Creativity & Imagination

[abraxas]

Recently a comment was made to me that made me wonder if creativity and imagination go hand in hand, or, if one can -exist- in an individual without the other?-

Definitions:

Imagination;
the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses; "popular imagination created a world ...

the ability to form mental images of things or events; "he could still hear her in his imagination"

resource: the ability to deal resourcefully with unusual problems; "a man of resource"

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn


Creativity;
Using imagination rather than imitating something else. Generation of ideas, images and/or solutions.
clackhi.nclack.k12.or.us/~edgintonwWeb/handouts/visualartvocab.doc

The process of developing new, uncommon, or unique ideas. The federal definition of giftedness identifies creativity as a specific component of giftedness.
www.nagc.org/index.aspx

The production of previously non-existent information. All new items of information are based on preceding ones, and they are "new" because they restructure the preceding items and/or insert foreign informational elements ("noises") into them.
www.equivalence.com/labor/lab_vf_glo_e.shtml

Dean Keith Simonton, University of California, Davis
books.elsevier.com/companions/9780122268601/articles.htm

A measure of an artist’s command over the tension in an artwork.
kitoba.com/pedia/Glossary.html

is the ability to produce something new, to generate unique approaches and solutions to issues or problems or opportunities.
aaahq.org/AECC/intent/glossary.htm

Creativity is a Principle of Design. Being imaginative or inventive.
www.scsc.k12.in.us/Technology/PLTW/GLOSSARY-IED.htm

the ability to create
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity
--
???

 

[Iron Flatline]

Weeeee..... playing with words. Always fun.

My take: Imagination is fun, and can require as a little as a nice grassy knoll and some clouds rolling by.

Creativity requires a certain skill set to move from idea to execution. That, or the ability to delegate the execution.

 

[abraxas]

So it seems that imagination can stand by itself and is necessary to creativity?

Hm.

I'm not imaginative enough to think of an example where creativity stands without imagination.

 

[Garbz]

I would think it's the other way round in my mind. How can someone have a great imagination if they aren't a creative thinker?

 

[Gopherkid]

I would think it's the other way round in my mind. How can someone have a great imagination if they aren't a creative thinker?

Now your getting into the chicken or the egg

 

[TheLostPhotographer]

So it seems that imagination can stand by itself and is necessary to creativity?

Hm.

I'm not imaginative enough to think of an example where creativity stands without imagination.

This makes sense to me. People are often described as being creative when they create a sketch, or painting. I don't see that as being creative. I can sketch a real scene any day with very, very little thought process. It's just copying lines, tones and form. There are many days I can't create a sketch from imagination. There are also many days I can't look through a view finder and see something new, original and unique that pleases me.

I could probably write far to much about creativity and imagination. It's something I've given much idle thought to recently. One of my current projects is representational portraits visualised as dream sequences. Three 21st Century muses portrayed as a photograph, a painting and a 3D model. The painting and the model could easily be described as creative and very imaginative (they represent 'real' dreams from memory). They could also be described as crap, but that's the subjective nature of art - especially anything new and unfamiliar! The photograph, to most peoples' eyes is a copy of a reality and therefore not imaginary at all. It's a difficult hurdle to get over in photography. So many people look at a photograph and think they could take it themselves because there is no creativity, or imagination involved.

It's incredibly difficult to come up with something truly new, original and unique as a photograph. Asking people to recognise it's value as a creation of the imagination is even more difficult. It is after all just a representation of a reality - something that was there to be photographed in a very real world.

 

[christopher walrath]

To create or to imagine. To bring into being or to bring into being. You say tomato, I say Heinz No. 57.

 

[JerryPH]

Close, I see it more like this:

Imagination is the ability to bring a concept to life inside your head, whereas creativity is the ability to take what is in your head and bring that concept to fruition in the real world.

In the case of photography, see something in your head is the imagination. Creativity would be the events that happen that take your thought and transfer it to the final picture on your screen or printed paper.

There seems to be a symbiosis for me. One cannot happen without the other.

 

[Stranger]

To me, Imagination just seems like the thought of creativity. How can one create something without first imagining it?

Most of the time, creative (developing new and unique ideas) takes some thought process. Without imagining something (in one way or another), it seems unlikely that you can create something new. Even if you just randomly throw paint around to create a "creative" work of art, you still already put the thought into buying the paint, and the idea of throwing it around.

So it seems very probable that in order to be creative, you must first have an imagination. And it seems kind of circular, because in order to imagine a new idea, you must have a creative mind. Now, we defined creative as creating something unique or new... Obviously, this can also apply to new thoughts, which would be necessary for your imaginative idea.


Simply put - I do not think you can imagine anything new without first using creativity within the mind. By definition, creativity is something new, unusual, or unique (as stated by the OP). So to imagine something new, by definition we would use creativity

 

[passerby]

I agree with Stranger above, imagination is the act before the creation. But sometimes the imagination is mere mental picture without being put into reality.

I wish I have a double storey house if I have the money. But when he/she has the money the house stays as single storey. It was a mere nice made up dream in the conscious mind.

Every given moment our mind is imagining something, with some doing it greater than the others. Many of the designed that are happened in the mind are not good enough to be implemented into physical reality.

In theology it stated that everything was in God's mind before he brought it into existance. I guess it applies to us as well. I too always framed the picture in the mind before I decided to press the shutter button.

And lo - it made what in mine mind for ye to see.