Week 1: What is Creativity?

One of my classes this semester is Issues in Visual Culture. The title alone made me wonder what it was going to involve, was it going to be like a history lesson or something like that? I soon found out it was neither. In fact, it's more about making us (As aspiring young adults hoping to make it in the creative industry) aware of what it's really all about. It maybe doesn't sound so simple but I understand it and by writing this blog maybe others will understand like I do! So, let's take a look at week 1:

The First Lesson (Introduction.)

To the right is a visual memory of my first lesson. We were suddenly asked to draw something 'Creative' within a set time limit, the first thing I thought of was myself. I see myself as being quite a creative person, so I wanted to express that because honestly.. What is creativity? But I'll talk more about that outcome later!

Curiousity had me wondering what exactly this class would be about. I did think it was going to be a big boring history lesson that I was going to struggle with. Thankfully, that opinion quickly evaporated over the course of the lesson. Yipee!

So what did we discuss? Well, Paul (our lecturer) explained that creativity isn't defined by a small number of things and in fact everyone is creative in their own special way! If you paint a massive A2 sized canvas over the space of a month or if you just get out of bed and take a picture of the room as it is (Much like Tracey Emin's work "The Bed", seen below)

Tracey Emin got the idea for this piece after she showed the world
all the people she slept with, in the form of a tent with sticky notes!
She claimed this was the bed everything happened in! Lovely!

 Pretty neat, isn't it?

Honestly, the whole idea of everyone being creative in some way or form isn't something I've given much thought. Which I feel like I should have done. In class we discussed how an artist who paints a landscape for what it is isn't quite as creative as you would think. My first question was, how can that be? Surely they're putting all this hard work into a painting and it looks pretty good!

My question was soon answered.

Yes, the landscape painting would be considered 'Art' but that doesn't necessarily mean it's 'Creative Art'. I mean, when you look at it properly all the artist has done is take an area of natural beauty, repaint it on a canvas and sign their name beside it. That's not really Creative now, is it? The canvas isn't being used to express their own opinions, feelings and ideas and that, to me, is the point of Art. Look at it another way, if the painting was being sold without the artists signature on it then it wouldn't be as popular! It's all about the branding in this New Age and it's a shame that people's opinion's of Art and Creativity have to be effected by this.

Now if the same landscape was taken by the artist and they added their own twist to it, like for example they warped all it's features to make it look like something people would only see in their dreams, then that would be more creative then the first idea. In fact, I might give that a shot and see how it works out!

So, what exactly IS creativity?

Creativity is whatever we want it to be. It's not limited to fancy skilled painters. In fact, tapping out a beat of your own on a bucket even has a little spark of creativity behind it. Anybody can be creative if they try! Don't let anyone stop you from doing so either.

So, keep that in mind and do all you can to be creative!

Until next time. :)