THE CREATIVE PROCESS

What makes us creative?

Where do ideas come from and how do they come to life?

Decades of research have yet to uncover the unique spark of creative genius. Creativity is as perplexing to us today as it was to the ancients, who cast creative genius in the realm of the supernatural and declared it the work of the muses.

What science does show is that creative people are complex and contradictory. Their creative processes tend to be chaotic and non-linear – which seems to mirror what’s going on in their brains (sound familiar?). Contrary to the ‘right-brain myth’, creativity doesn’t just involve a single brain region or even a single side of the brain. Instead, the creative process draws on the whole brain. It’s a dynamic interplay of many diverse brain regions, thinking styles, emotions, and unconscious and conscious processing systems coming together in unusual and unexpected ways. In his 1926 book, The Art of Thought, British psychologist Graham Wallas outlines a theory of a four-stage creative process based on many years of observing and studying accounts of inventors and other creative types at work:

Stage 1: Preparation

The creative process begins with preparation: gathering information and materials, identifying sources of inspiration and acquiring knowledge about the project or problem at hand. This is often an internal process (thinking deeply to generate and engage with ideas), as well as an external one (going out into the world to gather the necessary information, resources, materials, and expertise).

Stage 2: Incubation

Next, those stage 1 ideas and information marinate in the mind. As ideas slowly simmer, the work deepens, and new connections are formed. During this period of germination, the artist takes their focus off the problem and allows the mind to rest. While the conscious mind wanders, the unconscious engages in what Einstein called ‘combinatory play’: taking diverse ideas and influences and finding new ways to bring them together.

Stage 3: Illumination

After a period of incubation, insights arise from the deeper layers of the mind and break through to conscious awareness, often in a dramatic way. It’s the sudden ‘Eureka!’ that comes when you’re in the shower, taking a walk, or occupied with something completely unrelated. Seemingly out of nowhere, the solution presents itself.

Stage 4: Verification

Whatever ideas and insights arose in stage 3 are fleshed out and developed. The artist uses critical thinking and aesthetic judgement skills to hone and refine the work, and then communicate its value to others.

At its heart, any creative process is about discovering something new within ourselves and then bringing that something into the world for others to experience and enjoy. The work of the artist, the visionary, the innovator is to bridge their inner and outer worlds – taking something that only exists within their own mind and heart and soul and birthing it into concrete, tangible form (you know, not unlike that other kind of creative process).

This issue of Creative HEAD is dedicated to all the hairdressing artists out there who dream up ideas and creations that need to be unleashed on the world. Creatives like you make the world a better, more beautiful and exciting place to be. Thank you.