It seems that in all aspects of life we are all striving for ‘creativity’, but when I really started to think about this word, what does it mean. When I Google ‘creative’, it comes up with 1,640,000,000 different results. When I use the dictionary to define creative, its explanations are broad and indefinite, as though it’s not really sure itself and leaves the reader to its own interpretations. Is its definition so hard to pin down because it has multiple meanings in different contexts, or because the word is so overused that it’s actually stripped of any meaning itself?
As young children our worlds revolved around creativity, within English culture anyway. We were free spirits with no real responsibilities, encouraged to be imaginative, play games with no physical tools and be able to enjoy ourselves on purely mystical and magical thoughts. Evolving into adolescence, creativity and originality was pushed to the back burner as it was perceived as childish and immature, young adults slowly being introduced into the capitalist society. As if going back to childhood roots, as we grow into adulthood we are pushed into this ideology of bringing a sense of ‘creativity’ to our lives, work, and relationships. To be stripped of this creativity and then try and have it embodied back into our brains could explain why there are so many different definitions and understandings of creativity. Is the meaning of creativity in adults so diverse because it’s a product of whatever we thought creativity was as a child and how we build upon it as adults?
‘ Instead of living from the spontaneous centres, we live from the head. We chew, chew, chew at some theory, some idea. We grind, grind, and grind in our mental consciousness, till we are beside ourselves. Our primary affective centres, our centres of spontaneous being, are so utterly ground round and automatized that they squeak in all stages of disharmony and incipient collapse.’
[D.H. Lawrence, 2005, Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious and Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, Thomas Seltzer]
D.H. Lawrence emphasises that mans psychology and unconsciousness has been ‘infected’ by society from birth. No one will ever use their natural creative minds again as society has constructed artificial frame works in all individuals minds, sharing robot like ideologies of what ‘is’ creative, what ‘isn’t’ creative, what is a good idea, and what is bad idea. For example, imagine someone sat in a meeting who stands up and sings their thoughts on the discussion matter to the rest of the party? Are they ill, mad? Or creative? Pushing social norms? But as D.H. Lawrence explains- creativity is acceptable but only by the boundaries of society’s norms.
However some will argue that creativity exists. If it does then what is it? The word is lazily thrown about with no real meaning, a person claiming they are creative as though their creativity comes from a spiritual process that happens when an idea or product needs to be created. It seems as though businesses, companies and even day to day citizens use creativity as an answer to solving worldwide problems. With predicted recessions, global disasters, aids, famines, global warming, and other political and global issues, it feels like everyone’s waiting for that one person to stand up with the creative idea that will solve our world problems. For example global warming, everyone is trying to do their bit by recycling, car sharing, and other government techniques, but would we all be lying if we denied that we weren’t all waiting for that one big creative solution, like a light switch, one flick and nature is restored without too much destruction to our everyday lives. In many ways creativity can be compared to religious ideologies, it can’t be seen or touched, but we have comfort and faith in knowing it’s there
[Eric M.Roberts, Creative Strength, May 24th 2011, http://ericmroberts.com/2011/05/creative-strength/]
