127-404: Vrouw Maria ( Lady Mary ) was a Dutch wooden two-masted merchant ship carrying a valuable cargo of art objects, captained by Raymund Lourens, that sank on 9 October 1771 in the outer archipelago of the municipality of Nagu , Finland , 11 kilometers south-east of the island of Jurmo . In 1999, the ship was discovered by the members of Pro Vrouw Maria, led by Rauno Koivusaari. A dispute between
254-418: A costume , or a painting ). Creativity may also describe the ability to find new solutions to problems , or new methods of performing a task or reaching a goal. Therefore, creativity enables people to solve problems in new or innovative ways. Most ancient cultures (including Ancient Greece , Ancient China , and Ancient India ) lacked the concept of creativity, seeing art as a form of discovery, rather than
381-528: A social elite , though other forms of art may have been. Reproductive methods such as moulds made mass-production easier, and were used to bring high-quality Ancient Roman pottery and Greek Tanagra figurines to a very wide market. Cylinder seals were both artistic and practical, and very widely used by what can be loosely called the middle class in the Ancient Near East . Once coins were widely used, these also became an art form that reached
508-412: A "four C" model of creativity. The four "C's" are the following: This model was intended to help accommodate models and theories of creativity that stressed competence as an essential component and the historical transformation of a creative domain as the highest mark of creativity. It also, the authors argued, made a useful framework for analyzing creative processes in individuals. The contrast between
635-607: A South African cave. Containers that may have been used to hold paints have been found dating as far back as 100,000 years. The oldest piece of art found in Europe is the Riesenhirschknochen der Einhornhöhle , dating back 51,000 years and made by Neanderthals. Sculptures, cave paintings , rock paintings and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but
762-589: A book called Sjunkna Skepp in 1979. The cargo, as declared in Helsingør , Denmark , on 23 September, included sugar , fabrics and dyes . The ship also carried works of art that Catherine the Great had bought at auction in Amsterdam on 31 July 1771. The pieces formerly belonged to Gerrit Braamcamp , a Dutch art collector. The King of Denmark allowed them to pass through customs without any declaration. After
889-462: A branch of philosophy known as aesthetics . The resulting artworks are studied in the professional fields of art criticism and the history of art . In the perspective of the history of art, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early prehistoric art to contemporary art ; however, some theorists think that the typical concept of "artistic works" does not fit well outside modern Western societies. One early sense of
1016-468: A broader definition of " the arts ". Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences . In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts . The nature of art and related concepts, such as creativity and interpretation , are explored in
1143-434: A chair be used?"). Divergent thinking is sometimes used as a synonym for creativity in psychology literature or is considered the necessary precursor to creativity. However, as Runco points out, there is a clear distinction between creative thinking and divergent thinking. Creative thinking focuses on the production, combination, and assessment of ideas to formulate something new and unique, while divergent thinking focuses on
1270-529: A concept determined by words. They furnish an aesthetic idea, which serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper function, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken. – Immanuel Kant Most scholars who deal with rock paintings or objects recovered from prehistoric contexts that cannot be explained in utilitarian terms and are thus categorized as decorative, ritual or symbolic, are aware of
1397-461: A decisive role in the meaning of a work of art, conveying the content or essential main idea, while all other interpretations can be discarded. It defines the subject as the persons or idea represented, and the content as the artist's experience of that subject. For example, the composition of Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne is partly borrowed from the Statue of Zeus at Olympia . As evidenced by
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#17327799038471524-584: A desired outcome. Spontaneous behaviors by living creatures are thought to reflect past learned behaviors. In this way, a behaviorist may say that prior learning caused novel behaviors to be reinforced many times over, and the individual has been shaped to produce increasingly novel behaviors. A creative person, according to this definition, is someone who has been reinforced more often for novel behaviors than others. Behaviorists suggest that anyone can be creative, they just need to be reinforced to learn to produce novel behaviors. Another theory about creative people
1651-571: A form of creation. In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, creativity was seen as the sole province of God, and human creativity was considered an expression of God's work; the modern conception of creativity came about during the Renaissance , influenced by humanist ideas. Scholarly interest in creativity is found in a number of disciplines, primarily psychology , business studies , and cognitive science ; however, it
1778-498: A framework for understanding creativity in problem solving , namely the Explicit-Implicit Interaction (EII) theory of creativity. This theory attempts to provide a more unified explanation of relevant phenomena (in part by reinterpreting/integrating various fragmentary existing theories of incubation and insight ). The EII theory relies mainly on five basic principles: A computational implementation of
1905-531: A hundred different definitions can be found in the literature, typically elaborating on the context (field, organization, environment, etc.) that determines the originality and/or appropriateness of the created object and the processes through which it came about. As an illustration, one definition given by Dr. E. Paul Torrance in the context of assessing an individual's creative ability is "a process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; identifying
2032-407: A message, mood, or symbolism for the perceiver to interpret (art as experience). Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. For some scholars, such as Kant, the sciences and the arts could be distinguished by taking science as representing
