The Ever-Elusive Creativity Yardstick
No one really knows what pornography is — or at least, how to define it. A great man (I want to say Carrot Top, but I’m not sure) once said (and I’ll butcher this, I’m sure), “I can’t tell you what porn is, but I know it when I see it.” Another great man (Slappy White?) once said “Hey, buddy, enough with the parentheticals.”
OK, on topic I swear: I use the porn example to illustrate a problem that many of us face with creativity. Simply put, there’s no universal standard, measure or criteria that defines creativity or helps distinguish between good and bad creativity.
Now I understand that many would argue that you really don’t need so rigid a system. After all, while there are art schools and critics that adhere to certain elements of art to help classify and define works, the vast majority of people enjoy art in the context of “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like” (Herman Goering?). And for the most part, I agree.
The problem, is, there are many of us who engage in creativity for a living. We’re hired on the basis of our creativity, and are compensated accordingly. How do we go about assigning value to a product that has no objective criteria?
Many people would argue, “whatever the market will bear” (Leviticus, 7:15). In a perfect world, that would make sense, but the people who are making value judgements on creativity are themselves — for the most part — not creative. You purchase a painting or see a movie based not only on your interests, but on the interwoven system of society’s views and critical appraisal. If this system doesn’t exist in the commercial world of creativity, how do we base our decisions. On what basis do we open our checkbooks?
Thought I was going to have an answer, huh? Nope.
Marc