Sticky Creativity
I had my regular morning walk on Friday morning. Every morning either I walk, run or bicycle. If I run or walk then I spend the next half hour in the park stretching myself and trying out the new age methods like ‘Pranayam’ (that I find very powerfully tiring, but that’s a story for another day). Last Friday I picked up a ‘pinni’, a small green fruit that we used to pick from trees to shoot at other kids as a kid. I still have strange fancy for it and keep picking them up. I grabbed one and felt it all around my fingers and carried it back with myself. As I entered the elevator in my building I saw a small hole meant for a screw. I stuck that ‘pinni’ in there. It stayed there as a green blob, shining against the ageing elevator. It became the most attractive point inside.
On my second trip down the elevator I noticed that somebody had stuck a green chewing gum over my ‘pinni’, to hold it permanently in place. I felt guilty for having stuck the ‘pinni’ in the there in the first place. The gum won’t have been stuck had I not done it. Nevertheless, I decided to ignore it for the while and looked around to make sure that nobody noticed the guilt pang I was going through with the looks saying ‘All my stranger friends here, I assure you I have nothing to do with it. I hope you haven’t read my mind that I am lying.’
My third trip in the elevator; somebody had stuck a business card on the chewing gum. ‘Incredible, I thought.’
All those people who etch inside elevators, distract them with something else, and they will show how creative they are with other things as well. Our minds are always looking for that something which will grab our attention. Once our attention is grabbed, we love being creative, be it our jobs, our hobbies. An affluent society creates a lot of attention grabbers across its population. Good coffee joints are visually stimulating, you like a seat on the floor that’s surrounded with creativity and suddenly you are full of creative thoughts yourself. It’s contagious, like I stuck the ‘pinni’, somebody stuck the chewing gum, and then somebody else a business card.
However, like everything else, creativity has a shelf life. I saw today that the business card had come off for the chewing gum had dried. The chewing itself had been scraped at places, not professionally but by one of those who love to etch. And the ‘pinni’ itself wasn’t there. Somebody had picked it out, like the jewels from Shahjahan’s crown. The spot in the elevator looks like a ruin that looks as if it flourished in recent past. Like our Delhi, the beautiful monuments and the wonderful works of art slowly replaced by decrepit buildings, colorless slums and a monotone. People still go the Mughal buildings to etch their names, ‘creativity begets creativity’. As creative outlets go down for regular man (attention grabbers missing out from society), people resort to troubling white tourists (work of art and etching them) and numerous examples around NCR where people unknowingly maul public property.
We are still quite distant from harnessing the creative potential of our citizens. Until then, some of the creativity will keep the city intact, some will pull it apart*. I would like to experiment by putting on a huge white chart and welcome people to put down their thoughts on a street in a market. I am sure people will surprise me with their random thoughts.
*1. A beggar bending the railings on a pedestal to make a comfortable space for himself, is also creativity from his point of view.2. Beggars switching between begging and selling goodies at crossings to increase their income. Lately I have noticed they are highly creative when it comes to selling, with gestures, tone and language. Some of them could definitely create excellent sales professionals given a chance. 3. A Divider being broken down to create a new space for a U-Turn is creative for whoever thought it helps in someway. (It’s destructive for everybody else, people who constructed it, people who don’t use it. It’s relative.)4. The Golden Quadrilateral has it’s barriers broken at numerous points. People who take their cattle out on grazing find it very difficult to cross the streets and hence broke the barrier down at points. You can’t stop livelihood for a farmer when you suddenly populate the country with infrastructure. You have to make provisions. Or let the locals be creative with resources. Similarly you suddenly find speed breakers on the National Highways while crossing small towns. They were never there in the master plan but have been put in by the local municipality.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:31 am
Superb. Won’t forget this for a long time.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:41 am
An email conversation with Sarah over ‘Sticky Creativity’.
Dear Shubham,
I have been thinking about this one today. And although I am now at the end of my day and too tired to think or write coherently, I had a few things I wanted to say and a few comments I wanted to make…
‘Creativity’ is enabled by a series of ’steps’, each one giving rise to the next phase of development. Your example is ‘creativity’ in a microcosm.
New things are created on the foundations of older things: a great literary work could be said to have its foundation way back in the early formation (creation) of language; a great painter must acknowledge the role played by the ‘creations’ of earlier masters; a musical masterpiece owes elements of its ‘creation’ to music that has gone before.