2159-437: A neurobiological description of creative cognition. This interdisciplinary framework integrates theoretical principles and empirical results from neuroeconomics , reinforcement learning , cognitive neuroscience , and neurotransmission research on the locus coeruleus system. It describes how decision-making processes studied by neuroeconomists as well as activity in the locus coeruleus system underlie creative cognition and
2286-572: A painter that he makes something?" he answers, "Certainly not, he merely imitates ." It is commonly argued that the notion of "creativity" originated in Western cultures through Christianity, as a matter of divine inspiration . According to scholars, "the earliest Western conception of creativity was the Biblical story of the creation given in Genesis ." However, this is not creativity in
2413-451: A potentiality state, because how it will actualize depends on the different internally or externally generated contexts it interacts with. Honing theory is held to explain certain phenomena not dealt with by other theories of creativity—for example, how different works by the same creator exhibit a recognizable style or "voice" even in different creative outlets. This is not predicted by theories of creativity that emphasize chance processes or
2540-552: A problem may aid creative problem-solving. Early work proposed that creative solutions to problems arise mysteriously from the unconscious mind while the conscious mind is occupied on other tasks. This hypothesis is discussed in Csikszentmihalyi 's five-phase model of the creative process which describes incubation as a time when your unconscious takes over. This was supposed to allow for unique connections to be made without our consciousness trying to make logical order out of
2667-402: A sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium . Art can also refer to the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy or depth. Art can be defined as an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations. There is an understanding that is reached with the material as a result of handling it, which facilitates one's thought processes. A common view is that
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#17327799038472794-556: A sub-stage. Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process, which allowed humans to quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments. Simonton provides an updated perspective on this view in his book, Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on creativity . In 1927, Alfred North Whitehead gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, later published as Process and Reality . He
2921-526: A unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions. In Byzantine and Medieval art of
3048-495: A way to explain possible benefits of creativity on mental health. The theory also addresses challenges not addressed by other theories of creativity, such as the factors guiding restructuring and the evolution of creative works. A central feature of honing theory is the notion of a potential state. Honing theory posits that creative thought proceeds not by searching through and randomly "mutating" predefined possibilities but by drawing upon associations that exist due to overlap in
3175-427: A wide spectrum of emotion due to beauty . Some art is meant to be practical, with its analysis studious, meant to stimulate discourse. Since ancient times, much of the finest art has represented a deliberate display of wealth or power, often achieved by using massive scale and expensive materials. Much art has been commissioned by political rulers or religious establishments, with more modest versions only available to
3302-468: A worldview to attempt to resolve dissonance and seek internal consistency amongst its components, whether they be ideas, attitudes, or bits of knowledge. Dissonance in a person's worldview is, in some cases, generated by viewing their peers' creative outputs, and so people pursue their own creative endeavors to restructure their worldviews and reduce dissonance. This shift in worldview and cognitive restructuring through creative acts has also been considered as
3429-624: A worthwhile experience, generally through the expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas , beauty , and/or technical proficiency. There is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art , and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures. In the Western tradition, the three classical branches of visual art are painting , sculpture , and architecture . Theatre , dance , and other performing arts , as well as literature , music , film and other media such as interactive media , are included in
3556-527: Is a matter of assembly of found objects. However, there are many modernist and contemporary artists who continue to excel in the skills of drawing and painting and in creating hands-on works of art. Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of art are provided in
3683-688: Is a product of culture and that our social interactions evolve our culture in way that promotes creativity. In everyday thought, people often spontaneously imagine alternatives to reality when they think "if only...". Their counterfactual thinking is viewed as an example of everyday creative processes. It has been proposed that the creation of counterfactual alternatives to reality depends on similar cognitive processes to rational thought. Imaginative thought in everyday life can be categorized based on whether it involves perceptual/motor related mental imagery, novel combinatorial processing, or altered psychological states. This classification aids in understanding
3810-496: Is a set of] artefacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication. – Steve Mithen By contrast, the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from
3937-512: Is about transforming those ideas into tangible outcomes that have a practical application. The distinction is critical because creativity without implementation remains an idea, whereas innovation leads to real-world impact. There is also emotional creativity, which is described as a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. Most ancient cultures, including Ancient Greece , Ancient China , and Ancient India , lacked
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4064-472: Is also present in education, the humanities (including philosophy and the arts ), theology , and the social sciences (such as sociology , linguistics, and economics ), as well as engineering , technology , and mathematics. Subjects of study include the relationships between creativity and general intelligence, personality, neural processes, and mental health ; the potential for fostering creativity through education, training, and organizational practices;
