What does it really mean to be Creative?

Creativity is like a flow. It seems to be taking place without a consistent force, making it, a self-sustaining process.

It is something that happens in the moment and it has high "life-value" based on how alive it makes everything.

Many of us might have experienced bouts of creativity where things happened but it did not sustain. Because it cannot be forced, even pushing it has not probably helped. But if something is self-sustaining, why does it not sustain? This is what I want to talk about.

1. What is Creativity and what is it not?

We tend to associate 'Art' with creativity. Say, you are painting!

Does this necessarily imply that you are being creative in the process? If you have well planned the steps that you are going to follow and are executing it, you are using your memory and your skills to perform. This does not seem like creativity. At least for the sake of this writing, let us consider that use of memory and skills does not imply creativity. At the same time, in the creative process, memory and skills have a role to play. They are necessary but not sufficient.

What is the place of rules and structures in creativity? Everything has its right place. While writing this I am using a web browser and a keyboard. I am also using a language which has its grammar (rules) and structure. But the mere knowledge of this and being skilled does not automatically lead to a person writing something. Even if we try mechanically, we will get stuck in the process. One is bound to make mistakes. To get up after every mistake requires energy. Not just the mechanical or chemical energy as we have studied in science but a vital mental energy that puts in soul into one's work. Skills take time to develop but being in the creative space is not a function of time. It might be there when one is a novice or might not be there even if one is doing it for years.

We tend to get stuck in the structures and give undue importance to it.

It is possible that the structure supports creativity which is what is one of its important role. If structure limits creativity, there is no point of such a structure. Let's take an example to illustrate. Scenario 1- A teacher is asked (or decides) to stick to the content prepared by an expert and to not deviate from the topics. Such a teacher is bound to feel like a tape recorder. One can still be creative but clearly the structure is limiting it. Let's consider another scenario. Scenario 2- The same teacher is now asked to keep student learning at the centre, to cover basic topics well but take doubts and questions of students to build the content while delivering. It is recommended that we keep the students engaged and interested.

This structure is pushing and allowing the teacher to be much more creative giving freedom as well as responsibility. Do you see the cost of this freedom? How responsive one needs to be! It clearly requires lot more energy and attention. Scenario 1 might seem an easy and stress-free zone. It is not. The teacher would drag herself/himself through each second of the session and would get totally exhausted in the process. Is it not difficult to go through such sessions over and over again? And then in scenario 2, one might say that it is too demanding and exhausting. But if done creatively, which it allows, it becomes a joy ride. One loses the sense of time and ends up being thankful for living that process. I have been in both the scenarios. Speaking from experience, there are also times where you have a scenario which is a mixture of scenario 1 and 2. Then the difference is much more evident. A person stuck in scenario 1 might have a mechanical model of the world- "This is how the world works". If one comes across a creative person, one gets quite uncomfortable. More successful is the other person (in being creative), more is the discomfort.

Creativity also does not necessarily imply creating a tangible object one can see or touch. A monk meditating in silence, might come up with an understanding and a way of explaining it to others. In this process, the monk "creates" something. Creativity is not about the end result but about the process.

Creativity is purposelessness. It is without cause. We cannot force ourselves to be creative. If I was talking about love in the last 3 sentences, it would make complete sense in that case too. Like Love, creativity is the essence of human life. There is a natural flow of life and just like a flower comes into being, creativity happens on its own. In the creative process, one is completely immersed in whatever one is doing. It does not mean that one is lost. It means one is completely attentive.

One is also accessing one's memory and skills. In a way, mental time seems to stop. Haven't you felt while being really interested in something, you lose track of time. This might be a night during a trip with friends while you were remembering old days.

2. Does the present Culture support Creativity?

Talking of our "normal" life, in our work and relationships, there is a sort of boredom which is why we like to go out. Activities we do, when we go out, are generally passive in nature which take us away from boredom. It, in fact, does not deal with the cause of boredom at all. The activities are a combination of sensory pleasures. Our consumer culture promotes businesses to design more and more of products that cater to these sensory pleasures.

The consumer who likes to pay for the service/product is also more likely to stick to a job and hence work towards another consumer service/product that other people buy. There seems to be very limited scope of creativity in this consumer trap. Many "intelligent" people have worked over the last century to create standardised ways of "creating" consumer products and of advertising. In the eyes of the marketing industry, the consumer can be modelled into a predictable machine which would respond in a certain way, when given or shown something. Unfortunately, their research into human behaviour was bang on. Those smart people made smarter ways to "brainwash" the consumer to an extent that the user would feel, I am not getting impacted at all by the ads I am shown. We must not deny the fact that their ways of impacting people did make the people more machine like as they had modelled.

I have come across some artists (mostly musicians) who struggle a lot with this. The pressure to earn a livelihood pushes one to serve the listener who will pay. The problem is that the listener is an uncreative bored person who is pleasure seeking. He/she will probably not be able to grasp the depth of your artwork. Or your artwork might not even have any depth. This depth is not completely a function of skill but also of involvement and emotion which comes about when firstly the artist is completely immersed in the creation process and then the listener is in the mental state to comprehend that.

This becomes a natural process of filtering out artists who do not appeal to the listeners. Indian classical music is one such art form which has been filtered out. Look at the hard work, improvisation and dedication that it involves and yet it fails to catch the attention of the young. The reason a lot of children want to learn music is because judges of reality contests tell the non-accepted participants to learn music. As if learning music can only be a means to an end. What stops it from being an end in itself. Possibly it is our foolishness. Art fundamentally represents the condition of society. A song today needs to have a very "professional" video, lot of beats and instruments and lyrics which do not need any interpretation and speak directly to the bored person who wants a joy ride up and down a slide or a meal that has multiple flavours which keep the senses engaged. Getting addicted to a burger or a song do not really feel any different to the consumer.

Unfortunately, their production is also similar. Standard process and materials. International standards but not creative.

Hence the creative person has a bigger challenge. To live in this world but to not get carried away or used up by the consumer culture. To buy and sell but to not make that the point of his work. And this is not at all easy.

3. Is Creativity essential?

There has been lot of talk over these years about the importance of creativity. People who come to a point where creativity becomes necessary, do it naturally and they can be seen distancing from the consumer culture. Sonam Wangchuk, an Indian engineer and Innovator from Leh (who inspired the lead role in '3 Idiots') has been involved in creative pursuits from working in government schools to setting up a school for 'failures' to now working on Himalyan Institute of Alternatives. He has done much more and in each initiative one can see small things which are done creatively. And he does not stick with one thing. He moves on to the next creative pursuit. It was not a surprise when he started the iLiveSimply movement.

He is seen riding a foldable electric bicycle in one video. In another, he is seen talking about how old his clothes and shoes are and how buying things impacts the environment.

It makes complete sense in his creative world where boredom is not the norm. The people in India standing in long queues to buy alcoholic drinks during the Coronavirus pandemic were buying a non-essential commodity risking there lives (and that of others). Doesn't that still speak of the boredom which requires addiction for temporary release. Do they lack awareness or are we going to brush them aside as the uneducated?

People like Sonam Wangchuk are fortunate to have discovered and being able to live that life. That life doesn't require effort. It is the uncreative who knows effort as the only way to get things done and hence looks at creative people as very hard-working or special. They are simply creative. Because they are creative, they are not fighting inside all the time between what they are doing and what they want to do. They are sorted.

Creativity is the essence of human life. It is real freedom.

Next Blog: What stops us from being Creative?