Creativity: Theory and Practice
To come up with new ideas, you have to have space to be messy, to procrastinate, and to let your mind wander and free-associate. But there needs to be a balance. You eventually need to channel it into something concrete, or you won’t produce anything.
Dasha Nekrasova • Jon Rafman and Dasha Nekrasova on the Horror We Call Life
Creativity requires connecting the dots, and connecting the dots requires allowing time for my subconscious to consolidate my ideas and make associations. This means that, from time to time, I need to just stare out the window and do nothing.
This doesn’t feel productive, even though it is.
This doesn’t feel productive, even though it is.
Ozan Varol • You’re doing better than you think. Here’s why. - Ozan Varol
Make space for unstructured creativity. You don’t need to create something useful or beautiful. You could doodle while watching your favorite TV show or imagine alternative endings to a novel you just read. In fact, you don’t need to produce anything at all.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff • Creative aliveness: turning life into a creative adventure
Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous 'I don’t know.'
Wisława Szymborska
"The patterns are simple, but followed together, they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle; reinvent. Build a tangled bank." — Steven Johnson
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Data collection is inherently creative. Depending on the data you choose to collect from the world, you can begin to see the world from a different perspective. Being a data collector means observing the world with curiosity.
Russell Davies • Do Interesting: Notice. Collect. Share
When nature finds itself in need of new ideas, it strives to connect, not protect.
Steven Johnson • Where Good Ideas Come From
Regardless of whether or not we’re formally making art, we are all living as artists. We perceive, filter, and collect data, then curate an experience for ourselves and others based on this information set. Whether we do this consciously or unconsciously, by the mere fact of being alive, we are active participants in the ongoing process of creation
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