4191-474: Is an essential step of the art process. According to education journals, the reflection of art is considered an essential part of the experience. However an important aspect of art is that others may view and appreciate it as well. While many focus on whether those viewing/listening/etc. believe the art to be good/successful or not, art has profound value beyond its commercial success as a provider of information and health in society. Art enjoyment can bring about
4318-412: Is an interaction between one's conception of the task and one's worldview. The conception of the task changes through interaction with the worldview, and the worldview changes through interaction with the task. This interaction is reiterated until the task is complete, at which point the task is conceived of differently and the worldview is subtly or drastically transformed, following the natural tendency of
4445-531: Is credited with having coined the term "creativity" to serve as the ultimate category of his metaphysical scheme: "Whitehead actually coined the term—our term, still the preferred currency of exchange among literature, science, and the arts—a term that quickly became so popular, so omnipresent, that its invention within living memory, and by Alfred North Whitehead of all people, quickly became occluded". Although psychometric studies of creativity had been conducted by The London School of Psychology as early as 1927 with
4572-488: Is divided into audience and affordance , which consider the interdependence of the creative individual with the social and material world, respectively. Although not supplanting the four Ps model in creativity research, the five As model has exerted influence over the direction of some creativity research, and has been credited with bringing coherence to studies across a number of creative domains. There has been much empirical study in psychology and cognitive science of
4699-459: Is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankind's advantages over animals. The more recent and specific sense of the word art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. Fine art refers to a skill used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of more refined or finer works of art. Within this latter sense,
4826-609: Is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather than of regional ones. In The Origin of the Work of Art , Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher and seminal thinker, describes the essence of art in terms of the concepts of being and truth. He argues that art is not only a way of expressing the element of truth in a culture, but the means of creating it and providing a springboard from which "that which is" can be revealed. Works of art are not merely representations of
4953-562: Is one of the most vivid examples of this interaction. The meeting of different cultures and worldviews also influenced artistic creation. An example of this is the multicultural port metropolis of Trieste at the beginning of the 20th century, where James Joyce met writers from Central Europe and the artistic development of New York City as a cultural melting pot. The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, typically along perceptually distinguishable categories such as media , genre, styles , and form. Art form refers to
5080-513: Is the investment theory of creativity . This approach suggests that many individual and environmental factors must exist in precise ways for extremely high levels of creativity opposed to average levels of creativity to result. In the investment sense, a person with their particular characteristics in their particular environment may see an opportunity to devote their time and energy into something that has been overlooked by others. The creative person develops an undervalued or under-recognized idea to
5207-463: Is the source of all true art and science. – Albert Einstein Jupiter's eagle [as an example of art] is not, like logical (aesthetic) attributes of an object, the concept of the sublimity and majesty of creation, but rather something else—something that gives the imagination an incentive to spread its flight over a whole host of kindred representations that provoke more thought than admits of expression in
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5334-536: Is the view that all aesthetic properties of art are formal (that is, part of the art form). Philosophers almost universally reject this view and hold that the properties and aesthetics of art extend beyond materials, techniques, and form. Unfortunately, there is little consensus on terminology for these informal properties. Some authors refer to subject matter and content—i.e., denotations and connotations —while others prefer terms like meaning and significance. Extreme Intentionalism holds that authorial intent plays
5461-407: Is therefore beyond utility. Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry. – Aristotle The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It
5588-530: The Romantic period , art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". A shell engraved by Homo erectus was determined to be between 430,000 and 540,000 years old. A set of eight 130,000 years old white-tailed eagle talons bear cut marks and abrasion that indicate manipulation by neanderthals, possibly for using it as jewelry. A series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in
5715-618: The elements of art that are independent of its interpretation or significance. It covers the methods adopted by the artist and the physical composition of the artwork, primarily non-semantic aspects of the work (i.e., figurae ), such as color , contour , dimension , medium , melody , space , texture , and value . Form may also include Design principles , such as arrangement, balance , contrast , emphasis , harmony , proportion , proximity , and rhythm. In general there are three schools of philosophy regarding art, focusing respectively on form, content, and context. Extreme Formalism
5842-431: The epithet art , particular in its elevated sense, requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability, an originality in stylistic approach, or a combination of these two. Traditionally skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci , art, neither more nor less than his other endeavors,
5969-487: The large-scale brain network dynamics associated with creativity. It suggests that creativity is an optimization and utility-maximization problem that requires individuals to determine the optimal way to exploit and explore ideas (the multi-armed bandit problem ). This utility maximization process is thought to be mediated by the locus coeruleus system, and this creativity framework describes how tonic and phasic locus coeruleus activity work in conjunction to facilitate
