Creativity & the Mind

The Human Mind Project teamed up with the brilliant Guerilla Science to create this one day event on Creativity & the Mind as part of the Being Human festival of the humanities 2016.

Creativity means innovation and positive change, the inventing of new worlds out of sparks of genius. A creative mind is a mind that generates ideas and solutions likely to make a breakthrough at the societal level. Creative activity evokes chaos and order, allowing us to establish new paths and patterns.

What is the creative mind? Is creativity a feature of our attitude towards things, attentive and open? How does the physical, social and cultural environment enable creative activity, and how can the environment be structured to enhance it? Is creative agency, and intelligence, a prerogative of the individual?

The workshop aimed to inspire participants to flex their own creative muscles through a series of creative challenges and discussions with leading experts.

Programme & Organisation

Starting with a series of short talks from an excellent panel of speakers from the arts, humanities and sciences, and chaired by philosopher Barry Smith, the event provided an interactive space for the exploration of creativity. Presentations were followed by small group discussions, hosted by professional facilitators, engaging with our speakers on their work, research, and its relevance to your own creative process. A live illustrator captured discussion throughout the day.

Group discussion themes:

How does the environment enable creative activity? How is attention related to creativity?

Computer art, the limitations of current AI; exploring software and creativity.

How do creativity and decision-making connect?

The event closed with an Open Roundtable drawing together the findings of group discussions. Facilitated by Colin Blakemore, the final session looked towards the ‘Future of Research’ on creativity and its importance to society, work, and our personal wellbeing.

Organisation

Creativity & the Mind is organized by the team of The Human Mind Project, in collaboration with Guerilla Science. An inclusive hub for the facilitation of interdisciplinary dialogue and enquiry, The Human Mind Project aims to define the major intellectual challenges facing research on the human mind.