Creativity
What Is It? Where Does It Come From? And How Do I Get Some Of It?
B. N. Dent
I WAS GREATLY ENTERTAINED UPON RECENTLY WATCHING season two of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible, but in another way I was hurt. Whilst on the outside, Invincible may come across as your typical two-dimensional superhero story, it is a far cry from that. The show masterfully entwines the intricate web of inter-galactic power dynamics with an exploration of some more subtle themes such as the often-irrational nature of the human condition.
Along with a select few other pieces of entertainment, Invincible is a show that left me starstruck by its sheer creativity. When I think about creativity in this regard, I’m not only referring to the ability of someone or a group to come up with outside the box, abstract ideas, but also the capacity to develop these ideas into a cohesive story which facilitates the formation of intricate characters, and ultimately enthrals viewers. Whether it be from a friend explaining to you the crazy dream they had last night or something else, I think we have all been witness to the fact that most people’s minds can produce some extremely creative ideas. However, only few possess the ability to turn the mind’s mess of creativity into something meaningful.
It is at this point where the show hurt me, leaving me feeling doubtful that I could ever create something so brilliant. I mean, maybe my marks for imaginative writing across the years had already affirmed this idea, but now it truly felt set in stone. It made me wonder, is there a way that I can become a more creative person? To answer this, I think we need to take a look at creativity as a whole.
The origin of the word creativity can be traced as far back as the Sanskrit root ‘kar’ which means ‘to produce’. In the modern setting, creativity refers to the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. Whilst the human concept of creativity might have only been around for a few thousand years, it has existed since the emergence of the first intelligent life form. It is what allowed for these life forms to create solutions to survive in their environments, and it is responsible for driving the development of technology, culture and art, which underpins the human race today.
Contrary to prior simplistic belief that our left brain manages our analytical thinking, and our right brain rules over imagination, it was discovered that the creative thought process correlated with brain activity in three distinctive, large-scale systems: the default mode network, the executive control network, and the salience network. These three systems interact intrinsically and dynamically, to provide a pathway for the creative processes that we utilize every day. Studies conducted using MRI technology have demonstrated that individuals whose brains are able to make faster connections between the three systems had a better ability to generate creative and unusual ideas during thinking activities.
So, from a scientific perspective, it appears that creativity is heavily related to the genetic makeup of the brain, and thus creativity cannot be increased. However, some argue that through simply practicing being creative by doing things such as training yourself to look at the world or ideas through different perspectives, we can increase our creativity. But who knows, maybe that’s just not the case.