6096-594: The "Geneplore" model, in which creativity takes place in two phases: a generative phase, where an individual constructs mental representations called "preinventive" structures, and an exploratory phase where those structures are used to come up with creative ideas. Some evidence shows that when people use their imagination to develop new ideas, those ideas are structured in predictable ways by the properties of existing categories and concepts. Weisberg argued, by contrast, that creativity involves ordinary cognitive processes yielding extraordinary results. Helie and Sun proposed
6223-743: The 14th century—notably in Chaucer's The Parson's Tale to indicate divine creation. The modern meaning of creativity in reference to human creation did not emerge until after the Enlightenment . In a summary of scientific research into creativity, Michael Mumford suggests, "We seem to have reached a general agreement that creativity involves the production of novel , useful products." In Robert Sternberg 's words, creativity produces "something original and worthwhile". Authors have diverged dramatically in their precise definitions beyond these general commonalities: Peter Meusburger estimates that over
6350-537: The 19th and 20th centuries the West has had huge impacts on Eastern art with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting a powerful influence. Modernism , the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. Theodor W. Adorno said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in relationship to
6477-632: The Four P model as individualistic, static, and decontextualized, Vlad Petre Glăveanu proposed a "five A's" model consisting of actor, action, artifact, audience, and affordance. In this model, the actor is the person with attributes but also located within social networks; action is the process of creativity not only in internal cognitive terms but also external, bridging the gap between ideation and implementation; artifacts emphasize how creative products typically represent cumulative innovations over time rather than abrupt discontinuities; and "press/place"
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#17327799038476604-407: The Great of Russia . The ship set sail from Amsterdam on 5 September 1771 for Saint Petersburg . One month later, on 3 October, the ship was caught in a storm and ran aground near the island of Jurmo . The rocks caused only minor damage but shortly afterward the ship ran aground again and lost its rudder. The ship was released by a large wave but the crew found it leaking rapidly. Lowering anchor,
6731-502: The Mind of Someone Living follow this example. Emin slept (and engaged in other activities) in her bed before placing the result in a gallery as work of art. Hirst came up with the conceptual design for the artwork but has left most of the eventual creation of many works to employed artisans. Hirst's celebrity is founded entirely on his ability to produce shocking concepts. The actual production in many conceptual and contemporary works of art
6858-525: The Renaissance that creativity was first observed, not as a conduit for the divine, but from the abilities of " great men ". The development of the modern concept of creativity began in the Renaissance, when creation began to be perceived as having originated from the abilities of the individual and not God. This could be attributed to the leading intellectual movement of the time, aptly named humanism , which developed an intensely human-centric outlook on
6985-487: The Upper Rhine region between 1400 and 1600, and on the art of the 19th to 21st centuries. Creativity Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable ideas or works using one's imagination . Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g., an idea, a scientific theory , a literary work , a musical composition , a joke ), a physical object (e.g., an invention , a dish or meal, an item of jewelry ,
7112-510: The Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of subjects about biblical and religious culture, and used styles that showed the higher glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless, a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in
7239-410: The accumulation of expertise, but it is predicted by honing theory, according to which personal style reflects the creator's uniquely structured worldview. Another example is the environmental stimulus for creativity. Creativity is commonly considered to be fostered by a supportive, nurturing, and trustworthy environment conducive to self-actualization. In line with this idea, Gabora posits that creativity
7366-477: The act of conceiving of a variety of ideas that are not necessarily new or unique. Other researchers have occasionally used the terms flexible thinking or fluid intelligence , which are also roughly similar to (but not synonymous with) creativity. While convergent and divergent thinking differ greatly in terms of approach to problem solving, it is believed that both are employed to some degree when solving most real-world problems. In 1992, Finke et al. proposed
7493-742: The art of Catholic Europe . Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space. In the east, Islamic art 's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric patterns , calligraphy , and architecture . Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw
7620-532: The brain cooperate during creative tasks, suggesting a complex interaction between these networks in facilitating everyday imaginative thought. The term "dialectical theory of creativity" dates back to psychoanalyst Daniel Dervin and was later developed into an interdisciplinary theory. The dialectical theory of creativity starts with the ancient concept that creativity takes place in an interplay between order and chaos. Similar ideas can be found in neuroscience and psychology. Neurobiologically, it can be shown that
7747-419: The career trajectories of eminent creative people in order to map patterns and predictors of creative productivity. Theories of creativity (and empirical investigations of why some people are more creative than others) have focused on a variety of aspects. The dominant factors are usually identified as "the four P's", a framework first put forward by Mel Rhodes : In 2013, based on a sociocultural critique of
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#17327799038477874-550: The city of Basel , in Switzerland , opened the first public museum of art in the world, the Kunstmuseum Basel . Today, its collection is distinguished by an impressively wide historic span, from the early 15th century up to the immediate present. Its various areas of emphasis give it international standing as one of the most significant museums of its kind. These encompass: paintings and drawings by artists active in
