About Creativity
This text is adapted from the research report “Creativity and technology in the age of AI”, for which I interviewed close to 80 creative professionals in Europe and the United States, to find out more about how creativity and inspiration work, how a creative project unfolds, and how creative pros perceive the emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the creative space. It was a thoroughly fascinating research.
If you are interested, you can download the full research report here.
The little we know about creativity
Creativity is elusive. We recognize when it is present — and we sense its absence when it is not — but what really defines it, how it functions, where it comes from, and how it manifests itself remains largely a mystery. Even the most creative people cannot really fathom its scope (nor do they have a strong inclination to do so.) It would be presumptuous for this research to pretend it can provide clear answers to these questions — yet, in speaking with over 75 creative professionals in the United States and Europe, we managed to outline many overarching, common themes linked to creativity and the way it transforms inspiration to communicate vision and concepts in a tangible way.
Different aspects of creativity
Creativity manifests itself in many different ways, and its parameters should not be limited to intentional creative activity:
Situational creativity is the way in which any human being, confronted with a problem that has no pre-established solution, solves the problem at hand. Confronted with an unfamiliar challenge, situational creativity allows human beings to develop new solutions in a specific situation.
Inspirational creativity, on the other hand, is driven by a desire to realize a vision, elucidate an idea in an engaging, unexpected way.
Executional creativity, finally, is the creativity that flows into the execution of almost any endeavor — and very specifically a creative project; it is the pragmatic/logistical approach to a myriad of individual steps and software operations that are required to produce the desired output.
Creative professionals are acutely aware of these different aspects of creativity; they know that generally not only the initial creative burst at the beginning of a project requires their creativity, but that, in order to deliver what they envision in the beginning, their creative input will be necessary in almost every phase of a project. As one designer put it: “As long as there is a decision to make, there is creativity.” Creatives know that the creative burst that initiates a project is only the first phase; that all phases of the production process will require their creativity, be it inspirational, executional or situational. In any case, for creative professionals, creativity is their core asset, their most precious gift. How they perceive it, and what is common to all the different forms of creativity we have researched will be examined in more detail in the following pages.
Creativity is about engaging with the world
The way creativity works and unfolds in the fields that were researched here is quite different from the well worn stereotype of the lone artist in his ivory tower, driven by the force of his inspiration to produce some mysterious work that he then presents to the world.
Creative professionals are sought out based on the quality of the work they have produced, but every new project is a new challenge, and requires, to some extent, to venture out into the unknown — and this essentially means engaging with the world: with the client, in order to understand his needs, but also with the world at large, in order to find inspiration and the necessary creative thrust. On the receiving end as well, engagement with the world — in other words, the success of the engagement in which the outcome of a creative project is used to engage an audience or a customer, is essential.
Framed differently, for any creative project, the WHY is as important as the WHAT. In other words, the success of the engagement with its intended audience is the ultimate valuation of the outcome of the creative process.
This, in turn, means that the quality and originality of the visual outcome is only one aspect to evaluate when looking at a creative project. This aspect also underscores the complex role of technology, and AI and machine learning (ML) in particular, in the creative project. Technology is enabling the creative to release the potential of his/her vision. Yet, it is technology that defines the boundaries of engagement, by providing an ever-increasing number of distribution channels and platforms, which the creative professional needs to accommodate.
In a nutshell, this tells us that we should focus less on the details of the actual outcome of a creative project, and much more on the multi-layered engagement processes necessary to reach and touch its audience.
Creativity is profoundly human
It should not come as a surprise that literally all the participants in this research view creativity as an essentially human capacity that has as much to do with openness to the world, joy, empathy, even vulnerability, as it has with specific skills or talents. There is strong agreement that, however much has been written about creativity, its essence is not fully (if at all) understood — hence the deep-rooted doubt that AI systems can become truly creative.
Technology, however, is held in high esteem, and the incredible variety and power of tools available is universally appreciated. However, these are perceived as a supporting framework for creativity itself, which happens in the real world and in the connections the creative makes with other people and the client. The notion that an AI-based system could be creative in the full sense of the word, according to the same parameters and standards they apply to their own work, was rejected by the vast majority of the creatives interviewed for this research. In other words, creatives want the support of all the technological possibilities at their disposal, but they do not want to lose control of creativity itself.
Inspiration can come from anywhere
Anything can be inspiring, and where exactly inspiration comes from changes drastically from one creative to the next: Some scour the web for images, get inspiration from work they see on Behance, Pinterest or Instagram. Others do the exact opposite: Their inspiration comes from lateral drifting, seemingly unrelated discussions with friends and colleagues, music, exploring nature, sometimes dreams.
While creativity is often seen as happening inside the head of the creative, what inspires them comes from outside. To be inspired, there is a need to open up to the world around us, and everything it can offer, from scraps of paper on a sidewalk to the work of admired artists or unexpected imagery found on the web.
Serendipity is essential
Serendipitous discovery is often at the heart of inspiration, and it is very important for a majority of creatives. What makes them function, and allows them to get out of inspiration block is very often something unexpected or unrelated. It is clear that they cherish this aspect of creativity: opening up to the world, being touched/inspired by things that have nothing to do with the job at hand.
Creativity is profoundly social
The research interviews also underlined how multi-facetted creativity actually is. If one steps back from a simple outcome-focused view (the creative simply trying to give tangible form to his inspiration), one realizes that we are witnessing a complex process that involves many phases, and is intrinsically linked to social interaction and connectedness to the world. In other words, creativity is intensely social, and stems out of all the interactions the creative has with the world around him.
The most obvious connection is the one that links the creative to the client. This relationship can be almost symbiotic: on one side the designer, who needs the client to realize his creativity, and has to grasp his needs and requirements. The client, on the other hand, relies on the inspiration and vision of the creative in order to attain a goal that has been defined in business terms, but as yet lacks the means to give it shape and form.
The quality of this creative-client interaction is essential to the success of a creative project. It requires trust and open-mindedness on both sides; just as the creative needs to gain a deep understanding of the client’s needs — and in some cases dreams — the client himself has to accept that the creative often can provide a vision that exceeds his own. If this process works well, it can be immensely beneficial for both sides, allowing the creative to fully exploit his capacities, and the client to receive a wider ranging outcome than he initially anticipated. If, on the other hand, this continuous exchange somehow backfires or never comes to fruition, it is counterproductive for both sides. It is therefore hardly surprising communication problems with the client are among the most frequently expressed fears concerning a creative project.
Creativity depends on the interconnectedness of the creative with the world, the client, friends and colleagues. There is also very often a sudden perceived connection with seemingly random, serendipitously discovered elements that feed into the creative process. This connectedness is the bedrock of creative work.
And how do creatives related to AI? We’ll get to that in a future post…
