How many times have we looked at photographs or paintings, read a book or listened to music and then find ourselves stopping and wondering to ourselves or thinking out loud “How in the heck did the artist ever come up with that idea?” There obviously was something that inspired them to create what we are seeing, reading or hearing. How to find inspiration is something everyone struggles with in the creative fields.
Everyone!
Our cognitive biases reaffirm our beliefs, shielding us from accepting the possibility there are other ways of doing things. Something such as the way we go about photographing the railroad has been reinforced through habitual thought patterns. “I must stand near the tracks and create a wedge like composition.” “I must have light on the nose.” “The train must be coming towards me.” “The sun must be behind me.” “I must compose by the rule of thirds.”
Talk about complacency. And a robbing of inspiration, creativity and voice.
These unconscious biases are reinforced through rampant social media praise which obliviously paralyzes us into a rut of status quo biased action. We do what others do, as this was the first information we gathered on how to go about taking a photo of a train, we learned by mimicking others. It can be hard for us to change our way of thinking, but if we can become aware of our biases, we can move past the bondage of conditioned thought.
What do we need to do to find inspiration? We can be inspired to get out near the rails and take photographs, but if we don’t add creativity into the mix, we will continue to take the same photographs as we have in the past and eventually feel fatigued due to the limiting beliefs that we are not creative.
We need to find ways to embrace the creative spirit we were all born with, but the indoctrination centers known as school have over time seemingly beat this out of us, through the belief there is only one right answer to any question or problem. And if we didn’t produce the “correct” answer, we began to slowly stifle our creativity out of fear and ridicule of being wrong. So, we fall in line, letting a portion of ourselves perish in the process.
The groupthink of the gatekeepers of railroad photography has beaten the creativity
Are we underestimating the importance of creativity? Many times children are not encouraged at home to be creative, either because their parents restrict their ideas, fill their decisions with pessimism, or simply do not pay attention to this matter. However, creativity is a skill that makes the human being flexible and resourceful as well as helping them see problems differently and identify solutions more easily. Many times education will directly contradict creativity. It destroys the innovation of ideas, and stifles the imagination, while claiming it is “teaching.” Sometimes entering a classroom becomes the closest thing to entering a time machine since our teaching methods differ very little from those of ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. In Ted Talk “How Schools Kills Creativity” by Ken Robinson and the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein, two different opinions about the current educational system are presented. While Robinson believes that the schooling system should work to promote creativity, Botstein says that the concept of a high and middle school is useless and should be abolished. However they both agree on reform. As a parent, I have always been concerned about my daughters’ education, and have always believed, like Robinson and Botstein, that our educational system needs a change.
The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.
The interesting thing about bias is how and why it develops. Often it is rooted in fear and even denial. People are easily intimidated by things that are different, and they are motivated by acceptance. So, sometimes we pretend to be something we are not in order to fit in. The irony in this is that bias may develop against things that are actually a part of our own makeup. If we are honest, it becomes evident that
Having many inspirations with in oneself is more powerful than self discipline because it takes a person from apathy to the feeling of possibilities and altered it to our capabilities. In the article, “Why inspiration matters”, Scott Barry Kaufman acknowledges that
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” Albert Einstein, famous physicist, had once said this. It’s true, as when others are producing ideas or creating solutions to things, you in turn start to think of your own. Yet, a lot of the times when I think of this statement, it reminds me of myself and art. In my free time, I love to look at other’s art and see their reasoning behind the picture – and then find myself start drawing the next second, feeling inspired by that particular artists reasoning. Every day if I can, I’ll look at all sorts of works by artists – sculptures, paintings, sometimes even dolls! Weirdly, I find myself always going back to the simple drawings on a paper and then making a few drawings of my own. Thus bringing a
These pictures can be similar to a picture the individual actually sees. Creativity stems from an individual’s imagination. The individual visualizes a picture and attempts to create the picture.