8001-403: The concept of an external creative " daemon " (Greek) or " genius " (Latin), linked to the sacred or the divine. However, none of these views are similar to the modern concept of creativity, and the rejection of creativity in favor of discovery and the belief that individual creation was a conduit of the divine would dominate the West probably until the Renaissance and even later. It was during
8128-456: The concept of creativity, seeing art as a form of discovery and not creation. The ancient Greeks had no terms corresponding to "to create" or "creator" except for the expression " poiein " ("to make"), which only applied to poiesis (poetry) and to the poietes (poet, or "maker" who made it. Plato did not believe in art as a form of creation. Asked in the Republic , "Will we say of
8255-459: The creative process by pioneering theorists such as Graham Wallas and Max Wertheimer . In his work Art of Thought , published in 1926, Wallas presented one of the first models of the creative process. In the Wallas stage model, creative insights and illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of five stages: Wallas' model is also often treated as four stages, with "intimation" seen as
8382-482: The creative process into broad three steps, but there is no consensus on an exact number. In the first step, the artist envisions the art in their mind. By imagining what their art would look like, the artist begins the process of bringing the art into existence. Preparation of art may involve approaching and researching the subject matter. Artistic inspiration is one of the main drivers of art, and may be considered to stem from instinct, impressions, and feelings. In
8509-657: The creative process takes place in a dynamic interplay between coherence and incoherence that leads to new and usable neuronal networks. Psychology shows how the dialectics of convergent and focused thinking with divergent and associative thinking leads to new ideas and products. Personality traits like the "Big Five" seem to be dialectically intertwined in the creative process: emotional instability vs. stability, extraversion vs. introversion, openness vs. reserve, agreeableness vs. antagonism, and disinhibition vs. constraint. The dialectical theory of creativity applies also to counseling and psychotherapy. Lin and Vartanian developed
8636-402: The crewmen manned the pumps, but the ship continued to take on water. At dawn on 4 October the decision was made to abandon ship. The crew manned the ship's boats and safely reached nearby rocks, from which they hailed a passing boat. Help arrived the next day, but after several days no progress had been made toward stabilizing the ship, whose pump was clogged with coffee beans from the cargo. On
8763-497: The definition of art is closely related to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft", as associated with words such as "artisan". English words derived from this meaning include artifact , artificial , artifice , medical arts , and military arts . However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology . Over time, philosophers like Plato , Aristotle , Socrates and Immanuel Kant , among others, questioned
8890-598: The developing theory of post-structuralism studies art's significance in a cultural context, such as the ideas, emotions, and reactions prompted by a work. The cultural context often reduces to the artist's techniques and intentions, in which case analysis proceeds along lines similar to formalism and intentionalism. However, in other cases historical and material conditions may predominate, such as religious and philosophical convictions, sociopolitical and economic structures, or even climate and geography. Art criticism continues to grow and develop alongside art. Art can connote
9017-429: The difference between creativity and originality. Götz asserted that one can be creative without necessarily being original. When someone creates something, they are certainly creative at that point, but they may not be original in the case that their creation is not something new. However, originality and creativity can go hand-in-hand. Creativity in general is usually distinguished from innovation in particular, where
9144-413: The difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference. However, even fine art often has goals beyond pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically, spiritually, or philosophically motivated art; to create a sense of beauty (see aesthetics ); to explore
9271-513: The difficulty; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies: testing and retesting these hypotheses and possibly modifying and retesting them; and finally communicating the results." Ignacio L. Götz, following the etymology of the word, argues that creativity is not necessarily "making". He confines it to the act of creating without thinking about the end product. While many definitions of creativity seem almost synonymous with originality, he also emphasized
9398-686: The disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic . The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literary art that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted. With regards to the literary art and the musical arts, Aristotle considered epic poetry , tragedy, comedy, Dithyrambic poetry and music to be mimetic or imitative art, each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. For example, music imitates with
9525-468: The discoverers and the authorities was later resolved. The ship was in good condition when it was discovered, but only six objects from the deck of the ship have been salvaged. The cargo holds have not been disturbed, so the condition of any art on board remains unknown. The Finnish National Board of Antiquities is responsible for the ship and all recovery efforts. Vrouw Maria was loaded with precious artifacts including works of art belonging to Catherine
9652-406: The distributed neural cell assemblies that participate in the encoding of experiences in memory. Midway through the creative process, one may have made associations between the current task and previous experiences but not yet disambiguated which aspects of those previous experiences are relevant to the current task. Thus, the creative idea may feel "half-baked.". At that point, it can be said to be in
9779-461: The domain of knowledge and the arts as representing the domain of the freedom of artistic expression. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art . Some art followers have argued that
9906-402: The early 20th century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell . More recently, thinkers influenced by Martin Heidegger have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation. George Dickie has offered an institutional theory of art that defines a work of art as any artifact upon which a qualified person or persons acting on behalf of
