I recently read a substack article by John Warner by way of Austin Kleon where he mentioned AI and creativity. And it got me thinking about what exactly creativity is and who gets to decide what is creative? I would equate this debate to the what is art and who gets to decide debate.
According to Dictionary.com, the number 2 definition of creativity is:
“the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”
Basically it means to be unique, different, come up with new ideas, make and interpret things in your own way.
Some synonyms also from Dictionary.com:
cleverness, genius, inventiveness, originality, resourcefulness, imagination, ingenuity, vision, inspiration.
To sum up, being creative is anything and everything. Each person brings their own perspective and lens through the work they do. Thus everyone is creative as no two people view and interpret the world in the same way.
So do you. Be you. In whatever way that means. Start somewhere, even if that means riffing off someone else, until you make it your own.
Yours in Creativity,
Bridgitte
I'd love to see you expand on this notion, with examples of people who made simple out-of-the-box (can we still say that?) twists on existing ideas and created whole new ideas, products, or worlds.