CREATIVITY CORNER

It has been a year since the publication of my book, and it’s been very gratifying to get it done and out into the public.  Since I had been so unbelievably busy writing it and then finishing it up, the past year has been spent doing the things I neglected while my head was in the book project.  And while I promised my husband that it would be the last book I will tackle in the immediate future, I have been writing down ideas, and am thinking about how to structure the next one.

I understand very well that most people feel more comfortable imagining creativity as an innate talent of specific people instead of seeing it as a basic human capability – if not even need.  But there are problems with the definitions of creativity: for one thing, anything and everything that is outside of what we consider “normal” can be either dismissed, or called creative.  I have seen thousands of advertisements, for example, that employ the term, yet the concept is positively displaced.  What does it mean to be a “creative accountant,” for example?  Would I really want to have dealings with such a person?  

Outside of loving to put fabrics together to make large (too large!) quilts, I do not have a creative bone in my body.  Yes, I am a good writer which I learned while in graduate school.  I know how to reference properly, and I know how to structure an argument in academic terms. But academia is not a place that encourages free-wheeling (as we understand it) creativity or fun.  

The word “creative” has been used for products and ideas, and websites and people – and adds almost no clarification for those products, ideas, websites or people.  What distinguishes one creative idea or website from others which are not?  Over the years, I have put together a collection of some of the most amazing and funny and ridiculous ads with the word “creative” in them.  In my next blog, I will list some of them for your amusement.

Right now, I am talking to some people about a space to do another creativity workshop.  SAGE is planning on it, once we get the approval for the space, at the end of January/beginning of February 2017. I would like to invite all of you to let me know what you would potentially be interested to discuss.  Do you have an author we should talk about?  A favorite creativity approach?  Specific questions relating to creativity?  I would suggest to integrate the techniques of IDEO, for example, and to talk about mindfulness as a helpful approach to a creative life.  Write to me – monika.reuter@gmail.com - and make some suggestions.  I will then put an event together that would be consistent with your interests.

So – here’s to my first blog!  Better late than never, and definitely more to come.     


Creativity Corner