessons

Just looking at the first verse, lyrically I think it's possible, it does invoke different mental images and meaning.

After working with the first verse I did not feel motivated to continue the cut-up / mash-up. I think the point is successfully made that this technique can be used with an existing artifact to foster new ideas, connections, and images, a "remediation".

Not all avenues attempted produce desired results, nor create something that is found interesting and worth pursuing. That is a discovery in itself, part of the creative process, trying different methods and avenues, searching for something, some kind of clarity, an expression.

This reflection brings to mind Scott Adams' quote: “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

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References

ADAMS, Scott. 1997. The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Work-Place Afflictions. 1. paperback ed. New York: HarperBusiness.

BBC NEWS. 2016. How David Bowie used ‘cut ups’ to create lyrics - BBC News [Film]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nlW4EbxTD8 [accessed 9 Jun 2022].

BOB DYLAN. 2015. Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official HD Video) [Film]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0 [accessed 9 Jun 2022].

BOLTER, J. David and Richard Arthur GRUSIN. 2000. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press.

‘Edward De Bono: Creativity Involves Breaking out of Established Patterns in Order to Look at Things in a Different Way.’ 2022. [online]. Available at: https://www.quotes.net/quote/11073 [accessed 9 Jun 2022].

Marcel Duchamp, “The Creative Act,” The Writings of Marcel Duchamp, ed. Michel Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson (New York: Da Capo, 1973), 140.

‘You Can’t Wait for Inspiration. You Have To Go After It With a Club – Quote Investigator’. n.d. [online]. Available at: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/21/inspiration-club/ [accessed 9 Jun 2022].

‘Creativity’. n.d. Geoff Petty [online]. Available at: https://geoffpetty.com/creativity/ [accessed 9 Jun 2022].