Creativity: Redefining it
I’d like to start this off with a general overlook on my thoughts on creativity. Before this class, I often thought of myself as the “non-creative” type of person, and that was mainly because of how I perceived “creativity”. My first girlfriend, which is now an ex, is how I would have described a “creative” person. She was the type to get involved in the arts, she was musically inclined, just “creative” in nature. Actually, one of my reasons for breaking up with her was that we didn’t have enough chemistry, and just me not being “creative” contributed to that. I tell you this story just to emphasize how much I wasn’t “creative”, to the point that it actually disrupted my first relationship.
Throughout the rest of my life, I had also considered myself as normal. I was a simple guy. A lot of my actions were dictated by what was already present. As a guy who watched a lot of Anime and Manga, wherein the main protagonists is just considered special by everyone, as well as the world itself revolved around him/her, I wanted to be considered special, or unique even. In relation to that, I started believing that being “creative” was the key to everything. Everywhere I looked, all I saw was people, friends even, standing out with their “creative” skills, singing, dancing, drawing, composing, etc. I thoroughly believed that I may never become special, as I believed that I did not have a single creative bone in my body that I could show-off and be proud of.
This is where DECSC 25 comes in. For a person like me, who again, believes that he does not have any sense of “creativity” in me, this class was life changing. This class thought me what being creative and what creativity really is. First of all, I learned that creativity isn’t something that you’re born with. Sure, some people may be more creative from the get-go, but that doesn’t mean that an individual can’t hone their creative skills through hard work and training. Proof is this is to practice the Da Vincian Principles. For my training, I chose to focus on the principle of Connesione, pertaining to the interconnectedness of all things. I felt that it truly helped me develop my creative skills more as when I see two objects, I become creative enough for me to be able to relate them. To me, this was a big revelation since it meant that I actually had a chance to become the person I aspire to be, to be unique, to be special.
However, relating to my previous point, I also learned that my concept of creativity being all about the arts and literature was wrong. The class has taught me that creativity is a concept that goes beyond artsy stuff. In fact, it is a concept that can be applied everywhere and to anything in your life. For example, cooking doesn’t necessarily relate to the arts, literature, or to music, yet it uses the same amount or even more creativity as these areas. Combining different ingredients to create a specific harmony of flavors or taste, thinking of new dish ideas, deciding on a specific way of presenting said dish, all of these actions takes an extraordinary amount of creativity to pull off. Same with business and entrepreneurship. Thinking of potential and innovative solutions to existing problems and problems and thinking of a new product in general takes a lot of creativity. Recently, I’ve also been able to apply creativity in the form of making memes for this Vtuber i’m following, and I have to say, seeing her laugh so hard at my memes felt gratifying, as if it was proof that I was or could potentially be creative in other aspects in life
Lastly, this class had taught me that being creative is far from being organized or linear. The process of creativity is a chaotic, unorganized, and messy process that even individuals who have worked in the creativity industry have trouble with it. Though we have guides and tools in order to guide us during the process, in the greater scheme of things, the creative process does not follow a specific direction, a specific flow, or a specific formula. At times, there are moments when you have to go back and forth process, perhaps skip a few things along the way, or even scratch everything and go back to step one. I know this because I experienced it with my group as we tried to come up with the problem, the prototype, and the final output. However, despite the process being like this, learning how to be creative is a different thing. When training to become more creative, don’t expect to be creative all in one go, creating completely new and unique ideas from scratch or from one own’s ideas. In fact, that should even be possible. Learn to be creative one step at a time, since again it is process, no matter how messy it may be. Even small innovations can be major.
In conclusion, a lot of the things I learned from this class mainly focuses on how one can actually become creative what it entails being creative and how I can implement creativity in various aspects of my life.