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Pushing Creativity

March 25, 2011, 11:00 am

By Billie Hara

Those who roam around ProfHacker headquarters are a creative bunch. Or, we like to think we are. We create ProfHacker posts about being creative. We write about using creative approaches in our research, writing, or teaching, having creative lunches, thinking of creative ways to spend end-of-the-year budget funds, or even finding creative ways to care for our children when they are sick. A few years ago, Nels reviewed the book Organizing for the Creative Person by Dolores Lehmkuhl and Dolores Cotter Lamping. Just this week, in fact, Natalie wrote about “creative workarounds.” See? We’re a creative bunch.

Creativity is fine and good, but what happens when that creativity you think you need isn’t available to you? It’s blocked. It’s dormant. It just disappeared. My suggestion? Push it. And push it intentionally. This intentionality can push you out of stasis and into action.

I have three staple activities that help me see / do / be differently when my creativity seems to have disappeared.

I go outside:

And I intentionally leave my cell phone, iPod, or other electronic equipment at home (and yes, this is often hard to do).  This simple action of walking around the block, going for a short run, or even mowing the grass can help me clear my head and think differently about a subject I’m researching or a problem I need to solve.

I take photographs:

I usually do take photographs outside, but I’m intentional with these images. I plan them. I scout for them. I focus on what I need to create. The act of focusing through the camera’s viewfinder helps me forget (for a while) all that extraneous material that is doing battle in my head.

I listen to music:

Having an iPod, an iPhone, or an iPad are wonderful tools for multitasking, and this multitasking can include listening to music while we do other things. However, there is something special about sitting on the floor and listening to albums (not CDs). There’s something tangible about reading (legible) liner notes, handling the cardboard album covers, lifting the needle from spinning vinyl and listening to a specific song over and over. (OK, maybe that repetitive action is just me). Listening to vinyl records is much like taking photographs (for me): both are intentional actions. Additionally, I listen to specific types of music when I listen to vinyl albums. (The artist in the album cover above? Lannie Flowers and his newest CD, Circles. This release is also available on vinyl.)

These three actions help me focus on the world outside my head. I’m specific and focused about these pushes to creativity, and these actions work for me. How about you? What are the things you do to “push creativity” in your own life? Please leave comments and suggestions below.

[Image by Billie Hara and used under the Creative Commons license.]

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  • suomynona

    I’m not sure what the outcomes assessments suggest for grad. school vs. undergraduate degrees, but it seems to me actually very dangerous to assume that graduate education is just an extra for a select few, or a luxury for a society. I’d guess it’s an extra for a select few who actually wanted to make something of their undergraduate education and pursue something further in a dedicated manner, probably with less waste than our model of funneling anyone and everyone into a 4-year bachelor’s degree program and watching a select few attend classes and/or graduate.

    And since so many graduate programs are already treated like cash cows, it seems especially unhelpful to allow already exploitative lenders to collect unsubsidized interest during the course of one’s graduate studies. Why not subsidize the handful of people who have shown willingness and ability to pursue various fields of study to the highest degree?

  • marktropolis

    You know if we just guaranteed 16 years of publicly supported education (just a tad more than the 12 years we already support) a lot of these discussions could just evaporate.

  • kevingannon

    Going outside is one of my go-to mental unblockers–a quick walk around campus does wonders, as does a good long bicycle ride, time permitting. Of course, here in Iowa, we’re getting snow showers today, so the indoor alternative of putting a project aside and listening to music on the headphones–really *listening* instead of playing it as background–helps me to unplug for a bit and then return to writing recharged and feeling more creative and productive.

  • wrappedupinbooks

    I’m a doodler, so when I’m stuck on my dissertation, sketching is my go-to activity. I find that taking time to really work on a drawing helps me return to my writing with a renewed sense of focus and purpose.

    And I just took my turntable out of storage last month, and have enjoyed listening to records while writing. Having to walk across the room every 20 or so minutes to flip the record is a great way to add a little movement to what would otherwise be hours of me sitting at my desk.

  • 11159786

    Most of my best ideas, over 40 years of doing science, have come when “I am doing nothing”, i.e. walking my dog, while ignoring her, lying on the beach, thinking about nothing, or taking a bath, while half asleep.

  • http://www.facebook.com/patricia.l.dooley Patricia L. Dooley

    Take a brief nap or simply close your eyes for awhile.

