You may not consider creativity very important, but think of a world without it.  No music, comedy, repartee, great food, no movies, books or even articles, no television worth watching, no mischief, nothing worth laughing at, no cause for that deep cry that is lurking always.

Creativity is mandated by educational bureaucrats nowadays as a possible remedy for the torpor of failing school children poised to leave schools in record numbers.  We now hear terms like “critical thinking”, “higher order thinking” and “problem-solving” bandied by these dead souls.  All of these involve creativity– you have to imagine possibilities that are not in front of you and then imagine where those possibilities will lead.

The kind of creativity I love involves a certain amount of spontaneity.  It is play.  John Cleese captures a great deal about the conditions necessary for it here.  The five factors he talks about are:  place, time, time, confidence and humor.   If you are too serious your fingers are stiff, you will not play fluidly unless you surrender to the joyfulness of playing.  Singers often smile as they sing, it helps to relax the face and vocal chords.

For young children, who are naturally creative when given the slightest chance to be,  I’ve reduced the formula to this:

Have fun and help each other.

You can’t have fun if people are bothering you.  Don’t bother anyone.  If you can’t help, don’t hurt.

When it’s time to be quiet, be quiet for a minute or two.

Cleese locates the creativity, you need a space to do it.  How about a room filled with art materials and a camera stand to shoot frames?  With a recorder to make soundtracks and a computer to assemble the animations.

Cleese discusses the importance of a time set aside, a time with a beginning and an end, ideally about two hours later.   He points out that it takes up to a half hour to leave the pressures of life outside and begin to play.  With luck you will play 90 minutes or so.  Then play must end, as play always does, because it doesn’t feel like play forever.   This is exactly what happens in the animation workshop.  For ninety minutes the kids have all the time in the world.

The other aspect of time is patience, taking your time, having a block of time you can use for play or to dream up ideas for play.  You cannot be creative while watching the clock, just like you can’t productively meditate keeping an eye on time.  You have to let things develop in their time, comfortable with not much happening sometimes.  Asked what she liked best about the workshop, the Idea Girl said “it gives you plenty of time”.    

Confidence is necessary, because if you think you can’t dance, or sing, or draw, or animate, you probably won’t be able to.   What gives a person confidence?  Another one smiling and giving a thumbs up when the idea is presented.   What takes away confidence?  A logical asshole positing failure as a real possibility at every stage of an undertaking.  There is no shortage of such superior, logical creativity underminers.  They believe they are speaking the truth and this gives them license to piss on things they have no insight into.

The last part, humor, well, what can we say about that poop?  A laff clears the mind, and it can come from many places.  I try not to laugh as I picture the horror on the seven year-old’s face, and it is kind of disgusting, in a way, but the favorite moment of a prolific young animator?   “That time I farted in Max’s face,” and I nod, with the faintest smile, and try not to chuckle at the recollection of it.   This is called sound pedagogy.