How do you rethink creativity?

“…Creativity is, in fact, an interaction between the individual and the environment and the way the environment is designed for you…”

– Manu Kapur

“For me two important things stand out and one is the stream of conscientiousness. For me creativity is something that is much more visceral..We heard Jonathan talk about it yesterday - he finds quantum physics beautiful and we heard Luc touch upon it…There is something beyond what machines can do in the realm of creativity and I think that has to do with body and senses, and perception and conscientiousness and I don’t think that we talk about that enough.”

– Aparna Rao

“For me, I guess it begins from imagination, so…or the urge to explore. In my case the urge to explore the solar system or the universe and to do that at first you need to come with the idea and a lot of the ideas that would be seeded would come from, for example, science fiction writers who would come up with ideas of rocket exploration before space exploration occurred…”

– Louise Harra

“I think creativity also comes out of clutter. It is not a very Swiss thing to say, I am sorry but, you know when I have a cluttered environment it gives me ideas and if you look at a lot of designers, creative people, they surround themselves with all of these artifacts ‘cause you get ideas from them…”

– Joe Paradiso

“I think it is talking to people. Talking to people from different disciplines, from different countries, talking to students, or actually having a question from a child if you are giving a talk at a school ‘cause children ask the hardest questions, sometimes, and that can make you think a bit differently.”

– Louise Harra

“I like the idea of the involuntariness of an idea. I like, I like if an idea happens to me I am not conscientiously seeking one or searching for one. I like very much the image of a Ninja…so your always present, agile, and ready, but you’re not really seeking anything…”

– Aparna Rao

“From experience, I think certain people tend to be more creative, but I think it probably depends on the environment.”

– Joe Paradiso

“We tend to underestimate the role of the environment and over-estimate (or) over attribute to the individual. So, I think that we have sufficient research evidence now that we really… I mean individual differences, at least at the biological level we can’t change there are natural variables and you will have individual differences, but the environment is something we can design for. And we understand the science of how to design for it in ways to get behaviors that are creative…I think I tend to focus more on the environment or nurturing aspects of it.”

– Manu Kapur