Jenny Filipetti
Aug 28, 2017 · 1 min read

It seems in many ways to be a new concept not just word — though all of this is ongoing exploration, so ideas and interpretations welcomed from anyone reading!

At least in the West, historically art and other ventures that today we’d consider “creative” were considered at best discovery or displays of skill (ala techne) but not the synthesis of something novel; other older words like imaginative likewise aren’t exact fits. Thinking about both the history of science and cultural paradigms, it rings true to me that we couldn’t conceive of creativity outright until we began to privilege the individual human mind over “nature,” religion, or society. I’d highly recommend Nelson’s work and the other references for more detail on the constellation of ideas in the English language from which we might consider the notion of creativity to have grown!

Having said that, one word/concept that I think does get closer than anything I’ve seen looked at in the literature is ingenious, which enters English in the early 15th century (and Italian as ingegnoso in the 13th). Instinct tells me there is a difference here in how the term is applied, but I need to investigate further. Still, I hope this might prove an entry point into what related notions looked like in the humanist Renaissance, which of course espoused the potential of individual capability (and produced in Leonardo da Vinci today’s de facto icon of creativity).

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    Jenny Filipetti

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    Electronic media artist + technology educator. Stay in touch @jennyfilipetti on Twitter and Medium.