Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Creativity Rocks

For some reason in our society, creativeness is a virtue held above all others. It makes sense, since our country was founded upon principles that were antithetical to the established order.

We practically worship non-conformity. From Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign to the "Change" theme of Pres. Obama, we have always rewarded those who think and do uniquely.

Technology is a vehicle for creativeness and novelty, and drives it at the same time. Why is technology so instrumental in change? Why is it good to use technology if you seek novelty?

Or, are there limits to creative thinking? How do you know when you've reached those limits?

29 comments:

david.owens said...

I think that technology is very creative because of how widely used it is around the world. Programing is almost a universal language that has no barrier preventing someone from participating.

If someone in the US creates a program, and puts the code out for people to edit, others can go into it and try and improve it.

Creativity and technology can go hand in hand because people always seem to improve the ways in which we are reaching out into the internet. How will we know when we have reached a creative boundary? Great question, because we haven't yet.

♥ Ashley May ♥ said...

Technology is instrumental in change because we use technology to facilitate change in most cases. It's good to use technology to seek novelty because our world is growing more and more technologically advanced every day and any new idea will have to be compatible with technology and can be accessed by more people if it's through a technology based source. I don't think there has to be a limit to creative thinking but I think some people feel like they have reached a limit when they have no more new ideas.

Lyly said...

Technology can aid one in creating one's idea. Technology can allow a person to create their idea more efficiently and with greater quality than it would be if done by pen and paper.

Anonymous said...

A limit to creativity? That's just about the most hypocritical expression I've ever come across. It's important to remember that novel ideas are also intelligent and intellectually, they aren't new ideas just so that they are different. Wasn't the internet a novel, creative idea? That proves my point, I think.

Roxanna said...

Technology is instrumental to change because it has no limits. Technology is morphing to meet the needs of society, and is every changing. We as a community seek novelty because it fascinates us, and stimulates higher order thinking. Using technology is helpful within novelty seekers because it is constantly changing and building. Anyone in the world can contribute to the internet, as it has become a universal way of communicating. I do not believe there are limits to creative thinking..every day a new creative mind is born.

Unknown said...

Technology provides an outlet to be creative. It allows people create things that may not be possible in real life. Without technology, that creativity would not be easily accessible to the masses. It is so instrumental in change because people are able to easily revise, create, and share with people. Change and creativity is so important in our culture because we love to create a more interesting, and better society. It also stems from our capitalist society based on competition and innovation.

I do not think that there are limits to creative thinking. A person who says that there are not paying attention to the new innovations that people create.

Christian Pabalan said...

Technology is instrumental in change because it is readily available and has the variety of resources to facilitate a creative outlet. It is good to use technology because through it, the creative product can be easily shared with others. The action or work can be presented in a clearer way, reaching a larger demographic or audience. I don't think that there are limits to creative thinking because technology is adaptable and is easy enough to learn and utilize. With creating with technology, opportunities for novelty is wide because of easy access, ability to present it in a clear way, and the great amount of resources to help the creator present the creativity.

Tessa Farbstein said...

Technology is vital for change because it is universal. It reaches almost everyone, everywhere, instantly. Technology is perfect if you seek novelty for the same reasons as it is vital for change. It is a universal hub for communication.

Creativity most certainly can be expressed with technology. Technology is a great tool to express ideas and thoughts. The only limit is that it is virtual. We will never know our boundaries because we are constantly changing.

Sydney Teske said...

I think creativity is very important. Without creativity, students would become robots to the education system. If a student is not able to express themselves, not only will they get bored with education, they will be unable to be come up their own ideas and thoughts. If a teacher limits one of their students' creative ability, it will be very hard for them to survive after they are out of school. Many businesses and jobs require creative thinking, and "thinking outside the box." If this is not taught at a young age, or is limited, teachers are actually cheating a child out of their education, as they are not preparing them for the outside world.

Unknown said...

Technology is a tool. Creativity is independent of technology. However, technology allows for new outlets for creativity. People now how have a different way of expressing themselves through technology. I think there are no limits to creativity. It's part of human nature to explore and in that exploring we will always find new ways of doing things.

Joanna Ransier said...

