The Creativity Crisis
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- ukit0
"Plucker recently toured a number of such schools in Shanghai and Beijing. He was amazed by a boy who, for a class science project, rigged a tracking device for his moped with parts from a cell phone."
In a country of 1.3 billion people, we're expected to believe they beat us in creativity based on a single kid hacking his cell phone. And Europe is better in this according to him because...
"The European Union designated 2009 as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, holding conferences on the neuroscience of creativity."
LOL. And wait, also...
"...financing teacher training, and instituting problem-based learning programs—curricula driven by real-world inquiry—for both children and adults"
What the fuck does that mean? It sounds like something you'd read on a Microsoft project overview;)
Even if you're able to decipher it, aren't we kind of overlooking the fact that Europe isn't a single country with a single education policy? I imagine the quality of education is quite different in say, Moldova, versus Germany or France.
In fact, nowhere in the article did he offer a shred of evidence to support his broader point - that the U.S. is worse off than other parts of the world. Let's be charitable and assume that this single "creativity test" (sort of a nebulous concept to begin with) proves beyond a shadow of a doubt creativity is declining. Wouldn't it be equally valid to assume that it's falling across the board, given that TV, video games, and the internet aren't unique to America? The Chinese and Japanese in particular love their video games and internet.
So let's look at the outcomes instead. If, say, China was clocking us in creativity, surely we'd see a flood of groundbreaking modern Chinese music and art, that was completely original and different from what the West has produced? As well as, I guess, Chinese cinema, scientific inventions, product design, etc.
Can anyone really say we've seen that?
China has made amazing progress (and being part Chinese I'm proud of it) but it would be a mistake to attribute it primarily to creativity. It's more accurate, so far, to describe China as the "Wal-Mart" of the world, while we have now become more like the Apple or Google or Goldman Sachs. Like Wal-Mart, any company that supplies a large percentage of the world's stuff is inevitably going to be massively successful. But it would be silly to conflate that with them being superior to us in every respect.
- Morning_star0
@ Whatsup.
I understand where you're coming from BUT Creativity is not and should never be the exclusive playground of a selected few who grace the halls of an Arts based School - it should be encouraged throughout society, at any and every age, whether in a maths lesson or working in a factory.
Creative pursuit's are, by definition, subjective - which is essentially why Van Gogh died a poor man. The issue is: the ability to apply a creative way of approaching everyday situations is declining in the USA. The product of a trained artist, designer, choreographer or whatever is entirely irrelevant.
- JSK0
Lets stop thinking this as it pertains to art.
Creative as in inventive in all areas.
- whatsup0
@ bonecrusher- you try to come off as smart, but due to your disrespect in your language, you're either a closet fag or a foolish troll.
If you've gone to art school and taken a basic or foundation art history class, you can easily see progression in creativity throughout the ages, since cave drawings and early egyptians.
Creativity can come from anywhere, Newsweek has written many inspiring articles in the past, this one failed to hit the proper target in my opinion through a perspective of a creative person.
im out.
- whatsup0
@ morning star
Creative has never been an exclusive playground as it's doors has been open to everyone. However these so called "exclusive playgrounds" as you call it were developed to foster one's direction towards creativity.It's also a misguided information to sound pretentious, if you think that creativity can be taught to kids of all ages. However, only at a certain age can you really teach a kid to understand theories and concepts because many aspects are due to experience of the world around them. The ones who will truly fail are the true creatives when you think you can put a score on their work.
- BoneCrusher0
Change of art styles is not the same thing as creativity.
- whatsup0
@ bone crusher, that is not necessarily true. Change of art styles reflected many issues of the past from lack of photography, and the eruption within it, need for communication in typesetting technology have been met with unique individual styles from calligraphy to the development of serif and san serif.
- whatsup0
Half of me thinks that this article actually brought my creativity down a notch. Why? Because it stands at the forefront of creativity and inspiration, only to draw us down with boring facts and negativity.
