Culture and Creativity
Culture is a concept that everyone competes with each other to expand the framework of what it is. However, no one thinks about what it is not. It encompasses the human. (not mean exclude non-human) Therefore, creativity, which is used to describe some human activities, cannot escape being in contact with culture.
Human and Life
Life is experienced as improvisation, the future of which can never be known, even a moment later. But in order to reduce the concern caused by uncertainties, people train their minds, create symbols and create culture by using experiences. S/he wants to live less improvisation and make her/his life is more known. Every challenge is in the minds of people, living in communities. Problems and solutions are passed down from generation to generation, verbally or in writing. Creativity is revealed precisely in finding this solution.
While every creative act sustains the culture, creativity almost assumes the role of protecting the culture it has built, against time.
As Tim Ingold argues, ensuring the continuation of the tradition can also be evaluated within the framework of creativity. There is no hierarchical difference in creativity between the engineer creating the work and the architect restoring it.
On the one hand, nature and the flow of life surprise people. And if a person encounters an unexpected situation and cannot find a solution in the culture that imposed on him by the society, s/he attempts to overcome the problem by creating something new or combining what he has in a different way. Like a relentless chase, the person who is constantly disconcerted, chases after her/his comfort and aesthetic pleasure. With a culture consisting of thousands of years of experience behind her/him and creativity in her/his hand.
Creativity, Art and Culture
The people we define as “creative” in today (L. Beethoven, A. Schoenberg etc.) were musicians who did not hesitate to transcend the established music culture of their time. However, over time, music theory or culture has also embraced their contradictory elements, which have been imitated many times and admired by large masses. The chords and themes that brought to a new age in music are now the basic knowledge taught in conservatories.
Therefore, these are no longer heard as creativity. Those who aspire to the title of “creative” now need to do more.
At this point, Howard Becker’s understanding of Art Worlds can shed light on the issue. For example, the works of “mavericks” who selectively violate the patterns of the art worlds can be included in the canon of the established art world. By those who think that different things should be created in order to save art from monotony. Understandably, the culture isn’t abstain to get help when it’s stuck, even from what it calls “mavericks” in advance. Thus, it remains dynamic and ensures its resilience.
How relates culture and creativity?
As a result, it would be appropriate to conclude with an analogy that also includes animals, in order not to restrict culture or creativity only to humans. Culture can be compared to a carriage, and creativity to the horses in front of it. Horses are tied to the carriage, as if they are part of it, but it is also the horses that take the carriage forward.
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