10033-534: The emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe . The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements , such as academic art , Symbolism , impressionism and fauvism among others. The history of 20th-century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism , Expressionism , Fauvism , Cubism , Dadaism , Surrealism , etc. cannot be maintained very much beyond
10160-476: The exploiting and exploring of creative ideas. This framework not only explains previous empirical results but also makes novel and falsifiable predictions at different levels of analysis (ranging from neurobiological to cognitive and personality differences). B.F. Skinner attributed creativity to accidental behaviors that are reinforced by the environment. In behaviorism, creativity can be understood as novel or unusual behaviors that are reinforced if they produce
10287-638: The factors that determine how creativity is evaluated and perceived; and the fostering of creativity for national economic benefit. According to Harvard Business School , creativity benefits business by encouraging innovation, boosting productivity, enabling adaptability, and fostering growth. The English word "creativity" comes from the Latin terms creare (meaning 'to create') and facere (meaning 'to make'). Its derivational suffixes also comes from Latin. The word "create" appeared in English as early as
10414-601: The flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin ), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang dynasty paintings are monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming dynasty paintings are busy and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition. Japan names its styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between
10541-442: The following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated ( Lévi-Strauss ). The non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In this sense, Art, as creativity, is something humans must do by their very nature (i.e., no other species creates art), and
10668-452: The individual attributes of a person, such as their aesthetic taste, while Chinese people view creativity more in terms of the social influence of creative people (i.e., what they can contribute to society). Mpofu et al. surveyed 28 African languages and found that 27 had no word which directly translated to "creativity" (the exception being Arabic). The linguistic relativity hypothesis (i.e., that language can affect thought) suggests that
10795-427: The intersection of two quite different frames of reference. In the 1990s, various approaches in cognitive science that dealt with metaphor , analogy , and structure mapping converged, and a new integrative approach to the study of creativity in science, art, and humor emerged under the label conceptual blending . Honing theory, developed principally by psychologist Liane Gabora , posits that creativity arises due to
10922-622: The lack of an equivalent word for "creativity" may affect the views of creativity among speakers of such languages. However, more research would be needed to establish this, and there is certainly no suggestion that this linguistic difference makes people any less, or more, creative. Nevertheless, it is true that there has been very little research on creativity in Africa, and there has also been very little research on creativity in Latin America. Creativity has been more thoroughly researched in
11049-582: The meaning of art. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, while Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer 's great poetic art, and laughter as well. In Ion , Socrates gives no hint of
11176-465: The media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama. Aristotle believed that imitation
11303-536: The modern sense, which did not arise until the Renaissance . In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, creativity was the sole province of God; humans were not considered to have the ability to create something new except as an expression of God's work. A concept similar to that in Christianity existed in Greek culture. For instance, Muses were seen as mediating inspiration from the gods. Romans and Greeks invoked
11430-478: The morning of 5 October the Vrouw Maria sank beneath the waves. While all the crew lived, only a fraction of the cargo was saved. Various people tried to locate the wreck, but none were successful until Pro Vrouw Maria discovered it in 1999. Interest in the ship rose in the 1970s when Christian Ahlström discovered documents regarding the incident in the national archives of Finland. He published his findings in
11557-513: The most wealthy in society. Nevertheless, there have been many periods where art of very high quality was available, in terms of ownership, across large parts of society, above all in cheap media such as pottery, which persists in the ground, and perishable media such as textiles and wood. In many different cultures, the ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas are found in such a wide range of graves that they were clearly not restricted to
11684-510: The nature of perception; for pleasure; or to generate strong emotions . The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent. The nature of art has been described by philosopher Richard Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture". Art has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation . Art as mimesis has deep roots in
11811-442: The neural foundations and practical implications of imagination. Creative thinking is a central aspect of everyday life, encompassing both controlled and undirected processes. This includes divergent thinking and stage models, highlighting the importance of extra- and meta-cognitive contributions to imaginative thought. Brain network dynamics play a crucial role in creative cognition. The default and executive control networks in
11938-478: The newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog's life. – André Breton (Surrealism) The functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product, i.e. the movie or video game. Art can be divided into any number of steps one can make an argument for. This section divides
12065-540: The northern hemisphere, but here again there are cultural differences, even between countries or groups of countries in close proximity. For example, in Scandinavian countries, creativity is seen as an individual attitude which helps in coping with life's challenges, while in Germany, creativity is seen more as a process that can be applied to help solve problems. James C. Kaufman and Ronald A. Beghetto introduced
