#creativity definition

[creativity-peoplecentrum]

The visual world of infants is a “booming and buzzing confusion”, as 19th century psychologist and philosopher William James said. Indeed, as soon as babies are born, their vision undergoes many rapid developments during the first year. Images that appear gray, hazy, and out of focus in the first few weeks become more defined and and colorful in the next months. When these blurs start to become clearer to the child, that’s when the journey toward creativity and visual development begins.

[jted]

Copy Transform Combine

According to Kirby Ferguson, creator of the web series Everything is a Remix, these are the basic elements of creativity: Copy, Transform, and Combine. It is encouraging to see how similar his thesis is to my own, including the graphics, language, and examples he uses.

I've always said that the fundamental elements of creativity are action, connection, and deviation. (see slide 31 of How to Create More Better Different) These correlate quite well:

Copying is action: getting practice and experience by doing. 

Combining is connection: making associations and gaining understanding by fitting the right things together.

Transforming is deviation: making something unique through experimentation and expressing it in a way that hasn't been done before.

Kirby says Everything is a Remix. I say Creativity is the act of connecting things in unexpected ways. I look forward to the final conclusion in Part 4.

From Everything is a Remix Part 3 (by Kirby Ferguson via @nery78)