  • wittseek7

    This strikes me as very good advice. When one feels that creativity is blocked, getting away from the desk (and screen!) for a bit is essential. One’s brain is stimulated by different backgrounds and different channels of information; when one provides the mind a vacation before returning it to the stalled project, one’s mind will be fresher and may well perceive a new way in.
    If one is only slowing down (a sign that a stoppage is on the way) on a creative project, one might try switching to another endeavor for a time. When I taught creative writing, I asked my students to always be working on two different genres–say a short fiction and a poem. Very seldom did I have anyone suffering over being stuck. I don’t think one can muscle through a block in a specific creative work; to attempt it only aggravates the problem. The brain is asking for a change of focus. Provide it.

  • drjeff

    1 word: Hot Shower.

  • lauracbird

    Great advice – from a math professer?

  • mjaneb

    Any kind of physical activity, but especially gardening and lawn work. Planting and pruning requires a different kind of creativity than writing, I find. One observation: many people view this purposeful stepping away from one’s work as goofing off or being lazy, but certain (maybe all?) pursuits require that we do so to be at our best.

  • mjaneb

    P.S. I also read articles that are outside of my perceived area of expertise, which provides a way to step back from a block. I suppose some might also call this procrastination. Which it is, but with none of the negative connotations of that word.

  • billiehara

    Thanks for all these great comments and suggestions! Clearly, we need to step away from the computers, the electronics, the books, the “life of the mind,” and just get out and do some other things to refresh our perspectives and creativity. Keep ‘em coming folks!

  • iris411

    yoga, meditation, reading, jogging, hiking, mushroom-hunting. Most important: COOKING!

  • m_winnacker

    All a lot easier to do if you don’t work in an office with a culture of regular hours. Pay attention to the staff around you, whose creativity you also need. Help create a culture of flexibility for staff as well as faculty.

  • raza_khan

    What is disturbing is not that he made these comments (well, it is disturbing too) but the fact that he did so while being a mentor to female surgeons!! That is ridiculous and such behavior should not be tolerated. It is beyond the point whether he said that in editorial or a blot – it speaks volume of his character. I, as a male faculty member in academics, do NOT find this a bit funny. I am also seriously concerned – yes, we see more female students in our classes when it comes to STEM fields but that is not the true representaion in STEM related careers where that number drops drastically in some fields. Greenfield just proves the point that we have a mentality society of male chauvinistic pigs especially in these fields. I hope he lost mentorship as well as he is not deserving of such a force that is not a true representation of his personality.

    Raza
    __________________________
    Raza Khan, Ph.D.

  • boiler

    I read the original editorial, and I agree it was a mistake and passed the boundaries of poor taste. But it wasn’t a piece of leering locker-room machismo — it was an attempt to make some highbrow humor out of some research on sexuality and mood. Some people can do this sort of thing with a light touch and produce funny material that everyone can enjoy. Dr. Greenfield doesn’t have that particular gift, and the outcome was unfortunate. But his professional record is the opposite of a misogynist, and I think he should be cut some slack on this particular gaffe. He has apologized, he has paid a serious professional price, and that should be enough.

  • mbcopeland

    The blog-audience. Colleagues in an informal setting.

  • stuaff

    Before we throw stones, lets all be thankful we do not hold ourselves to this same standard inside the classroom.

  • faculty_developer

    mbcopeland, I think you missed an important point. Greenfield was not posting in a blog, and he wasn’t commenting in an “informal forum” (as you stated below. It was an *editorial* in a professional publication. I suspect that Greenfield was commenting in his capacity as the president-elect of the American College of Surgeons. For me, that puts his comment in a very different light.

  • 11134078

    I wish people would grow up and just let these stupid and insensitive gaffes go by without comment.

  • softshellcrab

    I don’t know, Dr. Kahn. I thought the joke was in bad taste, not for being anti-woman, but because of its reference to sexual related excretions. I wish our society would stop being so crass. Years ago this kind of thing was not put out ina public forum by a supposedly eminent doctor. I remember Dr. William Bennett’s book, “The Death of Outrage”. We seem to accept so much bathroom talk, and explicit sexual talk, today. That is what bothered me about his comment.

    But looking to your comment, Dr. Kahn, “…we have a mentality society of male chauvinistic pigs especially in these fields”, that is the comment that seems to me to be more gender-war oriented. Why is male bashing okay, even as you decry a remark that you think offended women?

  • blue_state_academic

    oh, c’mon, Chronicle – at least give us the movie title!

  • chemistry_guy

    It stars a Sarah Palinlook alike, I know that.  I think it’s called “I can see Uranus from my house.”

  • 11223435

    Nice joke.  But that picture on the DVD box doesn’t look like the Sarah Palin I see on tv. Maybe just a bad angle?

  • lynnefox

    Re: ” someone else with access to the student’s computer or Internet connection could have done the download”  
    Sounds like the 21st century equivalent of “But I was just holding it for a friend.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/peter.keylargo Peter Thompson

    I fail to see how being caught downloading a Justin Bieber song is not devastating to one’s reputation.