12192-423: The oldest musical instruments unearthed so far, with the artifacts dating between 43,000 and 35,000 BC, so being the first centre of human art. Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt , Mesopotamia , Persia , India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca , Maya , and Olmec . Each of these centers of early civilization developed
12319-401: The philosophy of Aristotle. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another. Benedetto Croce and R. G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator. The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Kant, and was developed in
12446-544: The point that it is established as a new and creative idea. Just like in the financial world, some investments are worth the buy-in, while others are less productive and do not build to the extent that the investor expected. This investment theory of creativity asserts that creativity might rely to some extent on the right investment of effort being added to a field at the right time in the right way. Jürgen Schmidhuber 's formal theory of creativity postulates that creativity, curiosity, and interestingness are by-products of
12573-662: The precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them. The first undisputed sculptures and similar art pieces, like the Venus of Hohle Fels , are the numerous objects found at the Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura UNESCO World Heritage Site , where the oldest non-stationary works of human art yet discovered were found, in the form of carved animal and humanoid figurines, in addition to
12700-463: The problem. J. P. Guilford drew a distinction between convergent and divergent production (commonly renamed convergent and divergent thinking ). Convergent thinking involves aiming for a single, correct, or best solution to a problem (e.g., "How can we get a crewed rocket to land on the moon safely and within budget?"). Divergent thinking, on the other hand, involves the creative generation of multiple answers to an open-ended prompt (e.g., "How can
12827-412: The problem. Ward lists various hypotheses that have been advanced to explain why incubation may aid creative problem-solving and notes how some empirical evidence is consistent with a different hypothesis: Incubation aids creative problems in that it enables "forgetting" of misleading clues. The absence of incubation may lead the problem solver to become fixated on inappropriate strategies of solving
12954-468: The processes through which creativity occurs. Interpretation of the results of these studies has led to several possible explanations of the sources and methods of creativity. "Incubation" is a temporary break from creative problem solving that can result in insight. Empirical research has investigated whether, as the concept of "incubation" in Wallas 's model implies, a period of interruption or rest from
13081-536: The recognition of creativity (as measured) as a separate aspect of human cognition from IQ -type intelligence, into which it had previously been subsumed. Guilford's work suggested that above a threshold level of IQ, the relationship between creativity and classically measured intelligence broke down. Creativity is viewed differently in different countries. For example, cross-cultural research centered in Hong Kong found that Westerners view creativity more in terms of
13208-404: The second step, the artist executes the creation of their work. The creation of a piece can be affected by factors such as the artist's mood , surroundings , and mental state . For example, The Black Paintings by Francisco de Goya , created in the elder years of his life, are thought to be so bleak because he was in isolation and because of his experience with war. He painted them directly on
13335-428: The self-organizing, self-mending nature of a worldview. The creative process is a way in which the individual hones (and re-hones) an integrated worldview. Honing theory places emphasis not only on the externally visible creative outcome but also on the internal cognitive restructuring and repair of the worldview brought about by the creative process and production. When one is faced with a creatively demanding task, there
13462-440: The separation being made between talent (productive, but not new ground) and genius. As an independent topic of study, creativity effectively received little attention until the 19th century. Runco and Albert argue that creativity as the subject of proper study began seriously to emerge in the late 19th century with the increased interest in individual differences inspired by the arrival of Darwinism . In particular, they refer to
13589-678: The sinking, the Swedish ambassador to St Petersburg, Carl Ribbing, the landlord of Turku and Pori County baron Christopher Rappe, and the foreign minister of Russia, Nikita Panin , discussed the missing cargo but nothing further was done to save it. The paintings Catherine the Great bought are known to have included Paulus Potter 's Large Herd of Oxen, bought for Fl. 9050, and Gerard ter Borch 's Woman at her Toilette , bought for Fl. 1870, as well as works by Cornelis Coedyk, Gabriel Metsu , The Nursery by Gerard Dou (a triptych of genre scenes bought for Fl. 14,100), Philip Wouwerman , and one of
13716-482: The social institution commonly referred to as "the art world " has conferred "the status of candidate for appreciation". Larry Shiner has described fine art as "not an essence or a fate but something we have made. Art as we have generally understood it is a European invention barely two hundred years old." Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), narrative (storytelling), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During
13843-577: The stress is on implementation. For example, Teresa Amabile and Pratt define creativity as the production of novel and useful ideas and innovation as the implementation of creative ideas, while the OECD and Eurostat state that "[i]nnovation is more than a new idea or an invention. An innovation requires implementation, either by being put into active use or by being made available for use by other parties, firms, individuals, or organizations." Therefore, while creativity involves generating new ideas, innovation
13970-549: The styles of calligraphy and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century. The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe , as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world, such as Blake 's portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer, or David 's propagandistic paintings. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of
