The TEDxTuscon talk, which you can view above, tries to answer an age old question, where does creativity come from? Is creativity taught or is it innate?
The talk discusses a test George Land did on American children to try and find an answer to this question. The study found that 98% of 4-5 year olds fall in ‘genius’ category of imagination but that this falls to 30% at age 10, 12% at age 15 and 2% for adults.
Land argued that education systems teach children to evaluate, censor and judge our imaginative ideas leading us to become less creative.
We don’t know whether education or simply age and experience cause us to lose our pure imaginative thinking.
Many of our interviewees talked about how their creativity had been affected by lockdown.
Sky Valley Mistress Bass player Russell, talked about initially finding lockdown helped his creativity but that as it went on it felt more restrictive and that the collaborative songwriting process was taking a lot longer.
For Russell, and his band mate Kay, there was a focus on how creativity functions better when it is collaborative.
However whilst Kay agreed that her creativity was affected by being unable to work with other people she has also developed new skills such as video editing.
Chris, a local DJ, said he found the pandemic had infringed on his creativity but that feeling the need to use his creativity energy as an activist for the Black Lives Matter movement has given him new creative purpose.
Josie, a music teacher, said she found that lockdown has given her the opportunity to focus on her own creativity and has been helpful.
One thing to takeaway from the variety of responses we received about how creativity functioned in lockdown is that everyone’s creativity functions differently. For Josie the time to be on her own and focus on herself has helped her creativity but for Russell and Kay the isolation has hindered them.
Chris also found his creativity came when he felt he had a purpose to create. The relationship between motivation and creativity during lockdown is something that has also impacted people differently, many people have found time to be creative while others have lacked the drive to be creative despite our similar experiences.
How has your creativity been impacted by lockdown?
The Living City project is produced by They Eat Culture, & supported by the Community Lottery Fund & Arts Council England.
