Saturday, September 25, 2010

John Cleese on the Origin of Creativity

A very interesting video of John Cleese sharing his ideas about where creativity comes from. Although not aimed directly at educators, his thoughts are well worth the time to consider as creativity is what all great teachers hope to accomplish--for themselves as well as their students.

Amplify’d from www.openculture.com

John Cleese on the Origin of Creativity

British actor John Cleese is best known for his comedic talent as one of the founding members of Monty Python, which makes his intellectual insights on the origin of creativity particularly fascinating. This talk from the 2009 Creativity World Forum in Germany is part critique of modernity’s hustle-and-bustle, part handbook for creating the right conditions for creativity.

“We get our ideas from what I’m going to call for a moment our unconscious — the part of our mind that goes on working, for example, when we’re asleep. So what I’m saying is that if you get into the right mood, then your mode of thinking will become much more creative. But if you’re racing around all day, ticking things off a list, looking at your watch, making phone calls and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas.” ~ John Cleese

Cleese advocates creating an “oasis” amidst the daily stress where the nervous creature that is your creative mind can safely come out and play, with the oasis being guarded by boundaries of space and boundaries of time.

Read more at www.openculture.com
 

No comments: