Monday, December 9, 2013

Chris Bilton and the Boundaries of Creativity


Below are two quotes from the start of Chris Bilton's excellent book, Management and Creativity, that describe tensions between the creative act and the environment it occurs in. 
...Creativity is not to be located in one state of mind, one room, one type of person, one individual. Rather it lies in the transition points between different ways of thinking.

Chris Bilton, Management and Creativity, p. 2
First, creativity must produce something new. Secondly, creativity must produce something valuable or useful. (This is the duality of creativity).
It is through the combination of different styles of thinking that the duality of creativity is likely to emerge. Similarly, creative work is more likely to meet our criteria (of value or usefulness) if it takes place within certain boundaries, working within but also challenging expectations. If positioned too far 'outside the box', creative thinking is novel without being valuable and can no longer connect with an assessment of its value... Positioned towards the edge of the conceptual space, the creative idea can build upon what is already known and understood while at the same time pushing those boundaries a little further. 
Chris Bilton, Management and Creativity, pp 4, 5

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