How biology influenced my understanding of creativity
Or: The (surprising) inner mechanics of the Creativity Canvas
Short recap
Some weeks ago, I published (here) a framework to explore, understand, share and celebrate your notion of creativity: the Creativity Canvas (2.0).
I also dubbed the term “creativity design”. By that, I refer to a design practice to improve your creativity (towards your understanding of the term) and shape a creative life (as defined by you).
As laid out, the Creativity Canvas is designed modular, adaptable, systemic, with a self-paced learning journey in mind and open-platform-like in nature.
In its default set-up, the Creatvitity Canvas has 19 elements divided into five categories. I also mentioned “sub-elements” in the previous post, which I explore in more detail now.
In this blog post, I want to lay out my rationale behind the creativity framework I created and how nature has inspired my thinking.
Yes, nature inspired my view on creativity.
Nature as inspiration
I’ve always been fascinated by nature. As a kid, I watched documentaries with equal enthusiasm to cartoons. Later, shortly before graduating in business administration, a book on bionics led me to write my master thesis on a quite unconventional topic in the intersection of biocybernetics and management. Today, nature and sports are by far my two go-to areas to recharge. So I guess I naturally (pun intended) seek inspiration from nature as a designer as well.
Maybe it’s no surprise that the Creativity Canvas, too, builds on nature’s blueprint. The inspiration I build on is the levels of cellular organisation.
I am no biologist, so you might find errors if you are an expert or physician. However, cellular organisation means that organisms are made up of five levels of organisation. From small, simple, functional units to large, complex structures, the levels are called: cells, tissues, organs, organ systems and whole organisms. Organelles are sub-cellular units that also carry out specific jobs; I added them in my work. So how do these levels explain the mechanics in my Creativity Canvas?
We look at them one by one. Here is an overview sketch from my notebook, however.
Cells >>> Elements
Let’s start with cells. They are the most basic unit of living things and fulfil specific functions: movement, reproduction, response to external stimuli, nutrition, or growth. In the Creativity Canvas framework, elements represent that concept of the most basic functional unit. Therefore, each element in your design is considered a vital aspect of your creativity and adds to it.
As an example, let’s look at the element “Creative Self-Belief”. I consider it a well-sized concept that adds to (my) creativity. Other examples of elements in my design are the elements “Action Styles” or “Hunches”. In the starting setup of my Creativity Canvas design, there are 19 elements.
Due to the modular and adaptable nature of the Creativity Canvas, others can have more, fewer and entirely different elements. However, the number of elements, their naming and their conceptual width and depth must make sense to YOU. So exploring, finding, naming, scoping and describing your elements is part of the design.
Tissue >>> ?
Tissue is a group of similar cells that perform the same specific function (e.g. muscle tissue). Despite having a hunch on translating it into my framework, I leave it open for now and write a separate piece on it.
Organs >>> Categories
Next up are organs representing structures of two or more types of tissue that work together to complete a specific task. The heart, for instance, is an organ and carries out the job of pumping your blood to the lungs and then through your whole body to deliver oxygen it picked up in the lungs. In the Creativity Canvas, this concept is represented by categories. Categories unite two or more elements that work towards a similar goal.
The elements “Experiences”, “Creative Self-Belief”, and “Creative Superpowers” are all under the category “Actor”. In this case, all elements of this category help me to understand the individual (myself). Therefore, I figured that self-knowledge, domain knowledge and a certain mindset are vital in my concept of creativity.
The five categories in the starting setup are actor, action, triggers, modulators and context. Those five categories form the high-level concept of how I think of creativity currently. This high-level view helps to communicate my mental concept of something as lofty as creativity. In a sentence, my creativity concept involves meaningful and authentic action by an informed actor with a certain mindset in a specific context (social, cultural, ecological). Triggers can initiate (sometimes subconsciously) this action, and modulators can curb or boost action momentum.
That’s my current mental model of creativity. As you see, I emphasise action (and its dynamics) and the social component quite a bit. It might not serve me as a short statement, but I have some starting points to enter a discussion. Again, your creativity concept might look entirely different.
