This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Committee on Architecture for Education and Committee on Design .
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Since I'm am heavily involved in the analysis of design theory, aesthetics, and creativity, people I interact with are always showing me other thinkers in the field. It is interesting how people in other professions like education or psychology all come up with very similar themes behind how creativity works. We all come up with about the same concepts, and then our own specific profession kicks in to give our unique insight to the matter.
Recently, I was exposed to a really good one coming from none other than John Cleese of Monty Python fame. Yes, a comedian from show business gave a talk about creativity. I was glad to find this because I have studied comedians a bit and I have always been impressed with how smart they are, and how insightful they are about their own creative process.
One of the battles I have always had to fight in our profession is the kind of serious versus playful battle we wage between the science of architecture and the art of architecture. There are so many "serious analysts" in our profession trying to turn our work into a serious science, they tend to look down on the artistic agenda as some sort of playful nonsense we can get to later, provided there's time. And when I wrote my own book on creativity, I spent a bit of time talking about the "serious" dividing line between subjective creativity and objective, somber facts posing as science.
Well, Cleese handed me an answer on a silver platter. Being a shart analyst and comedian, he has nailed down this issue of creativity relative to human ego, relative to "serious" objectivity. He gets to the real meat of this at the end of his lecture, and believe me, it is well worth waiting for.
This lecture is insightful, substantive, and great advice to the world of corporate architecture. Take a look and enjoy. An architect really can learn a thing or two from a comedian. This is a youtube video titled "John Cleese on Creativity" . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VShmtsLhkQg -------------------------------------------
Rich Farris, AIA
Author of "Principles of Creativity, Architecture's Insight to Invention" (Amazon)
Dallas, Texas
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