John Cleese on Creativity

John Cleese's 1991 lecture for Video Arts on the nature and process of creativity is well worth 36 minutes and 10 seconds of your time.

Here is why...

Light bulb jokes aside (watch and you will know what I'm on about), Cleese expresses some enlightening views on the process.
He opens his talk with a disclaimer for the audience:
'I can state categorically that what I have to tell you tonight about how you can all become more creative is a complete waste of time.'

Why is Cleese going to waffle on if it's a waste of time? Because, he continues, creativity simply 'cannot be explained.' I agree with him here. The definition of creativity is as follows:
'the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc' 
Essentially the very fact that I just looked up 'creativity' in the dictionary proves Cleeses' point; trying to pin it down is ridiculous.

 

The process entails making something that does not yet exist from what does exist before us. It is the development or rearrangement of an idea. It is the unexplained, the force outside knowing and science and all that can be pinned down and labeled by humans. It is a willingness and openness to connect with the unknown elements and play with them; enter them fully and try not to be afraid or conscious of the time or pressure for a decisive outcome.

Cleese agrees with American psychologist Donald Mackinnon's analysis that creativity is not a talent or an inherent skill, but 'a way of operating'. It has nothing to do with IQ, or the sort of person you are.It merely depends on an individual getting themselves into a certain 'mood'. Mackinnon believed that this mood was strongly based around a state of 'playfulness'. Creativity involves play for the sake of enjoyment, rather than merely a practical need to solve a problem.

Cleese reckons there are five factors that must be met in the transition from the everyday 'closed' state many of us inhabit in the workplace etc, to the 'open' state where we are exposed to the unknown and free to make new connections and play. I have summarised the five factors Cleese speaks about below:

1. Space - a quiet space where you will be undisturbed and cut off from the pressures and demands of everyday life.
2. Time - we must decide on a time that we will inhabit our quiet, sealed-off space so that we can indulge in play, which is entirely separate from everyday life.
3. Time - not a typo, time is important again here in a different sense. Time was utilised above to create a period for play. Now it forms an important factor during play. The longer we are prepared to spend on a creative idea, the better it is destined to become. The discomfort of staying in this 'open' mode with no decisive sealed off answer rewards us with a greater outcome at the end.
4. Confidence - the fear of 'making a mistake' will stifle creativity. In the 'open' mode, it is essential to stop censoring ourselves. Play requires the confidence to be open to anything; to realise that any 'drivel may lead to the break-through'. 
5. Humour - This is a key factor to playfulness. If we are too 'solemn', play will be stifled. Cleese emphasises the difference between 'solemn' and 'serious'. He attributes solemnity to ego and pomposity. We may on the other hand, consider a 'serious' problem or issue, but we should not be afraid of humour in such situations. It relaxes us and frees us into play.

After listening to John Cleese speak, I am more positive than ever about the merits of creativity. What better way to spend ones time than playing and making something new? The process has the ability to refresh us entirely and knit together the reality of the everyday and the magic of the unknown.