ADB May - Association of Dutch Businessmen

CREATIVITY
Creativity: activity on the right side
By Wil Kolen
The
uncreative
mind can spot
wrong
answers, but
it takes a very
creative mind
to spot wrong
questions.
Anthony Jay
What is, or how can we
describe ‘creativity’?
At the basis we can say that
‘creativity’ is the ability to create,
invent, imagine or solve, thereby
enabling one self to generate
a typical uniqueness for an
expression, event or product in a
specific context.
This ability is given to us by
birth as an activity in the right side
of our brain and which over the
years can be developed through
exercises and life experiences.
This development will be
different for each person, depending
on one’s interest the education
given and the social or cultural
environment.
But the character of the
development of creativity is similar
to whether someone becomes a top
soccer player or a neurosurgeon. It’s
all a combination of recognizing talent, persisting
interest, development and nurturing through
specific education or training.
The main problem with the development of
creative ability is that there are no textbooks on
‘how to be creative’.
Creativity cannot be educated in the technical
sense.
Creativity can only be developed and
stimulated through education or a nurturing
environment, yes.
The type of education, however, should then
be merely focused on personal development and
experience through exercise from a young age.
These exercises can then be targeted at
specific areas where the creative activity has to
materialize.
Ultimately, through our various levels of
education (or sometimes no formal education at
all), we all have developed a certain level of
creative ability, but targeted at our field of
interest or profession and answering to certain
demands or requests.
It is therefore a misunderstanding that
‘creativity’ is only linked to the arts and designrelated
disciplines, just because these are the
most recognized creative forms of expression.
Every discipline requires a certain level of
creativity. The main elements that connect
creativity through the various disciplines are the
ability to ‘thinking out of the box’, showing
flexibility and a capacity to problem solving,
which is necessary to make progress and develop
innovative changes.
As our creative capacities are linked to our
personal development, it is the most subjective
element of expression in our society.
History has proven that people (for instance,
artists, scientists, politicians) who think ‘different’,
have had a big problem to get their ideas or
expressions accepted by the common people or by
the ruling authority. But at the same time, thanks
to their persistence and way of thinking, the human
race has made progress in all areas of life. They
were in fact ahead of their time, by not restricting
themselves to follow and accept the existing
knowledge, viewpoints or boundaries, but in
looking beyond that instead.
Creative ability is something we all carry in
our brains; through our imagination we create
new ideas, invent or solve problems however big
or small they may seem.
Over the last century our social environment
has become more and more under the influence of
creative brains that are active in retail, fashion,
advertising, architecture, theatre, art, law, science
and technology.
From a social point of view, the hippie
movement in the 60’s and punk rock movement in
the late 70’s was very upsetting for many people.
The hippies and punk rockers did not care about
the ruling order but followed their instincts
instead. From their extreme viewpoints, new
creative standards in society evolved through the
acceptance of new styles and ideas in fashion,
music, sex, theatre, art and technology.
In this context, the creative expressions
arose out of resistance to social pressure and the
ruling order.
Sometimes, we have to upset first and think in
a revolutionary way to make a breakthrough.
Many scientific discoveries or technical
inventions have been developed out of economical
or social pressure to cure diseases, travel faster
and further, work more efficiently and sadly
enough, also to annihilate each other.
The result of a creative process can be good
or bad but creativity in itself is always right,
never wrong.
The discussion on creativity and its role in
Singapore’s social and economical future has
been going on for a few years now. We will take a
look at the status and position of the creative
development through reviews of plans and ideas
brought forward by the government body MICA
and via interviews with professionals involved in
education, media and the arts here.
5
Vol.15 • No. 4 • May 2005