Imagination and inspiration

Imagination and adaptation -

the story of extra-ordinary ordinary humans

Necessity the mother 

In the ascent of man only our imagination, our ability to ask "what if" and act on it, sets us apart.  Skills development runs in parallel to our imagination and the creative process. We work on our skills because there is a practical need to do so - need to fix the roof? These days we pop on to YouTube, we learn the process of felting, battening, and re-tiling and we are dry. We do this because we have to. Some of us pay the trader! Only when the "roof is fixed", as everyone else in the house would loudly affirm, can we move on to higher-order things! Building CrE8tive Place will appeal to those fixing roofs and putting food on the table. 

Welder-come-comedian 

There is an intrinsic desire for humans to improve. Chances are that talents go untapped. We might keep chipping away at the golf, obviously discovering the talent ceiling. It is called, with some cruel irony, the handicap. Most people painfully love golf but it doesn't turn into something else.

                                                       Billy Connolly perfected the art of welding. From all accounts, he was a                                                               good welder, but that was not him. He took up playing the banjo and that                                                         was him. He became very good at that and played in clubs. He was an                                                                 expert hobbyist and this became his new job. Whilst at the clubs he                                                                       discovered he was good at telling stories and, especially, the stories that                                                             made people laugh. As a "rambling man," there was never a shortage of                                                             adventurous stories with hilarious and fallible characters to talk about. But for some time he remained, principally, a musician. His bandmate Gerry (Rafferty) was a better songwriter and Billy's stories were getting longer and were having the audiences in raptures. This was him. He was in his element. 

Welder-come-artist-come-welder

The sculpture artist Antony Gormley completes a body sculpture by placing two halves of a plaster construction together, strengthening the case with a fiberglass coating. Finally, he coats this shell with a layer of roofing lead, welding it. But instead of trying to hide the welded marks and lines, Gormley embraces them as part of the creative process. He is so much in his element he has decribed reaching a "meditative state" in his work. This could be described as "flow." He is an expert welder and

has expert knowledge of materials. He is in his element when working with them to construct something original and of value. 

Geniuses need only apply 

Some appear immediately gifted and talented. Mozart must have sat at that piano,

having been given intensive lessons, and in very short time marched in to impress

Louis XV.  History. A duck to water. A natural. It all comes oh so easily. Talented.

Gifted. Mozart? Not me. Not!! 

Creative? Able to do great things that really mean something to me, and perhaps later, to others? Yes.

Extra-ordinary ordinary people  

Creators (not writers) Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt came up with a reality TV show about us watching them watching television.  Not a chance? Stupid idea? Some detest that kind of thing. Many do not. It was called Gogglebox and it's on to its twenty-third series enjoyed by  millions of people. It has taken home seventeen prestigious awards including BAFTAs. The secret ingredient is the families. They are all extra-ordinarily ordinary. Their instant humour is a joy. They are in their element watching the telly!  This is not ordinary television and it has become a new art form.

Like it or not, it is innovative.

The importance of vision and higher-level skills

Unless the work is spontaneous, and some is,  innovation must involve original thinking and a clear vision of what is to be achieved. Personal subconscious drivers are at play. It is an easier, but not easy, path when we are working in our element. We reach our full potential through what Goldstein, and later Maslow, framed as "self-actualization." This is where we use our honed skills at a higher level with increased competency and apply those skills creatively and quite naturally. 

Under threat? Move out!

If we are under threat or have the residual trauma of a threatened experience, or even if we feel "ill at ease" or "unloved", we will need to change our culture, our environment or both to improve our chances of becoming our creative best.  During the mid-19th century, Paris was the creative centre of the art world. Artists, writers, poets and musicians from all across the world flocked to the French capital. In the 1960's many musicians moved to Laurel Canyon and London to be inspired, to collaborate and to strengthen their work. In the 80s and 90's it was Manchester. Environment and culture are vital to the creative process. Meaningful conversations and powerful stimuli help us think differently. Our spiritual and intellectual capacities are enormous, but we do need the right culture and the right environment. CrE8ive Place can be one avenue worth trying. We think so.  

Intuition, spontaneity and gut 

When it comes to creativity intuition, spontaneity and gut should never be under-estimated.  It first comes to mind in that light bulb moment influenced from somewhere in the gut. 

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that our brains are hard-wired to rely on gut or instinct, guiding us toward not only survival but success.  Albert Einstein was a particular proponent of going

with intuition and instinct.  

 

Coco Chanel’s strategy - “Fashion is in the air, born upon the wind. One intuits it.” 

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Elvis' gyrations were inspired by his experiences of the evangelical gospel church.

Elvis also witnessed the expressive spiritual movements of black performers

who had been influenced by gospel church themselves. Elvis' individuality 

was not recognised or valued in his school days at Tupolo,  Mississippin't where

he was not allowed into the Glee Club!

 

"Creativity is call and response, one idea can catalyze a multitude more in the minds of other people." Sir Ken Robinson

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The light bulb moment is a "what if?" moment that can lead to something brilliant and different.

You can wake up one morning and that is it. The key is to act on it. Only then are you being creative.

Collaborative conversations can be very powerful in promoting creativity. 

 

Strictly human 

Imagination is the spark that ignites creativity. Our emotional experiences and how we interpret them in our imaginations is what sets us apart. It is what makes us human. 

Artificial Intelligence will be able to do so much in the coming years, but it will never be human. People take personal experiences and emotions and make something strictly personal from that. No-one else feels or has experienced what you have. AI is different. It can steal the wisdom of others and spew it out as if it were its own. What do you think of the "AI poem by Blake" vs"Blake original below. 

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