August 12, 2021 | Categories: Articles

At first glance, the term ‘Second Big Bang’ may seem to be an unlikely analogy to describe the surge of Creativity that started to flow strongly during the 17th Century and became a raging flood at the end of the 20th Century. The Big Bang refers to the leading scientific theory that everything in existence sprang from a very dense singularity and expanded rapidly over billions of years to become the vast Universe that we observe today.

On closer examination, the analogy presents a very useful way to portray the speed, intensity, and com­plexity of the rapid expansion of human Creativity and Innovation during this 400-year period. Not only has human Creativity had an increasingly profound impact at critical junctures, the nature of human Creativity itself has evolved and transformed.

The first use of the term ‘Creativity’ came during the 17th Century, which may come as a surprise since human beings had been creative in measurable ways for many thousands of years before that. During the last four hundred years, the way we describe Creativity, and what constitutes our innate creative nature, has not held constant. Instead, our view has varied radically at different periods of history: a blessing bestowed by mystical forces; a property of individual imagination; a process of formal principles that can be replicated; a series of cognitive techniques that yield better ideas. Recently, our understanding of Creativity has been further expanded by the discoveries of Neuroscience research. It has become holistic.

The term ‘Second Big Bang’ is appropriate in other ways as well. The many facets of Creativity in the late 20th Century have had an effect that is so profound as to be almost immeasurable. Human Innovation and Ingenuity have had an effect on so­ciety and industry that is remarkable for its breadth, depth, and impact. Whereas Creativity was once thought to be the province of a special, ‘inspired’ class of people —such as artists, musicians, writers, inventors, and so forth— Creativity is now viewed as an ability that everyone possesses. It is the essence of productive activity for such diverse populations as the STEM disciplines, retail and online businesses, self-employed entrepreneurs, inventors, and more. Stunning examples of human Creativity and Ingenu­ity by so-called ‘ordinary people’ are on display every day on Social Media, for example, where they are witnessed by millions.

The current emphasis on individual ‘creative ability’ is so far-reaching as to be one of the top-three skills that are desirable for contemporary employment. At the same time, there is a growing understanding that workers should be trained to have both specialist knowledge —so-called Hard skills such as technical ability— and generalist sensibilities —so-called Soft skills. These are now understood to be complemen­tary, rather than opposing or conflicting, abilities. Going forward, workers will benefit from having a thorough, well-rounded, and holistic foundation.

Creativity is regarded as such an essential core literacy for the developed world that it is widely investigated as a subject for education and training. Creativity is understood to be a skill whose spectrum ranges from personal artistic expressions to solu­tions for problems that have global impact.

Over many decades, the desire to better understand and utilize Creativity has generated many scientific studies, research topics, and sub-specialties. Exam­ples of this can be found in fields such as Engineer­ing, Design, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Educa­tion, Philosophy, Technology, Theology, Sociology, Linguistics, Business, Entertainment, Economics, Visual and Performing Arts, Media, Training, Neurolo­gy, and many more.

Creativity is now viewed as a phenomenon of such compelling complexity that it is a difficult process to manage, whether for an individual, a team, or an organization. Creativity is no longer thought of as a simple set of techniques or a boiler-plate approach that can be reduced to a convenient formula. Creativity is now known to be a unique, ‘personal signature’ of elements comprised of the best practices from many sources, such as design, education, applied scientific research, techniques for self-awareness, individual personal experience, and more. Contemporary Creativity will require a compre­hensive, systematic, and holistic approach in order to harness this complexity effectively.