There's a reason why they created art and design schools to foster this creativity. I bet if you only surveyed all the design schools, these statistical numbers would change and they would find that creativity has been on the rise ever since and everyone just choose to ignore it til now.
- neue75_bold0
haven't read the article, but it's funny, at least on a design level (which is often far removed from 'creativity') I thought America was just finally starting to produce some interesting work, the likes of Zak Kyes, Project Projects, 2x4, Studio New Work, et al...
- don't get me wrong, sagmeister has done some lovely work...neue75_bold
- oh, and Bill Cahan...neue75_bold
- and of course, gramme...neue75_bold
- I blame the 2 click society...neue75_bold
- gramme's portfolio is basically the only thing holding it all together at this point...ukit
- the great white hope...neue75_bold
- fete of the first world, resting
shoulders, his...neue75_bold
- svante0
Exceptionally well-written, all of it. Here's one:
“When you try to solve a problem, you begin by concentrating on obvious facts and familiar solutions, to see if the answer lies there. This is a mostly left-brain stage of attack. If the answer doesn’t come, the right and left hemispheres of the brain activate together. Neural networks on the right side scan remote memories that could be vaguely relevant. A wide range of distant information that is normally tuned out becomes available to the left hemisphere, which searches for unseen patterns, alternative meanings, and high-level abstractions.
Having glimpsed such a connection, the left brain must quickly lock in on it before it escapes. The attention system must radically reverse gears, going from defocused attention to extremely focused attention. In a flash, the brain pulls together these disparate shreds of thought and binds them into a new single idea that enters consciousness. This is the “aha!” moment of insight, often followed by a spark of pleasure as the brain recognizes the novelty of what it’s come up with.”
- graduate school hogwash is the reason american creativity is declining.... and yes, i went to MFA school...vaxorcist
- When I try to solve a problem I begin by thinking about why the problem needs solving.lukus_W
- MFA school huh?
is that a good school...lolmarychain - MFA School = mutha fuckin art schoolMelanie
- detritus0
I posted this on Another Site recently.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/20…
- colorbookclothing0
whats why i created Colorbook Clothing, all my shirts have my art on them that you can color, they come with fabric markers.. just something differnt to make people use there creative sides run wild
- < bwhahahaneue75_bold
- wait! i didnt say the punch line yet!colorbookclothing
- sorry, thought you were kidding..neue75_bold
- why wont it let me flip through notescolorbookclothing
- jteore0
Left Brain People Are Boring
- ukit0
We invented rock n roll, you ungrateful bastards
- but rock and roll turns everyone into deprived sex addicts on drugsDodecahedron
- And?ukit
- and that makes us less creative.Dodecahedron
- in 1950s
WHat do you invent now?drgz - Well, we sequenced the human genome in 2008.ukit
- Miguex0
On a similar note:
- our ancient education systems are definitely a big part of the problemThelonious_Funk
- Nice, Miguex. Shakespeare had an English teacher! hahasvante
- Excellent lecture. Thanks for posting it.bort
- the guy is so entertaining to listen to also, amazing speakerMiguex
- I couldnt get started on this paper last night, I went and found this again to get started. Great talkIronmonkey
- xcarlx0
has any one here actually driven around this country (i mean outside of LA, NYC, San Fran, and a few other cities.). It has been a creativity desert for years and years.
abandoned down towns, strip malls, box stores and trailer parks/sub divisions with overweight people.
thats it.
- invigorate your creativity with WalMart® ! theres one near you!Thelonious_Funk
- sometimes there's brilliant shit where you least expect it....vaxorcist
- cannonball19780
People use creativity like it's some godsend miracle solution to everything.
OH NOEZ the whales are dying! Get creativity!
THE GULF! creativity will fix it!
Can I haz marketing? Creativity!The world needs "shut the fuck up" screamed at it through a giant megaphone the size of an asteroid.