The Myth Of The Lightning Bolt: Creativity & Copying

Related link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1583370

I'm just catching up with a great NPR series on creativity called Intersections, which you can listen to online starting here. I think it applies not only to art but all forms of creativity, including engineering, product design and more.

Sample quote from the first instalment by reporter Elizabeth Blair: "The public often thinks of artistic inspiration arriving in a sort of thunderbolt moment of creativity. The truth is, almost nothing is created out of thin air."

Quoting California State University Northridge art professor Edie Pistolesi, Blair reports "[Art is] a visual language and we learn language by copying... [Pistolesi] says art teachers and students are still struggling with this lingering perception that creativity comes solely from innate talent. She points out that a painter as original as Vincent Van Gogh told his brother that art, like algebra, has fixed laws that one must learn. Pistolesi says Van Gogh literally copied Japanese prints and other art that inspired him in order to learn technique."

Blair also refers (with some audio examples) to the Beatles learning rock and roll by copying American bands, Stephen Sondheim memorizing some Bernard Hermann movie music, and the famous quote attributed to both Picasso and Stravinsky that "Lesser artists borrow, great arists steal."

I'd add these points:

1) Creative people don't copy just to learn, they do it because it engages the creative part of the brain in a mode it understands. I've done this exercise with corporate clients: First, try to play a simple group percussion piece by reading a simplified notation that anyone can learn in a few minutes but which forces you to think logically. This leads to failure, even for people who actually have musical ability. Then, have the group learn the piece simply by mimicking me as I show each person his or her part. Success, even for complete non-musicians.

2) Although anyone can learn to think creatively, there is a qualitative difference between a genius and everybody else. We can all learn to take bigger steps by following the masters. But when a genius copies, the next step is likely to be a giant leap.