Creative Natives

I grew up in a house where creativity was a means to an end. And by that I do not mean that we drew pictures and made money. I mean that we solved problems creatively which meant that everyday was different, there was no routine and no expectations. I enjoyed that. I didn’t enjoy school. School – my school – was designed to stifle creativity, it needed a more simplistic ‘checks and balances’ formula to weed out the good from the bad, to separate the first team from the drama class. Come that time when you made your subject choices I noticed that Art, Technical Drawing and Woodwork all fell into the same column. Pick one, not all three boy. Well obviously, art was for poofs, technical drawing for the ‘gifted’ children and woodwork, well, let’s just say he doesn’t need to worry about that Nobel prize. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitter, the world needs more prop forwards. It’s just that you had to be successful at what they prescribed a successful skill. I disagree. What programme would you rather watch, one where a guy solves a life-or-death riddle by carrying the two and dividing by three or MacGyver? Ja. I’ll get to the point. Creativity is the non-conventional solution to a problem that can’t be solved. And what’s more you don’t have to be a woodwork student to have it. I’ve come across mathematicians who possessed more creativity than some of the leading ‘creatives’ in the industry. Buckminster Fuller. Check out his work. You don’t have to shave your head and grow odd facial hair to prove your creative wealth. Give it bash, it can’t hurt. Well, not much.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.