| About (meta) creativity
On-Creativity |
| •••• disorder
- rearrangement •••• sensibility & intellect
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•••• assembling parts and pieces into a statement of briskness •••• |
| (from: ‘Dawn Papers’ • Abandon1988) |
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| Creativity
Creativity is a mental (sometimes spiritual) and physical process to
interact with the physical (material) world and communal (cultural) tradition
and to actually create new (material-) structures. Creativity is not limited
to 'the arts' but in distinct levels of application spread to all possible
professions and ways of human interaction with each other and with the
physical world.
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| Inspiration
A conditional component of creativity is inspiration:
Nietzsche in his autobiography, Ecce Homo:Nietzsche's experiences of inspiration were (at the very least) overpowering, but differs in intensity - rather than in kind - from the inspiration experienced by 'ordinary' creative people. A popular superficial understanding of the creative process is that
it flows from idea to realization, meaning that someone gets a creative
idea, executes it, and the process is finished:
In some cases such an 'AHA erlebnis' (a sudden whim, Eureka!), directly applicable, in fact could occur, but in most cases the line between idea and realization isn't that straight and short. Anyone who tries to create with an expectation of a straight line from an idea to realization is almost certain set up for failure. It is not hard to understand why so many people do not see themselves as creative, or find creative tasks emotionally bruising, when this model is expected to work. |
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| The mathematician / philospher Ben goertzel arguess that an
individuals 'whole-mind personality level', in certain cases possess creatively-inspired,
largely medium-dependent 'creative subselves'. 'In conjunction with the
Fundamental Principle of Personality Dynamics', he says, 'this idea in itself
gives new insight into the much-discussed relationship between 'inspired'
creativity and madness. A healthy creative person, it is argued, maintains
I-You relationships between their creative subselves and their everyday
subselves. In the mind of a 'mad' creative person, on the other hand, the
relationship is strained and competitive, in the I-It mold'
This view is somewhat analogous to Nietzsche's experiences of inspiration as if it would come from alien sources: 'the idea that one is merely incarnation, merely mouthpiece, merely a medium of overpowering forces'. |
| Idea Another - obviously - conditional component of creativity is 'the idea'. Inspiration would'nt have any meaning (though it probably could occur anyway) if it does not generate ideas. Inspiration and idea are separated here to stipulate that in order for inspiration to become 'a conceptual skeleton', an idea, it has to be merged to consiousness and related (described) to an existing conceptual space. Once inspiration becomes idea it can be communicated, to other people for instance. Maybe ideas are always creative (and always a consequence of inspiration), but ideas can have a life on their own while inspiration is principally individual. ('principally', because inspiration could occur in a group, like a delusion can occur in a group) They tend to devaluate over time (aging) and loose meaning in evolutionary cultural conditions (creativity as an expression of value). Creativity is often - if not always - related to novelty of ideas in science; with a strong emphasis on inspiration (partly maybe because for scientists the 'AHA erlebnis', Eureka! is much more valuable than it is for artists) and not so much on the practical apliance of ideas. Creativity here is the creation of thought, but creativity is to the artist both the creation of thought and material expression of thought. New ideas can be materialized with old means of expression and vice versa. (of course that wouldn't be desireable, but it is possible and indeed daily practice in art) |
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Furthermore it's a given reality that there is rarely a
single idea or a single attempt to realization involved in a creative work
and that the ideas and ways of realization are often more diffuse. Creativity
is in fact a process of feedback and association characterized by oscillating
stages of action and assessment. A more accurate portrayal of the creative
process might look like this:
In this diagram, the creative process occurs in the area between two poles: idea and realization. Between the poles idea and its realization there is an area labeled 'sketch' or rough state. The tools for bridging the 'sketch' state are action (attempting a realization of an idea) and observation (assessing realization - through 'sketch' stages [the sketch stages can also be mental only] in comparison to the idea). Based on the assessment of the first attempt, the idea is adjusted or merely associated and engaged in action again to attempt a new realization through 'sketch' stages. Action and observation oscillate, the idea and realization are adjusted and changed repeatedly until, ideally, the idea and the realization are brought into alignment. (concept development) |
| In this process, quite a bit of both the original idea
and traject of realization can be transformed or discarded. At the end,
however, the gap between the idea and a means of realizing it has been
closed or narrowed. Now, given the same basic idea for a new creative act,
as a result from a learning process, would lead to much shorter gaps and
time lapses.
