…Or at least breaking a little bit…
I read this today, it is good: Margaret Boden’s ‘The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms‘, it’s good. talks about links between human creative processes and those of computers, asking can computers be creative? My top Boden topic though, as I’ve alluded to in previous posts, is creative boundaries. Just thought it was a good hook:
If it ain’t broke: It might still be worth breaking. Boundaries are there to be bent: they are malleable, they have plasticity and sometimes they can be broken. Breaking boundaries sounds all very nice and maverick, but boundaries may be as simple as communication gaps between departments or individuals, cultural boundaries between local worlds, or simply boundaries that have ‘become’ through culture, tradition, laziness…
So try and share some mutuality of experience with your co-workers, with your gran, with your mates girlfriend who you don’t really get on with – and see what you can do with the boundaries that exist (that doesn’t mean try and snog your mates girlfriend or do your boss’ job; it means try stepping into their reality tunnel, try thinking how they think or just do something differently. This is how creative processes can become evolutionary, dynamic and thus remain innovative as opposed to stagnant or foreign.
Break stuff.
Filed under: Digital Advertising Creativity | Tagged: Boden, Boundaries, Break, Broke, Creativity, Rules
need to keep pushing and breaking through envelopes. it doesn’t happen every day, but when it does, it’s pretty magical. i like “break stuff” better : )
Not always though: it’s about working out which envelopes to break, which to change a bit, and which to leave as they are. ‘Pushing’ or ‘Breaking Stuff’ should be considered as gently pressing on doors, seeing which ones open, and exploring those avenues, along with, I suppose, indulging in the occasional bull in a china shop approach, with a watchful mind.
Also, as Charles Leadbeater says in his TED talk on the rise of the amateur professional: A wise man knows when to use the exception that proves the rule. Eg, when to break, when to bend.
So True