Tuesday 22 April 2014

Creativity, the talent myth and craft

A subject with a huge breadth of discussion, in this blog I’m sure I’ll barely scratch the surface in answering the question, What is creativity? Many sub questions follow, is being creative a talent people are born with or something people can gain throughout their lives? Creativity can be enhanced by influence, seeing something that resonates, and a lust to create something in order to feed that creative hunger. I personally feel creativity is some form of personality trait.

In this article, science has proven that creativity can be a born gift for some.


As everything I feel it’s a mixture of elements. The talent side behind expressing creativity, I feel is very much a natural gift. However creativity can be interpreted in so many ways, especially when it comes to  the ways in which It is portrayed. For example, there are several members of my family, including my father, that are exceptionally good at drawing and art. It seems to be an aspect of character that is inherited. Although, there are countless books, tutorials, classes all claiming to teach people ‘how to draw.’ Teaching them the processes, understanding your subject in order to transfer what you see onto paper.  



This is seen as art and people, in turn, would view it as creativity. However being taught something, is a process of implanting knowledge into people’s heads, it’s a very academic act. Therefor not the most creative, its following rules on how to get a particular outcome. Creativity is a lot more fluid something that can’t be controlled and sometimes cannot be explained. The talents and the skills we are either born with or gain through practice, are purely the tools we use to express creativity. The two seem to go hand in hand, and with more technology, the different mediums and tools we have at our disposal, make for a wider range of expressions.

Whether videos games can be seen as art or not, it’s certainly a hot topic, which is constantly being debated.


To me it’s no doubt that video games take a lot of creativity and even more so that it takes skill. From 2D design to technical 3D modelling and animation. Especially the writing that goes into video games. It’s easy to get distracted with all the flashy, incredibly detailed graphics but for a game to really work, for it to keep the player engrossed in the narrative, the writing has to be second to none. A perfect example of complex and intricate writing, for me, would have to be Final Fantasy 7. Again, I’ve mentioned this game on my blog before, but it’s a firm favourite for me. The story has so many elements and it really was a journey, referencing to the past, getting into the minds of several characters. That alone was a creative expression within itself.


The imagery created in games drives the story as well as the music, but none of this would be possible without the technological knowhow, knowledge and skill. These are referred to as the talents. Everyone from, animators, to programmers, sound editors, to motion capture and voice acting, these are all talents that pull together to express the creativity.



For me, the definition of creativity is something unique and beautiful that reaches out to a deep part of a person’s mind and soul. It’s an expression of deep lusts, thoughts and dreams that a person has to express. For as long as there’s creativity there is always a place to escape and reason for people to come together and share ideas to produce something memorable.

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