14097-683: The terms "Big C" and "Little C" has been widely used. Kozbelt, Beghetto, and Runco use a little-c/Big-C model to review major theories of creativity. Margaret Boden distinguishes between h-creativity (historical) and p-creativity (personal). Ken Robinson and Anna Craft focused on creativity in a general population, particularly with respect to education. Craft makes a similar distinction between "high" and "little c" creativity and cites Robinson as referring to "high" and "democratic" creativity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined creativity in terms of individuals judged to have made significant creative, perhaps domain-changing contributions. Simonton analyzed
14224-453: The theory was developed based on the CLARION cognitive architecture and used to simulate relevant human data. This work is an initial step in the development of process-based theories of creativity encompassing incubation, insight, and various other related phenomena. In The Act of Creation , Arthur Koestler introduced the concept of bisociation – that creativity arises as a result of
14351-406: The time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Thus, Japanese woodblock prints (themselves influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse . Similarly, in
14478-446: The title, the subject is Napoleon , and the content is Ingres 's representation of Napoleon as "Emperor-God beyond time and space". Similarly to extreme formalism, philosophers typically reject extreme intentionalism, because art may have multiple ambiguous meanings and authorial intent may be unknowable and thus irrelevant. Its restrictive interpretation is "socially unhealthy, philosophically unreal, and politically unwise". Finally,
14605-431: The trap posed by the term 'art'. – Silva Tomaskova Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) sell a product, or used as a form of communication. [Art
14732-456: The van Ostade brothers ( Adriaen or Isaac ). Pickford, Nigel. (1994). The Atlas of Shipwrecks & Treasure . New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing. ISBN 1-56458-599-9 59°46′28″N 21°47′10″E / 59.77444°N 21.78611°E / 59.77444; 21.78611 Art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around works by creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to induce
14859-483: The walls of his apartment in Spain, and most likely never discussed them with anyone. The Beatles stated drugs such as LSD and cannabis influenced some of their greatest hits, such as Revolver . Trial and error are considered an integral part of the creation process. The last step is art appreciation , which has the sub-topic of critique. In one study, over half of visual arts students agreed that reflection
14986-455: The way things are, but actually produce a community's shared understanding. Each time a new artwork is added to any culture, the meaning of what it is to exist is inherently changed. Historically, art and artistic skills and ideas have often been spread through trade. An example of this is the Silk Road , where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could mix. Greco Buddhist art
15113-400: The whole, nor even the right of art to exist." Relativism was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism , where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with skepticism and irony. Furthermore, the separation of cultures is increasingly blurred and some argue it
15240-553: The widest range of society. Another important innovation came in the 15th century in Europe, when printmaking began with small woodcuts , mostly religious, that were often very small and hand-colored, and affordable even by peasants who glued them to the walls of their homes. Printed books were initially very expensive, but fell steadily in price until by the 19th century even the poorest could afford some with printed illustrations. Popular prints of many different sorts have decorated homes and other places for centuries. In 1661,
15367-402: The word art may refer to several things: (i) a study of a creative skill, (ii) a process of using the creative skill, (iii) a product of the creative skill, or (iv) the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts ( art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks ( art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and convey
15494-471: The work of Francis Galton , who, through his eugenicist outlook took a keen interest in the heritability of intelligence, with creativity taken as an aspect of genius. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading mathematicians and scientists such as Hermann von Helmholtz (1896) and Henri Poincaré (1908) began to reflect on and publicly discuss their creative processes. The insights of Poincaré and von Helmholtz were built on in early accounts of
15621-604: The work of H.L. Hargreaves into the Faculty of Imagination, the formal psychometric measurement of creativity, from the standpoint of orthodox psychological literature, is usually considered to have begun with J.P. Guilford 's address to the American Psychological Association in 1950. The address helped to popularize the study of creativity and to focus attention on scientific approaches to conceptualizing creativity. Statistical analyzes led to
15748-412: The world, valuing the intellect and achievement of the individual. From this philosophy arose the Renaissance man (or polymath), an individual who embodies the principles of humanism in their ceaseless courtship with knowledge and creation. One of the most well-known and immensely accomplished examples is Leonardo da Vinci . However, the shift from divine inspiration to the abilities of the individual
15875-437: Was a manifestation of skill. Rembrandt 's work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity. At the turn of the 20th century, the adroit performances of John Singer Sargent were alternately admired and viewed with skepticism for their manual fluency, yet at nearly the same time the artist who would become the era's most recognized and peripatetic iconoclast, Pablo Picasso ,
16002-542: Was completing a traditional academic training at which he excelled. A common contemporary criticism of some modern art occurs along the lines of objecting to the apparent lack of skill or ability required in the production of the artistic object. In conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp 's Fountain is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognised set of skills. Tracey Emin 's My Bed , or Damien Hirst 's The Physical Impossibility of Death in
16129-539: Was gradual and would not become immediately apparent until the Enlightenment . By the 18th century and the Age of Enlightenment, mention of creativity (notably in aesthetics ), linked with the concept of imagination, became more frequent. In the writing of Thomas Hobbes , imagination became a key element of human cognition; William Duff was one of the first to identify imagination as a quality of genius, typifying
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