Besides the arts – which always comfort and lift you up – creativity also brings us the ability to come up with new solutions in changing times. An ode to the magic of creativity.

Your creativity leads to ingenious work that needs to be protected so before we go right to the article itself, it is just right to think of copyright for all your work. Talk to your lawyer. Lawyers can help regardless of the issues you are going through from divorce (scheidung rechtsanwalt) right down to your art.

Protect your art with copyright

Copyright is intended to ensure the protection of intellectual property. This includes literary, scientific or artistic works. With their creation, the copyright protection arises automatically. So it just makes sense to get your work copyrighted.

Your creativity works in many ways. Let’s take a look. 

Focus on innovation

Creativity is also increasingly appreciated outside the domain of artistry. Many of today’s problems in organizations and society have become too complex to be solved by strength, power, money, or intelligence alone, it takes something else: ingenuity, the ability to make unusual connections.

Social issues

Because this skill is particularly important among artists and designers, the Social Creative Council (SCR) was established in July. “Art is seen too much as something separate from society, but that no longer works,” said initiator and artist Tabo Goudswaard in NRC. The SCR consists of fifty artists, designers, and representatives of various social networks who offer to contribute ideas about social issues such as the nitrogen problem or Lelystad Airport.

Human or robot

Creativity has been the basis of all inventions, both small and large, since the arrival of man on earth. We owe the entire evolution of the species to creativity. The fact that the skill is now more appreciated is not only because of the increased complexity of problems but also because so much value is attached to innovation.

Key Skill

Moreover, creativity is a not too expensive resource with an inexhaustible reservoir. American climate psychologist Renée Lertzman called the human need to come up with “creative repair work” in her book Environmental melancholia “the largest untapped renewable energy resource we have.” And then creativity along with empathy is also one of the few characteristics that can still distinguish humans from robots.

Renewal

“Creativity is the engine of innovation,” says Kees Klomp, founder of Thrive Institute. “For a series of portraits for the MaatschapWij foundation, I interviewed hundreds of social entrepreneurs. And whether it’s recycling plastic or fighting poverty, a shared trait is the ability to turn negative problems into positive solutions.”

From the heart

Klomp’s concept of creativity rests on two pillars: positivity and purpose. “Look: warfare can also be creative, and so can the manipulations of the far right to rally people on the basis of negativity. The creative efforts should be aimed at positive improvement,” he says. Another necessary factor, in his view, is emotional involvement: “Gather thirty people together to think about meat substitutes and something will come up.

Positivity and purpose

Take the Globe, an initiative of Klomp himself. “I have always been very involved in world hunger. As a child, I already got a stomachache from misery when I saw the images of starving children on television. We sometimes forget that almost a billion people are structurally hungry. Last year I woke up and suddenly came up with the Globe, a savory bread with a recipe of wasted vegetables to eat the hunger out of the world.

Want to get started

Being truly motivated to come to a solution is also essential in a creative process, according to writer and idea creator Barbara Tammes. She refers to research by the American psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg, who wrote, among other things, The creativity question. “The creative people he studied were not above average intelligent, or depressed, or happy, but they were motivated. They wanted to come up with something. Motivation is related to confidence. If you believe you can come up with a solution or an idea, you’re excited to get started,” she says.

A little bit of magic

Tammes has been immersing himself in creativity for thirty years. She has worked as a creative (director) for advertising agencies in Amsterdam, London, Milan, and Cape Town. Her work has been awarded several international prizes, including a Golden Lion at the Cannes festival. She is now known for, among other things, the Handbook for building your own castle in the air. In her latest book Playmode, she investigates exactly how that creative process comes about. “It’s a little bit of magic because you don’t know exactly where that idea came from. But the nice thing is that you can facilitate that magic.”

Playful attitude

In order to stimulate that ingenuity, we must first adopt a playful attitude. “It is precisely being absorbed in the game that makes you creative. That is my own experience and it is also supported by brain science. In a famous study among improvising jazz musicians, scientists saw that not more brain centers became active, but fewer. The parts in which sense of time and sense of self take place were muted.”

Don’t you dare to know

Whether it’s an architect, a start-up, changing a cranky toddler’s mind, or addressing a problem, according to Tammes it all starts with asking a question and not daring to know the answer for a while. “Leave room for the unexpected. Try to come up with the worst idea ever and laugh at yourself. Allow yourself to mess around, experiment and mess around.

Creative confidence

Creativity is important not only for organizations and societies but also for personal well-being. According to a research paper titled Creativity and innovation: skills for the 21st century, a creative person has the awareness and ability to transform crises. According to scientists Tatiana de Cassia Nakano and Solange Muglia Wechsler, this ability brings optimism, resilience, and a higher chance of self-actualization. In short, the more creativity, the greater your chances of happiness.