Creativity Theories

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)

Agree. I think this is definitely true. Everyone possess the ability to be creative, just some creativity is used in different ways and some is not necessarily as obvious. Some people probably possess more creativity than others but when required everyone has the ability to achieve this. People often are more creative when they do not acknowledge the fact that they are being so. 

"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)

Agree. I think this depicts creativity well, they describe the majority of the creative process; almost everything is inspired by something else, but is rearranged to apply to the new idea being created.

 "Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)

Agree. I think this explains the idea of us finding something creative and appreciating it because it relates to something we find relevant or interesting. If it held no meaning in our culture then we would be unable to appreciate what it is. The person who creates it needs to understand the relevance it holds and people need to be competent in the knowledge of the culture to appreciate it. I think this is how it works. So much creativity is appreciated because of the understanding of the references or inspiration of it.

"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)

Agree. I can definitely relate to this. I rarely never relate work to another piece or something I can identify with. I have things I like and dislike and often this affects my judgement on pieces. Sometimes I like things because they are different in comparison to something and sometimes because they fall exactly into what I like. 

“Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production”

Disagree. If anything I would say it has expanded it. It has allowed for a wider exposure of creativity to inspire and innovate new ideas .  It makes previously difficult processes easier and quicker allowing more time for the creativity. I can see the view point in which the quote was made. Technology comes with certain limits and so to an extent everything can only be creative to a limit. However I don't feel like this is extensive enough to make such a statement or that it considers the input of manual work that goes with technology in order to be creative. 

I think the first two quotes apply to my coursework. Creativity is possessed by everyone, I just think when people enjoy a task or understand an idea better their creativity is more prominent. For example, I enjoy the idea of creating work on Photoshop more than I do on Premiere Elements, so I felt I could be more creative using Photoshop because I have a better understanding of how that works. 

The second applies to all the work I have done. Everything I have created has either been something old re arranged or something new I have come up with all mixed in together.