The Opposite of Creativity
There's been a lot of talk about creativity over the past few years. Richard Florida's "Rise of the Creative Class" and his new "Flight of the Creative Class" have been at the forefront of this discussion. A Creative Cities Movement was spawned, and Fresno entered the discussion officially with the birth of Creative Fresno which led to the formation of the Creative Economy Council Report (download the report at www.fresnocec.org).
So, in my personal contemplations on the topic of creativity, I wondered what was creativity's opposite? Here is a brief summary of my thoughts:
War/violence. Destruction of the environment. The demolition of historic buildings.
I'm sure that it is possible to creatively fight a war. We can all imagine the generals creatively moving their forces over an oversized Risk board. They creatively dream up new strategies and weapons. But the act of going to war is the end of line when it comes to problem-solving. We resort to war when we say, "the problem has eclipsed my creativity, and the only thing left is violence."
Why has Gandhi endured as an icon of humanity? He didn't resort to violence. His commitment to non-violence required him to be creative. He eliminated the non-creative option, forcing creativity.
Destroying the environment is a cop-out and lazy-assed way to live. Living within out environment takes thoughtful decision-making. How do we travel and grow without polluting the air we breathe? There are solutions; we just have to force ourselves to find them. Gandhi had a policy of non-violence. What if we had a policy that said: we won't use more ground water than can be recharged? It would force our involvement and creativity.
Knocking down an historic structure is the absence of creativity, shows lack of respect for our heritage, and shows a lack of knowledge about what progressive cities are doing. When our creativity and will have been exhausted, we knock buildings down. Saving a building takes the creativity of professionals like architects, engineers, and contractors. Paying for the restoration of a building takes creative financing, creative funding sources, and an eye for what could be. Creating a use for an historic building that will keep the building healthy for generations takes creativity too.
Creativity, from one who reads Edwd. T Hall for yuks
...over the past few weeks, on an unrelated quest, I've been picking fruit in the backyards of parishoners of my church and donating it to the community food bank....
These folks live all over the place,,, and have all sorts of places that they live in...
--I am amazed at their creative use of space.
One older couple has an artificial pond, huge koi, and the gentleman has a garage full of equipment to do woodworking and metalsmithing... (He's made windchimes out of diamond plate truck parts..)
Another place is in the Fresno High/North Tower District... the couple there has one of these beautiful old 30's era houses, with the strip cement driveways and enamelled metal kitchen cupboards... -and a springer spaniel that barks at the fruit trees, (because they've been known to have roof-rats..) --Beautifully preserved place... they are a very creative couple, and they got it from the previous owners years ago because the prev. owners were a musician/dancer couple, and a piano was in the house that needed to be played... so they furthered the sounds resonating off of the walls...
Within creativity there is the preservation of the past, (sometimes,) or something completely new... ---but the secret to creativity is actually 'hope,'
You see, when someone is preserving beauty, when someone is extending hope,,, when someone is providing a sense of wonder and affirmation by their living space, by their design, by their actions and productivity.. (not in some marxist assembly line welded to the masses sense... ----but a sense of growth, beauty, respect, --even a celebration of the culture that is there... --that causes creativity.
This place is eager and hungry for that...
I remember the Woodward Park Shakespeare Festival,,, sitting there on the closing night last summer.. -folks were going wild for the simple fact that it existed...
-on an earlier night I sat and heard people gasp, cry, and laugh ---at each characters lines --simply because they connected with them, and saw something worthwhile... They didn't have a clue as to what they were watching, (lots of them,,,) but that was okay..
This is a wonderful, strange little town in a way...
You could have a festival of carved fishheads,,,
you could have a gathering of people reading the ingredients of bisquick boxes...
-you could have anything (even Bon Jovi, fer godssakes...) --and folks will dig it,,, and be open to it simply because it is there and it is available... (..this is such a rare opportunity, it's an openness without being jaded...)
As a fellow artist, I would make this one caution.... Realize that people are more given to something good and decent, -and hopeful... (Who needs more darkness and cynicism... -is this cool?)
..Nope, this whole friggin state is built by people who decided to move here, water it, and do something different,,, and take a shot at a future...
Find ways to enjoy and further that... Find ways to celebrate that... (it's okay to be ironic and cyincal,, I'm from NY, fer cryin' out loud... now I live HERE... jeesh, it's like pergatory for protestants sometimes... I'm right next to Clovis, where they tie up animals for sport, wear stupid hats at Riverpark, think they are cowboys, wear pants waaaaay too tight,, ---and still pick up girls... (I can't even explain it to folks back home...)
----but it's also pretty cool,,,, weird, but cool... this town is actually not so bad, and the people are pretty excellent...
-Don't piss all over paradise and carousels simply because it's trendy in some folks eyes... (Fresno doesn't actually suck, really, and if it does, do something about it... show yourself a good time,,, stop expecting others to provide entertainment...
--there really isn't a whole lot of beauty and hope left in the world,,, -and it is far better to be creative and positive, -than to ride the wide trend of mockery...
I agree, keep your old buildings if you can, (California doesn't have a whole lot of historic buildings -compared to back east,,, -and the ones that are there are pretty excellent... --but furthering that hope and that optimism, that manifest destiny, (and this coming from one who has a very dark and brooding heart,,,) is the secret... and needs to continue...
(...keep the old pickup trucks, loose the Big Hats..)
---and if there's a decent Deli or slice of pizza involved,, I'm in.
Re: Bringing vacant buildings down
You said-
I'm not sure what that means? Because the Bank of Italy building is no longer occupied, it should be torn down? Or the Old Adminstration Building at City College? It isn't being used either. The "there isn't much use for a building that is no longer being used" line is simply circular reasoning.
Fresno has a long history of "scorched earth" redevelopment projects. They were all touted as being great for the city, being the future, etc. Most of them failed. Broadway, once one of the most bustling parts of the city, was "redeveloped" into oblivion. Virtually nothing remains from that street from Tulomonue to Tulare, (other than the Crest and Hotel Fresno).
My favorite example of this is perhaps that dreadful little concrete block building at the Southeast corner of Inyo and L streets. The sign tells us this is where Saroyan used to work for a small newspaper in a building on this site. Someone at some point thought that tearing down the original structure for this new 1950's era concrete block edifice, was progress. Today I think most would agree that they were wrong.
Creativity?
I dont think that helping our enviroment has much to do with the fact that were no longer beine creative. Sometimes ion order to bew creative we need to be able to remove some things that may not have much significants. I agree that we shouldn't destroy historic buildings but at the same time a creative mind may be able to see that there isn't much use for a building that is no longer being used. And by bringing that building down we can build or create something that can be great for the city. I think the word knowledge is more omportant than the word creativity in this article. If we know and study what to do with old buildings or how to perserve our enviroment then I believe creativity can then come in as far as how to build around the problem.
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