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The Evolution of Creativity XXX
The Evolution of Creativity XXX
Alfonso Montuori, PhD. is a special about Einstein’s brain. It’s not that I think
Professor in the Transformative genius is uninteresting, but there’s so much more
Inquiry Department at Cali- about what we call creativity that’s worth explor-
fornia Institute of Integral ing. In fact, most of my attention has been direct-
Studies. An Italian citizen,
ed to the aspects of creativity that haven’t received
Alfonso was born in Holland,
special attention. Somewhat more esoterically per-
grew up trilingual, and lived
in Lebanon, Greece, and Eng- haps, I’ve also been interested in how we have cre-
land where he graduated from the ated our understanding of creativity. Because our
University of London, before moving understanding of creativity is, after all, also a cre-
to the United States in 1983 and later ation. Now this may seem to verge on the esoteric
becoming a dual US citizen. He has been Distinguished Visiting or at least the suspiciously academic, but I’ll show
Professor in the School of Fine Arts at Miami University in that the implications are considerable.
Oxford, Ohio, and in 1985-1986 he taught at the Central South
My argument here will be that creativity is
University in Hunan, China. Alfonso is the author of several
evolving, meaning at least that human beings
books and numerous articles on creativity, complexity, social
change and education. Alfonso consults on creativity and leader- construct an understanding of what this thing or
ship development through his company Evolutionary Strate- process is that they call creativity, and that this
gies. An active musician and producer, he lives in San Francisco understanding changes over time. We are now at
with his wife, jazz singer Kitty Margolis, producing her award- an important turning point where our under-
winning recordings and performing on saxophone as a member standing of creativity is undergoing a considerable
of her touring band. Email: amontuori@ciis.edu. transformation. During times of transformation,
it’s important to get a good sense of where we’ve
!!! been in order to get a better sense of where we
In strange and uncertain times such as those we are living could be going, and to avoid the embarrassing and
in, sometimes a reasonable person might despair. But potentially dangerous possibility of thinking we’re
hope is unreasonable, and love is greater even than this. changing when in fact we’re just doing the same old
May we trust the inexpressible benevolence of the thing, and making the same old mistakes. Let’s at
creative impulse. – ROBERT FRIPP. least make some new mistakes, don’t you think?
! I have found studying creativity is interesting for many
INTRODUCTION
reasons, not least, perhaps, because everybody I speak to
seems to have an opinion about it, and that opinion tells
E
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NLIGHTENMENT HAS LONG BEEN THOUGHT me a lot about the speaker. Creativity also taps – for
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of as an individual process. Much like starters – into such rich veins as the relationship between
creativity used to be the province of the
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lone genius, enlightenment was the
innovation and tradition, the individual and society,
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province of the individual sage. But our
freedom and authoritarianism, process and essence, and
more broadly the very stuff we’re made of, and the cen-
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understanding of creativity is evolving, tral metaphor for what life, the Universe and everything
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and I believe our changing understanding of is all about. In these pages, I hope to share some of my
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creativity may shed some light on the emergence excitement with you and give you as hint of what the
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of a new understanding of enlightenment, a implications of this expanded view of creativity are.
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more collective enlightenment.
Many discussions of creativity start by pointing out
OF MACHINES, GODS, AND GENIUSES
what remarkable and fascinating phenomenon cre-
(AND O F W H O A N D W H AT WA S L E F T O U T )
ativity is. There usually follows a list of equally fasci-
nating great geniuses. I agree – creativity is fascinat- The world-as-machine metaphor that dominated the
ing. But I have to confess that I have never been ter- modern era got us to think and act in uniform and
ribly interested in the nature of genius, or discussions standardized processes as machines do. But this is
along the lines of whether there was anything really not the way of the natural world. Nature is biased
Our understanding of the complexity of creativ- At this point, it’s necessary to step back again, reflect
ity, of the many ways it can appear, is evolving. on some key terms and experiences. The new creativity
Over the last 500 years, the changes have in fact does not have to drift towards collective mediocrity. It
been rather dramatic. In the West we have seen can be expanded, extended, and retain depth while
from artisans with mostly unsigned works, being more inclusive. We begin with one clarification,
labouring for the great glory of God, then from Abraham Maslow, so felt that creativity and self-
individual geniuses representing the height of actualization were almost the same thing. Maslow made
the new Humanism and then this new, 21st a useful distinction between Special Talent (ST) and Self-
century development of a more networked, Actualizing (SA) creativity (Maslow, 1959). ST creativity is
relational but perhaps prosaic creativity for most clearly exemplified in the musical prodigy, the
everybody, everywhere. child who can play piano beautifully at age 7, or the
One way of thinking of this change in genera- mathematical whiz-kid. There are people who have a
tional terms is to compare Woodstock and special talent in one specific area, whether painting,
Burning Man. For the Baby Boomers, Wood- singing, math, or chemistry. Many of the creative
stock was the iconic expression of creativity. geniuses of historical record such as Picasso or Mozart
400,000 people camped out in the mud to watch were Special Talent creatives. SA creatives, however, are
the greatest acts in rock and folk. Even if the different. They do not necessarily have one overriding
audience was so huge it became an integral part talent. Creativity for them is more distributed: it is a
of how we now remember the event, ultimately it function of their whole life, rather than a talent in one
was still the top-down model of a (relatively) pas- particular area. Theirs is an attitude that sees the whole
sive audience enjoying a cavalcade of stars, from of life as an opportunity to be creative. Maslow used
Ravi Shankar to Santana, the Grateful Dead, The the term self-actualizing to refer to people who are
Who, and Jimi Hendrix… psychologically healthy and integrated. He stressed
in the workplace, or in the intimacy of our homes Here we come to a key point about creativity, one
and our most private exchanges. Every interaction that has not received anything like the attention it