Creativity: Gauntlett + Csikszentmihalyi

David Gauntlett (we're going to be drawing heavily on his take on various media theories in the final weeks) has produced a useful site on the theme of 'Making is Connecting', on the topic of how constructing media texts is to engage with a wider community. See http://www.makingisconnecting.org/

There are more useful links at http://www.theory.org.uk/

The following is what he says on creativity (extracted from http://www.makingisconnecting.org/gauntlett2010-extract1-v3.pdf)

Creativity is channelled through tools, enabling us to make things

Creativity is often talked about as a general Good Thing, and something
to be
encouraged, which of course is fine, but can turn ‘creativity’ into something of an
abstraction. In practice, creativity isn’t really like that. It is heavily integrated in the
world of tools and objects. If someone was to announce that they were going to be
‘creative’ now, and then just sat in their chair, you would be surprised. Creativity takes
place through action, through manipulating materials – whether wood, brick, plastic, ink
and paper, a musical instrument, or words and images on a screen. Even the thought
experiments to do with creativity, such as asking someone to name as many uses as they
can think of for a paperclip, are associated with objects (in this case, the paperclip).
Creativity, then, does not just ‘happen’, but is typically channelled through particular
materials, and takes place in a particular context – a field of expectation or prior activity
which the new production is informed by, and engages with. Making something,
whether as a response to the existing field or produced in complete ignorance of it, can
be a source of personal pleasure, and does not necessarily depend on showing it to
anyone else. But, moving on to the next point, it is often a further – and perhaps greater
– pleasure when others can engage with our creative output.

We get more value from making things if we can share them with others

The context of the creative activity may affect what goes into the work, as mentioned
above, with previously-made things potentially providing foundations and inspiration.
But the context is especially important as the field into which the new work is
presented. It is here that the particular contribution can be considered and evaluated,
and which may provide the platform from which this act of creativity can be shared with
others. Some writers on creativity, such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, even suggest that
creativity is a phenomenon which only occurs in a social context and cannot be
understood, or even recognised, in isolation (see for example Csikszentmihalyi, 1997).
But I do not want to set a high bar on creativity here, or be considering only innovative
new developments in relatively elite forms such as architecture, engineering or music.
We are more concerned here with activities like baking a cake, making a toy, writing a
thought, or presenting a contribution to YouTube, Flickr or Facebook. At this level of
everyday creativity, we are not so concerned with staking a claim to great external value
or originality, but are just happy to have been able to share something with friends,
family or community.

Orientation to an audience adds to the meaningfulness of the things we make, and also
means that quality is likely to be increased. For instance, the clarity or style of
aYouTube video I am making might receive a push when I imagine an audience looking
at it; and thinking about my son playing with a toy will drive me to make it as well as I
can for him (whilst also fighting perfectionism by remembering that its quirks and faults
are what make it special and individual). What I say on Twitter is (hopefully) calibrated
to be informative and entertaining for the people who follow me. And similarly, while
writing this book I am continually trying to imagine how much the reader might want
me to say on each topic, trying to make it interesting, and to provide meaningful
examples, whilst striking a balance between being concise and being longwinded. So
the anticipated audience has an impact on the work before the actual audience ever
meets it.

Although the spelling of his name makes the example from this passage a touch tricky, look for every opportunity to cite specific theorists in all 3 exam questions:

Some writers on creativity, such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, even suggest that
creativity is a phenomenon which only occurs in a social context and cannot be
understood, or even recognised, in isolation (see for example Csikszentmihalyi, 1997)