There is an enemy lurking about in society, hostile to tolerance and unity. Veiled as knowledge, this enemy threatens both learning and growth. It’s name is “confirmation bias”. Coined in the 1960’s by English Psychologist Peter Wason, confirmation bias is defined as an individual’s tendency to seek out and to favor information that confirms their previously held assumptions. Confirmation bias was no new phenomenon, however, as it is referenced throughout history. Even in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, when Aquinas warns Dante that “opinion--hasty--often can incline to the wrong side, and then affection for one’s own opinion binds, confines the mind.” Confirmation bias is having detrimental effects on society, and is evidenced
You can rapidly and effectively expand your creative life by following the methods and exercises described in "Awakening Your Creativity." In this book you will find the primary tools to change your life in ways that will excite and delight you. You can become
If you’ve ever had to write a paper, create music, or make something completely from scratch, you might have encountered the so called “Creative Block”. It’s that frustrating feeling that no matter how hard you stare blankly into that white canvas or beautifully crafted instrument, nothing inspires you.
In all fifty states there is a system wanted for killing all 50.4 million creative minds. This system is the school system. Students in schools are being robbed from their creativity by the school system by the school system not being mindful of how many different minds there are in all the students. There are so many different careers in the world to match these students creative minds. Sadly the schools of today’s generation are not properly preparing students for all these creative careers.
At first glance, I was skeptical. How could creativity be cultivated? As I delved into the process, analyzing deeper beyond what does creativity actually mean, I became a believer.
It took a long time for me to come up with any ideas for my pictures. The first inspiration that struck when I was trying to find
Remember being young and pretending to be an astronaut travelling in space? Is it a coincidence that the majority of the population of children love to invent characters, act, and draw with markers all the time? This was a point in life characterized by play and personal exploration where no one had told us how to use our imagination or had taught us the theories of others at the expense of our own creativity. But what does it mean to be creative? It means having the natural ability to view a concept from a different angle, like seeing a work of art on an empty canvas. So what is it that threatens us to faintly carry this natural capacity throughout adulthood? The answer is school. The system of education is an immense inhibitor to our innate ability to be creative. As students progress from year to year, they are stripped of their innovative minds (or their innovative minds are stigmatized) through the hierarchical organization of subjects, the reliance on a homogeneous curriculum, and the stigmatization of mistakes.
I would suggest take picture of the world around you. This to can help with inspiration.
In the rather limited amount of years I’ve been on this Earth, I have found myself drawn to the world of creativity. I kept it in my pocket constantly, always knowing that I’d need creative insight in this world to solve difficult problems. I always had art as an outlet for many things, and soon I became addicted to colors, shades, and designs. It’s very important to me, and I hope to go further with it. To me, it is vexing when others hold an obvious distaste for trying anything new or creative. I don’t hope to change these individual’s minds, as that would be impossible, but rather, I hope to educate them on why having a creative, or artistic sense-the new ‘sixth sense’ if you will, is vital to being a part of society. Being creative, or artistic, is important, because it allows me to break away from the stubborn rules society has forced upon us. When I draw, I have no boundaries other than what I give myself. I don’t have to restrain what I draw, as no one else will see it unless I want them to. It’s important to have this break from ‘the real world’ because without it, the world seems very bleak and downright sorrowful. Artistic values are a necessity to me, because without them, I wouldn’t have as many opportunities to better the world around me. Art provides many career paths, such as comic books, or even advertising. Every art community can have a huge impact on people’s daily lives, without them even realizing it. Take for instance, the billboard you drive by every day to work, or the comic strips you read on your Sunday paper. Though seemingly insignificant in your eyes, they are so important in the way you make decisions. When advertisements on TV are shown, no one really thinks about the artistic aspects the creators use to influence decisions. A prime example of this, that everyone knows purely by the now recognizable song, is Sarah McLachlan’s ASPCA commercial seen constantly, with the same set up. But what everyone might not know, is that it took creative insight to pair the sad puppy images, with the depressing song. The artists knew that these things would guide you to feel sympathetic, and maybe even adopt a puppy. The world would be very different if there were no artists to create these. It