  • higheredcio

    Not withstanding the jokes, this is a more serious issue than most realize. Just in the last year or so the topic has gained a great deal of attention in legal circles as the number of lawsuits over copyright infringement on porn has risen dramatically. One such article Porn Industry Suing File Sharers – Does this Raise Privacy Issues? offers some great insight into the issue. Another source I read recently placed the number of lawsuits filed in 2010 at just over 100,000, most of which settle to avoid the embarrassment of the offender and the owner of the network. Higher Ed is so focused on combating copyright infringement under HEOA P2P rules we risk overlooking other copyright issues that could be more damaging to institutional reputation.

  • jegraves

    So the student would be OK w/name release if he/she stole Mary Poppins (G rated version)?

  • jabberwocky12

    For those wondering, according to another report, the movie’s title is “Illegal A** 2″ (and it’s not about a donkey :-).

  • bekka_alice

    Sorry to say it, since searches do tend to raise my privacy hackles, but I can’t think of a crime in the U.S. where not wanting your name associated with the materials involved earns a free pass.  

  • renellin

    I agree. When has a DWI recipient ever gotten to tell police not to report his name to the newspaper? Or any other criminal act. How did he even get to file papers without the crime being reported? Who causes the harm to your reputation when you downloaded the sleazy stuff illegally to begin with? It doesn’t really sound like you have much of a reputation to protect. Claiming someone else used my computer? Do your friends have your passwords? How many of them?

  • unlvlaw

    John Doe #26 argues, in essence, that an IP address from which someone downloaded an X-rated film without paying for it is like a telephone from which someone placed a call that injured someone else’s property rights (or, given the advances in smart-phone technology, a telephone from which someone downloaded an X-rated film without paying for it).  If one of my son’s acquaintances orders a pizza, without my permission, using a phone in my house, should I be liable for the price of the pizza, tax, and delivery charge/tip?  Must I lock up (or, as one comment suggests, password-protect) all of my phones to avoid liability?  Must I prohibit my son from inviting guests to our house?

    I am posting this comment from a notebook computer that is wirelessly connected to a router belonging to a small hotel.  Assuming that I did not request or use my own static IP address in lieu of the hotel router’s address, and that the hotel did not require me to do so, if someone with simultaneous access to the hotel’s wireless router downloads a copy of “Mary Poppins” (or “Illegal A** 2″), should the copyright owner be able to compel the hotel to turn over the names, addresses, etc. of every guest staying here tonight so that the copyright owner can subpoena each and every one of us in hopes of finding something on the basis of which it can sue one or more of us?  I certainly hope not.

    Some of the comments assume that John Doe #26, in fact, downloaded the movie.  Why?  The motion to quash does not concede that he downloaded it.  If Purdue concedes elsewhere that he did, it is making the same faulty assumption that an IP address proves identity.  A good prosecutor can convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich; a copyright owner doesn’t need to convince anyone to allow it to file a civil suit and serve subpoenas.

  • drjeff

    So far, it seems the copyright holders have had a fairly easy time of it in court, regardless of the (many) arguments against their position, and the fairly absurd amounts they usually seek.

    And courts don’t seem interested in the “piracy figures are grossly inflated” argument that most people who download illegally would not actually pay for it, so they don’t truly represent lost revenue, since absent piracy they would never have paid anyway.

    On a related note, I often use more or less this same argument to convince people to password-protect their home networks.  (Use WPA-2, people!)  You really don’t want the meter reader or lawn guy to download something illegally from your WiFi while their truck is in your driveway. Likewise, any neighbor in range (and using enhanced antennas, you might be surprised how far away is “in range”).

  • 3224243

    The student downloaded the movie via his university account (and university IP).  That’s how he was identified.  Purdue knows who he is and, like Indiana University, will provide his name.  His defense is bogus and has been used in most of these cases.   He will claim that someone else knew his password and illegitimately accessed the materials but the server logs will show when he downloaded the movie and from which computer.

    He’s busted and he better settle before incurring mucho legal fees.

  • zeigrog

    Athletes should be bona fide students with proven financial need in order to receive financial assistance (NCAA-Division III). It’s that simple, yet that complex. The worsening situation is another symptom of a declining culture, I fear.

  • esnider

    Another good book on topic: Alina Tugend, Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011).  Everybody makes mistakes: some learn from their mistakes, some learn from others’ mistakes, some never learn.  Some mistakes require apology.  Getting the apology right–sincere, to the point, and measured–is not easy but is worth aiming at.

  • 12093708

    I’ve always stuck with “Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” (Kimberly Johnson)

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