Creativity is a part of human nature. But the stress of daily life can often get in the way of one’s true creative process. Renee Whalen meets with students at the University of Southern California to see how they make space for creativity during one of the most stressful times of the year…finals week.
SOUND: Piano (“Inventive Thinking”)
ETHAN HAWKE: The thing that worries me sometimes whenever you talk about creativity, because it can have this kind of feel that it’s just nice.
Actor Ethan Hawke gave a TED Talk last year where he told the audience to give themselves permission to be creative.
HAWKE: You know, or it’s warm, or it’s something pleasant. It’s not. It’s vital. It’s the way we heal each other.
The work of creators have shaped the way we think and live today. People like Leonardo Da Vinci, Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr…their visions of the world have impacted us all.
But have you ever wondered how these creative visionaries got their ideas in the first place? How did they…well…create?
SOPHIE FELDMAN: I find ideas often through conversation with people, or reading—I love reading books, poems.
Sophie Feldman is a Popular Music Performance and Songwriting major at the University of Southern California. She finds creative inspiration outside of school.
FELDMAN: Listening to other music, listening to podcasts about music and about creation. All of that is sort of where I mine the ideas.
SOUND: Piano (“Inventive Thinking”)
In 1926, social psychologist, Graham Wallas, proposed one of the first models of the creative process. He said that all creative ideas are a solution to a problem or a need. But before you can create, you need time to do nothing. Wallas called this the “incubation period.” It’s the part of the creative process where you take a step back from production mode so that original ideas can come to you.
For most people in 1926, uninterrupted free time wasn’t such a wild idea. For students today, creative space isn’t so easy to come by.
FELDMAN: There were definitely points where I would like burn out and it would be really hard for me to put energy into being creative…
Feldman isn’t foreign to the pressures of a demanding workload.
FELDMAN: I was just exhausted from standardized tests and trying to stay afloat with APs and typical public school things.
EMEKA OBIORAH: My creative space is found when I’m in the shower……
Emeka Obiorah is a sophomore at USC, majoring in Law, History and Culture.
OBIORAH: really anytime I can just sit there and think…which, you know, especially now with finals, is rare. A lot of times, when I’m eating dinner is also another time. But, it’s not often, so that’s a struggle…so…
Obiorah also struggles to find his own creative voice in academia.
OBIORAH: You know there’s so much talk about objectivity. But I feel like objectivity is an impossible goal and so I don’t want to do that. And I like having my subjective voice and my own ideas permeate my work.
SOUND: Piano (“Inventive Thinking”)
Strict guidelines and due dates can often get in the way of creativity.
QUADE FRENCH: I think about creative space in terms of psychological space….
That’s Quade French, a clinical psychologist and USC professor.
FRENCH: And then I also think of creative space as physical space, right, so the place where I’m in. I know myself and there are certainly environments where I can think better…if I’m trying to actively think…and there are certain environments, also, that I can just space out in and that spacing out often leads to new ideas and other things to think about.
For Sophie Feldman, physical space is an important part of her creative process.
FELDMAN: Being in nature totally makes a difference. I’m much more creative when I get to be outside…when I have natural light and windows….I typically do more of the writing outside, or by my window in my room, or with my friends, when I have other peoples’ energy to feed off of.
Creative space isn’t just about solitude.
FELDMAN: When you listen to the music that your friends are making or listen to the music that they recommend to you or you get into a writing session and start bouncing ideas off of each other, you can’t avoid becoming more creative. It’s literally inevitable.
ETHAN HAWKE: We come out of our corners and we start to witness each other’s common humanity. We start to assert it.
Creativity is so much more than a finished assignment. It doesn’t look like a DaVinci painting, or an MLK speech, or a perfectly-edited song. Creativity is the process of getting there…and the courage to take the first step.
HAWKE: And when we do that, really good things happen.
SOUND: Piano (“Inventive Thinking”)