This is largely the case in ‘popular’ or established art forms, where both the idea and successful means of realization of that idea are within the vernacular of the culture and the emphasis is mainly on crafting rather than conceptual development. However, the yellow circles in the above diagram serves as a reminder that for art forms in which the gap between idea and realization is quite narrow, often high value is placed on details in the realization. The value here is on virtuosity - on having the highly refined skills and automatic knowledge needed to provide a very tight turnaround between an idea and realization. |
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| Conteptual art
With more conceptual art forms - particularly in the field of the relatively new (electronic) mass-media - the creative process tend to present a different picture:
In this diagram there is a wide gap between the idea and the realization, because the idea itself is further from the cultural vernacular: it's experimental, and its means of realization are more difficult - if possible - to establish. Here the value is not on virtuosity and precision as much as it is on the intellect (conceptual development) and stamina needed to identify and negotiate a broad expanse of the unknown through many oscillations of action, observation, association and multiple 'sketch' stages. |
| Robert Barry
On the other hand, it is common in the experimental art world for the idea to have greater weight than the realization. In their extreme, conceptual artists seek to remove the distinction between idea and realization altogether. Consider, for example, Robert Barry's conceptual pieces from 1968 to 1975 (Barry's acclaimed best period - the conceptual period): |
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| This isn't just a text, neither it's poetry, it's a description
of a physical installation, actually realized in it's physical form and
thereby extremely powerful in it's conceptual quality. It doesn't make
sense to draw a diagram for the particular creative process involved in
this example, because it would be comparable - if not identical - to a
diagram of the same process when the ultrasonic device had generated visual
phenomena. In a sense the realization of the piece is arbitrary: it isn't
really necessary to have the device actually in physical reality.
Later works of Barry indeed skipped the entire necessity of physical realization - except of course the realization of the textual material: |
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| Inspirational 'auto-creativity'
There's also a possibility to go to the opposite extreme: start with
a vague idea, execute it with raw intuition, then slowly discover what
the artwork is about and how to realize it. This is known as the 'downhill
skiing' creative methodology: inspirational 'auto-creativity' (or the
'serendipitous' factors in a creative process). Although
this seems to be an inadequate process to construct works of art, in fact
this approach can be extremely creative and fruitfull. Starting with -
almost - nothing and using imagination and associative powers of the unconscious
to - idealistically - end up with profound works of art. In this way several
experiments have been undertaken by Dadaists and surrealists at the beginning
of the 20th century, in visual arts and poetry as well as theatrical events.
Experiments of these kind often bears strong inspirational powers and
are mainly marking U-turns in an individual 'oeuvre' or the start of new
directions in avant-garde trends. |
Inspirational 'auto-creativity' however, must somehow be skillfully integrated into the relevant mental structure. |
'With the help of this mental discipline, even flaws and accidents may be put to creative use. Oliver Sacks reports the case of a jazz drummer suffering from Tourette's syndrome. He is subject to sudden, uncontrollable, muscular tics. These occur, though with reduced frequency, even when he is drumming. As a result, his drumsticks sometimes make unexpected sounds. But this man's musical skill is so great that he can work these supererogatory sounds into his music as he goes along. At worst, he 'covers up' for them. At best, he makes them the seeds of unusual improvisations which he could not otherwise have thought of.' |
| Combined creative processes
The distinctive types of creative processes are in reality not isolated from each other: it's likely that combinations of different approaches - over time - could have been chosen to come to the realization of works of art, while the type of a creative process may change (develop) between earlier and later attempts in a certain area or series of work. What would happen if a number of creative acts, considered as realizations
of distinctive ideas, have been stringed together as another, larger
creative process? Then a situation would arise to what cyberneticists and
theorists refer as ‘meta change’, change that causes a change. By engaging
in meta creation, spanning multiple creative acts, one could speak of 'meta
creativity', resulting in even more uncertainties, but also very challenging
and maybe important to an individual oeuvre or new directions in (a new
avant-garde?) art. Relatively new (electronic) media are by there nature
very suitable for this kind of experiments: interactivity and 'unstable'
content are good vehicles to start with.
