Creativity is a Cat who Sleeps During the Day

Dear IMA Diary,

What a hard week! Have you ever run fun and happy, with too much expectations when suddenly everything crash?

CREATIVITY WEEK

Creativity is a word that has been always around me and you know what? I am totally scared when someone ask or say how creative I am. And it was exactly how the class started: “do you consider yourself as a creative person?”, the answer: “NO”, a big –no- in my mind trying to define what does it mean exactly. I discovered that I hate to be kicked in a box as if I was a product which is been categorized: The cute, the serious, the organized, the creative, the actress… The thing is that I am not this or that, I am sometimes this and sometimes that or a mix of everything. Wait… what if I turn it around? Is that I am just afraid to fail and don’t believe in the potential of that categories?

I ended this week with my cables in some different connections, with hundreds of references and authors, frustrated and with a lot of questions. And now is time to go back to the beginning, I am crashing, fighting with my “romantic” idea of art and its purpose of inspire, generate thoughts and discussions, talk about what nobody talks, politically incorrect, against the consumerism system of power, blablabla, and I am having a chat with the idea of creativity as a way of production and effectiveness. Welcome! –creativity- does not necessary have to do with arts…

Geoff (Geoff Marée, our lecturer) defines creativity as a state of mind and I bought the idea immediately, we say something like: “Es ese no sé qué, no sé en dónde” – “It is that that I don’t know what, I don’t know where”, when we talk about feelings, about something that it is not possible to describe with words.

Now a story (Because “ajá” I have been 3 hours, maybe more, trying to connect ideas):

Creativity is a cat who sleeps during the day…

Tom is a cat who sleeps during the day, Tom is always purring, he is soft and fat, he loves cuddle but, he is a cat, he decides when and where. Sometimes I would like Tom to be awake during the day, I want him to interrupt, to make me move and change positions, perspectives, I would love to walk Tom in the park and explore with him new cities, but Tom is a cat… He prefers to stay inside, in a place where he feels safe and warm and I leave him be because I don’t want a scratch in my face, pi in my clothes or a night without sleep. Desperate with life, one day I met Geoff, Geoff Marée and between jokes and theory he thought me that I could train a cat an introverted and fearful cat like Tom! he never said that it was going to be easy but knowing that is possible changed my behavior with Tom, Tom is a cat, a cat who sleeps during the day, Tom is my cat, my creativity a way of thinking and I am deciding that I am going to train it.

Tips to understand TOM:

1. Everything is a process, this is a -finding problem process-. The problem is not there, find it. There are two types of problems, the algorithmic (it is concrete, specific, it is what it is period) and the heuristic (No specific way to solve, no specific process, multiple possibilities)

2. Tom has his own box full of boxes he does not need to be outside, could be too much for him. (At this point I would have talked about my “categories boxes”, but, this turned in an unexpected situation)

3. Think in it as a child: curious, restless.

4. Don’t forget its qualities: Attitude, Imagination, knowledge, neither its Context: Culture, Habitat, Resources. (Here it is not just about the cat but also about the person who is in charge)

Tips to train TOM:

1. Create a safe space. The environment is the clue to try different strategies and fail as many times as it is necessary.

2. Let him slow connect with unrelated ideas and the creative solutions will appear.

3. Enjoy, front the process with a positive attitude, even without knowing what is going to happen.

4. Ask questions, the more, the better, for clarity, understanding and going deep.

5. Be in a balance between challenge and skills, flow with the feeling.

6. Zoom into the details and leave place to open and see a bigger picture.

7. Time to time Tom can be close in his behavior, give him another “hat”, let him walk with another legs and experiences diverse perspectives.

8. Explore the process from information (what you know, what else you can know) going through inspiration and imagination until getting to implementation (try! Try! And try!).

9. Be motivated is better if it is from inside (intrinsic) to keep that way the whole process.

Dear Ima Diary, I confirm that I am in a business program trying to keep my face out of the water, I am not sure if I am able to train Tom. At least being aware is the first step, isn’t it?

One more thing, can I ask you how do you interpret creativity? Will you let your cat play with mine? Tom does not want to be fat, lazy and alone anymore.

P.S. This as that creativity week has been the most difficult and overacting blog that I have written so far.

With love,

My overacting soul,

Laura