Your story also highlights the role of destruction in ‘creation’. Your example basically began as a small act of ‘vandalism’ that became a launching pad for a series of ‘creative’ acts, yet creation is impermanent and the destructive nature of humans took over to destroy what had been ‘created’ in your elevator!
‘Creation’ can be looked at as a series of building up and tearing down; replacing old with new, yet at the same time retaining, building upon and learning from certain elements of the old.
Yet at the same time I am compelled to ask a couple of questions…
Are humans naturally ‘creative’ or is ‘creativity’ thrust on us by environment and circumstances?
Do we need to differentiate between the traditional ‘creations’ in the world of art and the type of ‘creation’/adaptations to our environment you talk about in your piece - is it all ‘creation’?
And finally; what is it in mankind that drives us to destroy the creations of others?
Sarah.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Zain Zambia
Sarah,
Well said…
1. Are humans naturally ‘creative’ or is ‘creativity’ thrust on us by environment and circumstances?
Both I shall say. Without creativity life shall be too stale. If you had to take life as it is without any chance of contributing, the zeal for curiosity will disappear. It will be like a television show where you are not allowed to modify the environment in any way. Participating assures that we are alive and also lets us contribute towards another possibility. So I shall say not only all humans, but all living beings are naturally creative. Instance, Earthworms recycling earth, is very creative indeed. Though it might not be voluntary in our time frame, but the earthworm facilitated the process by being a part of the chain.
When times are sanguine, we are creative by choice. India now is coming up with brilliant shades in creativity with Entrepreneurs, Social Workers, modicums that might not have been possible a few years back. Prosperity has made it possible. However, that doesn’t mean Iraq doesn’t have such examples. Kids selling cigarettes and porn to troops is a need identified. Creativity could be anything that where I can ‘pull up a few unrelated resources together give it a new face. A painting, a business opportunity…anything.’ Life is fair to almost every living thing, except ofcourse those who say that life has been unfair.
2. Do we need to differentiate between the traditional ‘creations’ in the world of art and the type of ‘creation’/adaptations to our environment you talk about in your piece - is it all ‘creation’?
There are two versions in creativity. The former one is more evolved, carved to our senses. The latter one might be crass or raw, more for utility. Some people have evolved in observing and understanding what appeals him the most and therefore undertakes a course to modify the subject. Over the years his practice brings results that are appealing not only to him, but others as well. We can say his journey is like the ‘journey of language’, becoming more expressive everyday.
In contrast, people who are not in traditional stream of arts are equally creative, but th effort is erratic. They consider their contribution a piece of art, while the rest of the world doesn’t take notice. The effort in itself might not have the intentions to appeal to the rest of the world, it might be a very personal gratification. It is like a person surviving on this planet alone…what kind of an artist will he make if his work of art didn’t require any approval?
3. And finally; what is it in mankind that drives us to destroy the creations of others?
A short term gratification, a possibility.
a. For instance a trader might see an opportunity in revealing to the Nazis where some of the Jews are hiding and therefore facilitate in the destruction of life.
b. Religious pagans see an opportunity in defaming and defiling M.F. Hussain’s (a very famous painter’s) works. The opportunity is itself some creative/destructive efforts arising out of another creative/destructive work. So I can’t agree more when you say,
‘New things are created on the foundations of older things: a great literary work could be said to have its foundation way back in the early formation (creation) of language; a great painter must acknowledge the role played by the ‘creations’ of earlier masters; a musical masterpiece owes elements of its ‘creation’ to music that has gone before.’
c. Iraq was a possibility seen by some people in power in United States. The key unrelated resources were: Oil, Control, Alien Territory. Every time a few distant parameters are coming together, it’s a new possibility.
d. Every lion in Africa and tiger in India reeks with the possibility of being poached. This time the poachers are being destructive for the world, but creative for themselves when they dodge the police, security and successfully poach the species.
CONCLUDING, EFFORTS THAT FOLLOW A POSSIBILITY IS LABELED ‘CREATIVE’ WHEN IT’S IN SYNC WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, IT’S DESTRUCTIVE WHEN IT ISN’T. IN BOTH THE CASES HOWEVER A CREATIVE MIND IS AT WORK.
June 12th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Hey, this is simply great. I agree what you have said here.