[N.B. of course the described meta creativity, causing meta change processes, is not entirely unknown or unprecedented in the history of (modern) art, especially in conceptualism such 'series' forming one distinctive 'process' (rather then 'work') of art, have been produced by a number of artists, often called 'process art' or (in some cases where natural processes were concerned) 'land art' or simply conceptual art. |
| Marcel Duchamp
An early, but still powerfull, example of such a creative proces is the work 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même' (1912-1923) of Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp introduced several extensions to the way art is conceived both to the maker as well as the spectator of art. Looking at his work for 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même' there is a reservoir of 'predictive' contemplations involved. After his 'struggle' with cubism (a personalised interpretation of it: closer to futurism than it was to cubism through it's mechanic/dynamic intention), culminated in the painting 'marieé' (bride) in 1912, he decided to quit painting in a traditional way. That is, he wanted to obtain a more mental - conceptual - structure in order to create and evaluate ideas and a less prescribed 'transparant' material expression of ideas. |
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He wanted to escape from the typical 'retinal art', only for the eyes, and to get rid of styles - i.e. his personal 'La Patte' (the painters paw) and habits of the painter. 'I had to forget with my hands', Duchamp said. In order to accomplish these requirements he had to define (new) constraints and variables some of which were inspired by science and technology. |
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| He started to use technical means like a ruler to make drawings. Maybe this seems trivial, but in that time the use of such was a 'gotspe' a blasphemy. Duchamp said, 'one is led by the impersonality of the ruler'. The ideas he had pouring in now, mainly textual poetic - eclectical - thougths, were kept on small pieces of paper and some larger sketches he worked out on the wall of his studio. Some ideas he worked out in separate works of art. Also, the basis for his visual material had been inspired by earlier works: an earlier painting 'moulin à café' 1911 (coffee-mill) had inspired him to create the 'Broyeuse de chocolat' 1912 & 1914 (chocolate-grinder), which in turn inspired him to key-features in 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même', while the painting 'marieé' inspired him not only to the title (and subject) but also to re-use fragments of this and other works. |
| The 'wasp' The 'wasp', or 'sex cylinder' as Duchamp called it, first emerged in the painting 'de overgang van de maagd naar de bruid' (1912), in the painting 'marieé' the wasp is returning as a central element in the composition, while other fragments in this painting sort of adapt to the particulair form of the wasp. The wasp is also returning in 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même' , maybe as the final destination or at least the most 'isolated self' of the wasp. An other practical example of linked inspiration (i.e. meta creativity) is the influence of the piece 'Broyeuse de chocolat' (in turn inspired by 'moulin à café') on the work: he'd painted the 'Broyeuse de chocolat' (version 2) in a mere technical style and in order represent sharp radial-lines on the stones of the grinder he used white sewing-thread needlework on the painting. |
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| When Duchamp was searching for a less prescribed 'transparent' medium, he tried glass as a layer (on the basis of coincidental association with a painting palette of glass he used before), but that imposed serious implications on him (he initially used a technique of parafine and fluor-acid), which couldn't be sustained. Inspired by the sewing-thread needlework of the 'Broyeuse de chocolat' (version 2) he tried thin metal-wire (led) on the glass, which not only established his new technique but also opened ways of construction with powerfull inspirational properties. |
| Broyeuse de chocolat - version 2 - 1914 |  |
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Fragment of Broyeuse de chocolat, showing the white sewing-thread needlework. |
| On a more 'spritual' level, the conceptual development
of the work continued over a long (very long) period of time. The various
'notes' Duchamp made, collected in a green box (with an actractive dimension
and form to him - which is important), he considered as prematerialized
stages (sketch-stages) of art. At certain intervals in time he would reconcider
the material, linking new ideas to the previous ones.
