JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN Archives

PHD-DESIGN Archives


PHD-DESIGN@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN Home

PHD-DESIGN  2003

PHD-DESIGN 2003

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Post New Message

Post New Message

Newsletter Templates

Newsletter Templates

Log Out

Log Out

Change Password

Change Password

Subject:

Creativity in design

From:

Ricardo <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Ricardo <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:30:25 +1100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (76 lines)

Reply

Reply

As a PhD student interested in the topic of creativity, I would like to
contribute to this discussion. I know some will have problems with the
following generalisation, but after extensive literature review I tend to
agree with those who put it simply in the following terms:

"Readers of the Handbook are sometimes confronted by speculation that is
only loosely related to empirical data, by sweeping generalizations that
are not tightly supported by research evidence, and by a level of
theorizing that is too vague (...) An important challenge for the next 50
years of creativity research is to develop a clearer definition of
creativity and to use a combination of research methodologies that will
move the field from speculation to specification." Mayer, Fifty Years of
Creativity Research, a conclusion, in Sternberg, R. (ed), Handbook of
Creativity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 449 460.

Speculation has been indeed a major obstacle to understand creativity, from
anecdotal accounts to self-help manuals. But in academic fields the state
is not a lot clearer. Take for instance the majority of research programs
that start by separating control groups of 'creative individuals'; whatever
the criteria it seems odd to define a priori creative subjects with the
intention to then inspect their characteristics and extract those elements
that are then taught to 'normal' people in order to be creative. These
criteria often include questionnaires or tests to assess thinking styles or
personality profiles, or are based on peer-judgements, or popularity of a
solution, which could be significant if they did not all measure different
things:

"High scores on a creativity test do not signal that one is necessarily
creative in one's actual vocation or avocation, nor is there convincing
evidence that individuals deemed creative by their discipline or culture
necessarily exhibit the kinds of divergent-thinking skills that are the
hallmark of creativity tests. (...) Knowledge that one will be judged on
some criterion of 'creativeness' or 'originality' tends to narrow the scope
of what one can produce; in contrast, the absence of an evaluation seems to
liberate creativity." Gardner, H.: 1993, Creating Minds, an Anatomy of
Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky,
Eliot, Graham and Gandhi, Basic Books, New York

No doubt a considerable body of knowledge has been built in the last
decades on issues around what designers may be interested to call
'creativity' and there is much to learn from these apparently disconnected
research programs. Perhaps one way in which designers and design
researchers may address this difficult question is in relation to their
disciplines. For instance, what is the role of
'what-each-one-of-us-may-call-creativity' in design? Most designers that I
know would seem obvious (arrogantly obvious at times, naively obvious at
others) that design and creativity go hand by hand (is good design
necessarily creative? Christiaans (1992) suggests that the answer is "no"),
and is commonly taken for granted that in design one is constantly seeking
to be creative, so it would seem that there is at least an implicit
knowledge of what is what designers do when they say they are being -or
seeking to be- creative. This stands as a perfectly valid research topic
and one in which significant progress will be made in the next ten years.
That is, once a strong field emerges from the connection of various
existing branches of knowledge and a more suitable combination of research
methodologies are found.

 From my point of view, studies of creativity that focus on internal
characteristics of individuals are very limited as change processes at the
individual level are fundamentally rooted in change processes at the
collective (social / environmental) level, and as some designers show, vice
versa. Treating these in isolation often implies either a mysterious source
that many are still prone to label 'illumination' or 'divine inspiration',
or to simply neglect the generation of new ideas -as in diffusion studies.

I am sure that there are as many views on creativity as members of this
list exist, but it is always interesting to see one of the last remnants of
the Middle Ages in people that still advocate that creativity sits outside
formal human inquiry.

--Ricardo Sosa

References
Christiaans, H.: 1992, Creativity in Design, the Role of Domain Knowledge
in Designing, Lemma BV, Utrecht.

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager