The Honors Student Association organized “Creativity Matters,” a lecture that explained how creativity plays a role in other areas of study aside from art. Held on the evening of November 13th in Bedford Hall, the lecture featured presentations prepared by Dr. James Jordan, Dr. Jason Milne, Dr. Edward Kinman, Dr. John Miller, Dr. Sarai Blincoe, Professor Jeff Halliday, and Professor Adam Paulek. Each of these speakers and professors explained how creativity is important and how they use it in their disciplines.
Paulek opened the discussions with his view of creativity in the art department. His presentation focused mainly on his experiences working with ceramic art. Accompanied by a slideshow presentation of famous works, Paulek explained to the audience how his preferred medium, clay, limits his creativity. He believes that focused creativity is the most useful when creating pieces. As the first speaker, Paulek opened with the question, “What is creativity?”
“The way I look at it, creativity is simply the act of questioning reality and then acting on those questions,” he said. “We all have this ability, to question and then act. Creativity is entwined with critical thinking. The ability to process information in whatever form it takes, and then to act on it, creates something new. The trick to being creative is willingness. Willingness to ask the questions. The willingness to then question the answers you get. Then question again. I think that’s where creativity tends to hide; it’s in those questions.”
Following Paulek was Miller of the English department. He opened with the common association of creativity with creative writing. He admitted that this association is true but went on to further describe how creativity is expressed in the English and Literature world, and not only in creative writing.
“Much like Professor Paulek did, I think it’s about thinking of creativity in a much broader way than the poets or playwrights or novel writers,” Miller said. “To me, I look around Grainger and think about what ties all these permutations. It’s the way that creativity leads to knowledge. Much in the same way that creativity pushes artists with their ceramics to push their boundaries.”
Next to speak was Kinman of the environmental science department. His experience and interest was not limited to environmental science, though, as he shared ideas and concepts from Anthropology and Geography as well. An essential part of “Creativity Matters” was the emphasis on creativity existing outside of the arts. Kinman stressed this principle, as well as working creatively with others.
“I have found working outside of my discipline to be important. I’m all about collaborations, and creativity matters in collaborations. I’ve done a lot of collaborations with people in nursing, medicine and public health. About seven years ago, I decided to be a part of a collaboration with an old colleague, purely with the perspective of, ‘what can we learn from each other?’” Kinman said. “And so, later on, after looking at his work with clay and maps, I asked him, ‘where do you get your ideas from?’”
Following Kinman’s presentation, Milne was introduced. He has worked in the field of Sociology. His presentation opened with a quote from a lecture he had previously attended: “In every researcher, there is a toddler waiting to come out.” He said he agreed with this statement because children are always asking, “Why?” without hesitations or self-conscious notions. In agreement with Paulek, he said that this is the source of creativity.
After Milne spoke, Blincoe from the psychology department stepped up to speak to the audience. In her presentation, she included an informational graphic that humorously referenced "American Idol." She classified people into groups based upon their involvement with their own creativity and the creativity around them.
“So what is creativity? And can you not have it? Are there some of you who just aren’t as creative as other people? So I’m talking from a psychologist’s perspective. That’s the question we are going to try to answer,” Blincoe said.
Jordan spoke next about incorporating creativity in anthropology, his area of expertise. He used a slideshow of pictures from his spontaneous research trip to Damascus, and he related the exploration and questioning to the concept of creativity.
Halliday, representing the Communication Studies department, finished “Creativity Matters” with a presentation about making an appealing resume. He also included his own experiences in different careers and finally finding his job as a professor. “The name of my presentation is, ‘Stop Staring at the Water,’ and it’s about how you can apply creativity to your post-graduate life. It might be school or a professional place. How many times have we heard about risks tonight? I believe that creativity is rooted in risk and your ability to risk upsetting yourself or other people.”