Technology is important because it opens doors to new avenues that would not be able to be attained with out it. One of the best assets of technology is to create new ways to do things easier. At one point Google was just a novelty but now it is a way of life we all use in everyday life.
There are no limits to creative thinking and by teaching technology to students while help them be able to reach their full potential to their abilities. Technology will grow and evolve with more education in different ways to using it.

One said...

Technology allows humans to replicate what they have already done with previous technology. I have yet to find a technology that has invented a new aspect of living. In musical history for example, there are instruments that human voices can't mimic, and then there are human voices that mimic those instruments. Then there are computers that mimic instruments and voices. Technology has allowed music to "expand" in a sense, but it has not reinvented music.
Cormac

Unknown said...

Honestly, I do not believe that their is a limit to creativity or one's ability to think "outside the box" or differently from the norm or 'status quo'. New thoughts and ideas are so refreshing and can be a reminder that there is always more to learn, understand and achieve, and that we as humans are not limited to the way we lived in the past, but rather that we have the power to cultivate change and make an impact for the future.

Mark Fischbach said...

While I agree that technology is a vehicle for creativeness, it is only one of the many tools in an artists toolbox. Technology has the power to facilitate looking at things from a different angle, examining things at higher magnification, or approaching problems in a new way. Often times this new approach leads to dramatic advances in quality of life or our understanding or our world. It may also lead to new products that move people in new and strong ways.
It also has the capability of producing a lot of noise and unproductive products. Again, technology holds the promise to help us evolve. However, the discipline and foresight to move in the "right" direction is within us all.

Monica said...

Technology is beneficial for creativity because it allows you to do things you wouldn't be able to do in "real life", like simulations. It allows us to access materials and resources that we would not be able to otherwise.

I don't think there is a limit to creativity, but there IS a limit to technology. Eventually I think technology will catch up a little bit, but a computer will never be able to think the way a human mind does. We will always be able to think more abstractly and have more abstract ideas than a computer.

Tracy said...

Technology is ever changing and that is not going to stop anytime soon. There are always going to be new software programs and internet sites that you can incorporate into your lessons to keep them fresh and exciting for your students. I don't that there is a limit to creativity. You can hit roadblocks, sure but you can over come them.

Our theme at school this year is Creativity and Innovation. I am on the hunt for ways to bring this into my classroom everyday. Technology is a great way to do this. I've been teaching the students about Phileppe Petit and have used PowerPoint and Netflix as well as books and lecture to teach the students about this man who was innovative in hopes to inspire them to think outside the box.

Emma said...

Technology, as we know it now (online) is a fluid format. It is built on the ability to attract attention and to build in collaboration, both of which require creativity and flexible thinking. I think the only boundary for creativity is when what is being created is either lacking in relevancy or relatablity. As jokes are only funny when they are partially true and current, so is novelty only useful when it is pertinent and speaks to a new way of expounding on what is already there.

katie said...

Technology provides an infinite number of possibilities for creativity. It provides opportunities for creativity using different mediums. There's also a level of competition and innovation that create novelty within technology.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure whether technology is necessarily instrumental to creativity at all. I think humans by nature are creative and that we often try to distinguish ourselves from others (but then again, we also want to fit in). I think that one of the big reasons that technology is awesome for promoting creativity because of all the resources it provides, especially the internet. We see pictures and cultural ideas from all over the world without needing the means to get there, which gives us so much more inspiration!

As far as limits go, there was a sociologist/theorist whom I can't remember the name of right now who said we are heading toward a world where everything is explained, where there is no more magic in the world. I can see that happening, and maybe once everything is explained, that's when we've reached a limit.
-Robin van Schravendijk

mnrodigheri said...

Technology in and of itself is always becoming newer, changing and striving for originality. Utilizing new software and hardware is inevitably original if only by chronology. Technology is instrumental to change due to its ability to connect many individuals regardless of physical proximity. A lot of technology and certainly that involved in education provides access to a lot of information at a high speed for a lot of people, change cannot help but result when people are presented with new ideas and information and so much of it. There are no limits to creative thinking. As long as people are alive with cognitive ability there will be creativity. Perhaps individuals can hit a wall, and when there are no new ideas, there might just not be any, but as a community or civilization, there is an infinite potential for newness and creativity that will coincide with technologies being developed, allowing people to build off of one another.