Organ systems >>> YOUR Creativity Canvas/creativity system
Eventually, organ systems are two or more organs that perform a bodily function. Your heart, together with your lungs and probably some other organs, make sure that your blood carries enough oxygen into other parts of the body so that those can perform different functions in turn.
Same with your Creativity Canvas. All your elements and categories laid out in a certain way form your “creativity system” visualised with the help of the Creativity Canvas. “Creativity system” is another made-up term (a premier?), and I use it to strengthen the biology metaphor. It helps to think of creativity as a “system of organs” that all work towards your concept of creativity. Maybe this view allows you, too.
You can take that image further and think of other systems, e.g. a “happiness system” or a “love system”. What elements and categories would one find in those systems? Which elements would intersect with the creativity system? Again, this mental exercise might help to visualise my concept. The terms I use are not scientific terminology.
Organism >>> Creative Organism
An organism is one living thing that carries out all life’s functions. At this point, the metaphorical gap I presented, that between biology as natural science and creativity as a cultural concept, becomes (too?) wide. Thus, we enter the philosophical world.
Without a respiratory system, for example, a human dies. Creativity, on the other hand, is a concept agreed upon and constantly shaped by us humans. You don’t die from not practising creativity, an invented term and a concept in our heads. However, in my experience, life becomes fuller and richer when you set out to live as a “creative organism”.
Organelles >>> Sub-elements
Another interesting comparison to make is by looking at organelles which are, according to Wikipedia, “… a specialised subunit, usually within a cell, that has a specific function.” So in a way, an organelle is to a cell what an organ is to a body; they perform tasks for the structure one level up.
Elements within the Creativity Canvas, too, have sub-elements that perform functions. While organelles perform many functions, for sub-elements, I just focus on two: tactics and findings.
Tactics involve everything you know and do to sustain, strengthen and update the element. That includes your tools, techniques, habits, (one-off) actions/processes, reflection mechanisms or even play and experiments. All these tactics help you — through action or know-how — to keep that element healthy.
Findings, on the other hand, are all the information you gained through tactics and that help you to understand that element and its relationship to others. Findings include your inspirations, questions you are curious about, your point of views and assumptions on that element, as well as more factual knowledge, insights and general truths.
Tactics lead to the findings, which in turn influence your tactics. This constant interaction between tactics and findings is not unlike the understanding-action-loop in design. To understand and to act are the core design functions and steer the general design rhythm. Scott Berkun (in “How design makes the world”) describes a creating-learning-loop, and other designers might call this loop yet differently. However, you call this fundamental design truth, tactics and findings are conceptually very close to this essential.
Sub-elements eventually make the Creativity Canvas actionable. You can put together YOUR mix of tactics that help you to come to your findings. Your findings then inform future tactics and adaptations. This is one design aspect of the Creativity Canvas.
Putting it all together
The fundamental relationship of all the Creativity Canvas actors is the following:
Elements are concepts that you consider essential or at least interesting for your creativity design. You can cluster two or more elements into categories if you think they work towards the same goal or have some other common characteristic. On a micro-level, you need to consider all subelements (tactics and findings) for each element. At the same time, you also need to have the big picture, the macro-level, in mind. This is done by pondering a rationale behind the placement of elements and categories. Finally, you visualise your mental concept of creativity through your design. All elements clustered into categories and placed a certain way eventually form your creativity system (your canvas design), which can be shared and discussed. An authentic and mindful creativity system can help you lead a life as a “creative organism”.
Actionable creativity
This analogy between the cellular level organisation and how I design for creativity might look like a big conceptual gap to many.
However, this functional structure allows me to approach creativity in an actionable fashion and design for it. I can decide what elements I consider important, how I grow them and what I think of them. I also can cluster them and arrange them in relation to other elements and visualize my high-level creativity concept. This, in turn, helps me to think of creativity for myself and talk to others about it.
Creativity, approached by creativity design, is something that you strive to explore, understand and constantly shape. With such an approach, we move away from rigid definitions and concept. Instead, creativity spawns into something fluid and actionable.
Let me thank you for taking the time and go through this blog post. I truly believe in the collaborative aspect of creativity and encourage you to comment below. All feedback is welcome. Here are other ways to connect and stay in touch: Medium, LinkedIn, Instagram or via my Website (Newsletters).
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