The 'inactive' stages in time - which aren't inactive in the sense of the unconsious - would provide a renewed sensibility and a mixture of expierences he'd 'build up' outside the frame of the work. Other activities during these stages could be very important, such as the way in which the fragment 'cinematic blooming' began: the 'motion' of a piece of glass curtain hinged in the opening of a window, slightly moving by the wind, attracked his attention and he made some photographs of this scene. In fact he recorded a motion scene - analogous to the works of Jules Etiènne Marey and Edward Muybridge - and later referred to it as: 'cinematic blooming, which can be accepted or reprobated by (the) draught'. This particular act had been inspired by earlier concepts used in paintings, from 'Sad young man in a train' to 'Naked, descending a stairs'. |
| Henri Poincaré - a French mathematician from the
beginning of the 20th century - published in 1908 an extraordinary essay,
'Science and Method'. Poincaré speculates that unconscious processes,
between distinctive periods of active thought, continue to associate ideas,
bringing fertile combinations to consciousness. There is evidence to state
that Duchamp was aware of this particulair publishing and that he decided
to use his 'lazyness' - periods of existential 'breathing' (i. e. a process
of sub-consious thinking) - to serve higher levels of creativity.
Duchamp had a special interest in the science of that time, the mathematician Riemann for example. In an interview he said: 'Naturally, I never read seriously the works of Riemann because I would have been incapable of it' , but he had a very real appreciation for Riemann’s mathematics. It's almost beyond doubt that Poincaré’s essay was known to Duchamp. The avant-garde artists - Duchamp in particular - of that time were keen on scientific and mathematical theory with exotic notions as four-dimensional and non-Euclidean geometries significantly in focus. The work "Marieé" (The Bride) shows evidence of his awareness with Poincaré’s work, the painting of which he claimed to be his first glimpse of the "fourth dimension". |
| If it had not been for the long period of time Duchamp spend (with large intervals) on the work 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même', experiences and linked inspiration and conceptual development wouldn't probably have been as profound in it's results as it is now, but still took too long to complete, perhaps due to it's radical detachement from the vernacular of the culture of that moment. Of course external variables were very important too: what would have happend if Duchamp, his creativity utterly dependand on linked inspiration and linked concept development, had sold his paintings shortly after completion? Or - similarly - if 'agents' or galeries had urged him to 'get on' with the work 'La marieé mise à nu par ses célibataires, même'? |
| Duchamp paid an incredibly high prize for his 'meta creativity',
but fortunately did so in perfect balance with his moderate - often refered
to as nihilistic - philosophy of life.
In 1923 he declared the work as 'finally unfinished'. He started to bundle all of the notes and sketches he made during the work and issued it as the 'Boîte verte' (1934). The Green box and the Glass were now a unity, one continuous - never finishing - living work of / for the mind. |
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| Concluding
Each individual act of a creative process can serve a larger act of
creation rather than being isolated products. It has the potential to place
art in a larger context, and it can become an agent of personal, maybe
even societal, change. More established and commercial art forms tend to
averse from notions as meta creation, because the ideas and means of execution
are largely externally defined. For those who have the option of being
free from these external requirements, and preferably working with the
relatively new (electronic) media, meta creation could be very powerful,
but ideas and criteria for evaluating realizations must be personally defined
of course.
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| This short text about creativity is
not exhaustive and it is certainly by no means an attempt to be scientifically
correct. (I'm no art historian nor psychologist) It simply expands
on the ideas and direction of ABANDON, while various opinions and ideas
expressed here are subjective.
References: On-Creativity - Genius or madness - Creativity as hereditary flaw a critique of sociobiology as a rational superstition By: Steve Mizrach |
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