On creativity, an ongoing discussion

[Sepia]

"Imagination, life is your creation"
- Aqua, Barbie Girl

"Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said,
access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world." 
- Michel Houellebecq, H.P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life


The disease is spreading and have been spreading for a long time. My teacher in history, one of the few hours we were reviewing the Nuremberg trials, told us that he had this pet theory about how soldiers that were marching along at preset pace while singing were gradually brainwashed not to think at all. As they were already housed within a military hierarchy and already indoctrinated to do as they were told, the marching and the singing would kill the rest of their free minds. One of those who usually didn't care, who sat in the back of the classroom and liked to brag about the fact that he had never read a book in his entire life began arguing. It wasn't really an argument, more him claiming that his faith did not allow him to believe that could happen, his father you see was in the military. Our teacher then told us that our assignments next week were to practice one of the old German songs sung by regiments during the second world war and goose stepping. Which we did for a whole hour. After that we got a new history teacher assigned to our class.

It is my firm and honest belief that the most accessible route to chaos is through creativity, that creativity is chaos(not necessarily the other way around) and that people in general are scared shitless of creativity because it is chaos. I also believe creativity is something you are born with or pick up at an early age and I see creativity as a disease like some people see autism as a disease. It is a buzzword these days where more and more private schools tell us that creativity can be learned. Further, I believe that within the main category of creativity, there are (atleast) two categories: One that corresponds with perfect pitch and one that corresponds with hard work. I know this is very black and white and there are countless other factors that make up the wholeness of how we are and how we function but humor me.

When you grow conscious of your own creativity, the first thing you discover is that you are very afraid of losing it. Even though you have not mastered it nor have you figured out how to use, you are aware that you are in possession of it, you have it and while you may have been used to trust your intuition at an earlier stage, creativity is something you can manipulate. You know that listening to different kinds of music get you in different kinds of moods. For instance, listening to Aquas Barbie Girl makes me want to torture something, maim it and take its worth away inch by inch and never letting it die. Listening to Barbie Girl while writing I made one piece of very poor limerick that made me giggle to myself which I subsequently deleted and half a chapter in my ongoing saga of 2012. Godspeed you black emperor made me begin to write 2012 and black parade made me continue writing it. Not that I have any love for either Aqua or My chemical romance but it has further cemented my belief in that creativity is one small part of chaos, detached.

Dagbladet, one of Norway's biggest papers and a used-to-be leftist paper turned tabloid the last twenty years have had a poll every year for the last five years asking by phone what job would be your dream job. The top three in all those five years have revolved around the classic (or what I associate with classic) ways of manipulating creativity, mainly the writer, the musician and the painter(the painter is an umbrella). Oh, all ye struggling hearts and artists! The romantic ideals of what one of these are. Fame, fortune, wit and whatnot. This is to be expected with peoples lack of ability to live themselves into other peoples lives, the reason why LARP is a cool idea but horrible when played out.

[Kai]

Some links to other peoples thoughts on creativity.

First, Sir Ken Robinson.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

In this TED talk he speaks of how creativity is inborn, its innate, all children are creative, but it is trained out of us by the time we are adults. He also has a great sense of humour.

Second, Stuart Kauffman talks in his book Reinventing the Sacred about how the historic idea of god should be lead towards worship of the emergent creativity in the universe. He uses scientific rational for the irreducible emergent creativity where all arrows do not point down to physics but rather up to emergent unpredictable processes.

I really suggest watching the video.