Erin said...

Technology is very instrumental in change because it is an open forum that people all over the world can contribute to. Change can only occur with new ideas and perspectives. Thanks to the new technology, we are now able to transfer those ideas instantaneously thus creating waves of change and creativity. People are able to exhibit their creativity over the internet and others can learn and benefit from their creativity. However, technology can limit human contact and interpersonal forms of creativity so we need to maintain awareness of non-technological creativity.

Gadiel said...

Technology always provides new problems to solve, and that itself is fascinating. People love to use the technology that they've perfected to create new systems, to create new projects, and to challenge themselves to open new doors. This allows a world of creativity, in terms of problem creation and problem solving. It is fun to use technology to creatively streamline problem solving. However, I do not yet know if this this promotes MORE creative thinking than analog tools, but it may be more interesting and fun.

S.F.kt said...

Technology, for me, is most useful in allowing people to SHARE creative ideas and ways of thinking, opening everyone's minds to other ways of reflecting on similar events.

That is what is most interesting about things like YouTube, Wikipedia and Google Docs, and one of the things I appreciate and use most in technology.

Unknown said...

Technology is advancing at such a fast rate that anything new is almost guaranteed to be original. Technology is rapidly changing the society that we live in and the societies all around the world. There are limits to creative thinking but only really in the way that the thinking is applied.

Lizzy McGruner Saltines! said...

In another class, we recently read about the balance of Innovation and Efficiency in developing expertise. I loved the concept of adaptive expertise, and I believe that creativity is an important aspect to achieving this form of expertise. The limits of creativity are apparent when a structure or environment is rigid and binary. These environments are sometimes more useful, at least in the short run.

Ryannn said...

I think technology is instrumental in change because it is constantly changing at rapid and increasing rates. Technology is a good place to search for novelty for the same reason I stated above: new ideas and technologies are constantly appearing and these new ideas and technologies are influencing future ideas and technology on an exponential scale. For instance, from Friendster we got MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and FourSquare and each technology influenced and changed the other. Changes in these technologies are still happening as I type this.

I personally do not think there are any limits to creative thinking. If anything, there are limits to the levels of creativity that we perceive according to our reality. There is always something creative being done somewhere, it's really just a matter of what you're personally tuning into. We tend to focus our collective attention on a few things and miss a lot in the process. Using music as an example, the general creativity in popular mainstream music has not changed much, with the exception of the explosion of auto-tune as a production tool, but if you look at what has been happening in avant-garde and jazz over the last 20 years you would see an incredible amount of creativity and innovation just in musical notation alone. New genres are being labeled and explored every year, a great example of this is UK dub-step producer Burial, who carved out a new territory in an already fledgling genre that only he exists in.

Unknown said...

There is an undeniably technical element to technology that most people do not associate with creativity. But engineering software and solving problems that are inherent in the process does require ingenuity.

Technology can spawn innovative thinking because it solves rudimentary problems and will allow the developer to move forward with "higher-order" thinking pursuits. In this sense, technology can do much of the dirty work that often precedes a new and creative solution.

Anonymous said...

Although I don't believe in limits to creative thinking, I do think that creatively is entirely subjective. In particular, I'm thinking of the website Urban Dictionary. In terms of documenting the English language and the genesis of slang, UrbanDictionary.com is a novelty. To my knowledge, it's the first website where anyone can add their own definition of slang. On one hand, the website itself should be applauded for validating people's vernacular. However, some of the entries are hardly innovative. Rather, some "creative" entries are inaccurate at best and offensive at worse. In my eyes, that's pushing the limits of creativity.

* Jacquelene*

bry said...

As others have said too, I think creativity is almost limitless*. The boost to overall creativity in the world that comes from technology, I believe, is twofold: 1st, expanding technologies expand the breath of the artist's palette, if you will, allowing creative expression at greater depths, through more numerous dimensions; 2nd, as technology enables greater and greater numbers of people (with fewer and fewer limits to understanding one another) to more quickly and seamlessly interact, these most powerful and most plentiful processors (our brains) essentially become networked. Computational, creative, and generative powers combine, and in so doing yield ideas and solutions our current methods of contemplation cannot fathom! * - as creativity approaches infinity, human kind comes closer to transformation into a beam of light.