For creative people across a diversity of disciplines (science, art, media) the usefulness of their work is a secondary interest. Something else is primary. Bohm questions whether
1. the scientist wants to predict natural phenomena to be able to participate intelligently in nature's process - yet the content of each piece of research is, in itself, actually quite trivial.
2. the scientist likes to solve puzzles as the challenge of explaining a natural process by showing how it works - yet the realisation that ideas are false or wrong leads to disappointment and failure.
Neither of these stacks up. The scientist is seeking more than pleasure - rather the discovery of new knowledge, of a fundamental significance. To do this the researcher has to create structure, instruments, testing, and disclosure.
A structure of ideas to demonstrate their harmony and relationship to each other
Instruments that measure in order to aid perception and understanding.
Testing methods to review ideas for truth or falsity
Disclosure of new and unexpected findings.
To be original, the researcher needs to identify how to prevent the imposition of preconceptions on facts as seen. This means ideas and suppositions valued by the researcher may be overturned. Small children habitually try something out, find out what happens, and modify/repeat in order to learn. By school age learning taken on a narrower meaning. Schooling uses repetition to gain knowledge in order to please a teacher and pass exams. The workplace does the same. So the ability to see something new and original is atrophied. Learning needs to be a constant in order for links to be seen between diverse situations, and this frame of mind can lead towards new knowledge. Schooling also trains students not to make mistakes, yet this is where the new insight is often found. Fear of mistakes is stilting and restrictive.
The competent researcher needs to be observant and sensitive in the creative situation. Real originality and creativity requires a search to identify the differences between actual fact and one's preconceived notions. I think this thought is critical to my worries about my cross stitch samplers not being original. Although they are a very traditional form, which can be said to paint a portrait of the maker, I don't think I have seen any with the values and skills portrayed in the way I want to do mine. I need to refine my perception of what is new and different in my work from what I have gained from previous knowledge.
Bohm asks a good question "What is characteristic of the results of creative action?" i.e. scientific theory, artwork, building, parenting. There is a need to distinguish between the occasional act and the discovery of something truly new and creative. A creation of a new basic order with potential significance in a broad and rich field.
Bohm notes the importance of noting similarities and differences. By becoming aware of patterns in specific disciplines, one may notice similarities and differences in other fields that emulate them. This leads to the application of ideas in new contexts. Eg Archimedes principle that the volume of an object, was the same as the volume of water displaced by submerging it in water. This pattern of original thought is stunted by western schooling as it creates a conformist, imitative, mechanical state of mind designed to pass standardised exams. Also the inclination to enquire into the unknown, threatens the successful achievement of narrow and limited goals. New steps may fail altogether. The acceptance of this potential failure is essential to the creative environment.
The key is in the mindset of the individual. Schooling trains people to be mechanical when creativity is what is needed. In 21st century fast-paced change, creative people are able to accommodate the new; mechanical people are not. Deep and far-reaching problems can be solved in any field by people who are able to respond in a new and creative way. However, each person has to discover what it means to be original and creative. This is hard work, and will involve stages of failure. The health of the mind requires us to be creative. It is the responsibility of the individual to make the first step, to define their own meaning of creativity. Working to someone else's definition of creativity is a waste of time.
Centuries of schooling have educated us to believe everything can be achieved by technique and method. But originality and creativity are not among these. Having your own definition of creativity and following it is the route to originality.
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