When psychologists compared America’s most creative architects with a group of highly skilled but unoriginal peers, there was something unique about the parents of the creative architects: “Emphasis was placed on the development of one’s own ethical code.”
Discuss...particularly including the possible irony of below bit, given all the griping (here and elsewhere)...
Yes, parents encouraged their children to pursue excellence and success — but they also encouraged them to find “joy in work.”
To extend this a little: my M.Arch program paid lip service to creativity, but the curriculum was rigid, and when there were opportunities to do electives, they all fell within a pretty narrow scope. Our critics liked variations within accepted types, but jumped on the folks who deviated from the norm. (While praising the creativity of the students who mimicked the hip new projects in the design mags.) Good school, and from what I've seen, not atypical of design education in the U.S.
We had "design thinking" rammed down our throats - a way for dull normals to build an easily explained "process" around a trite idea and make it look rigorous and fresh.
It doesn't matter if kids are encouraged to be creative by their parents if their professional education teaches them that it's easier to stay in the box. (Yes, bitter.)
I spent a great deal of my time in undergrad and master's painting alongside my studio & thesis projects. It was encouraged however it only a small minority of students who took it up... That minority group was composed of myself... and no-one else out of the 60 or so students. I found my fellow classmates were afraid of colour, afraid of concept exploration and more importantly, afraid of being labeled as "arbitrary". Their loss.
Miles, narrow-sighted as fuck. Morals are a way of describing ethics along a multitude of individuals. You're assuming that architects are little unique butterflies rather than just part of the hive.
I think creativity comes from more than one environment, this article is just saying that this commonality is enough to measure, whatever. I thought creativity came from parents that had too many rules and shallow, illogical rules that you had to learn to break by thinking creatively.
As for parents encouraging kids to find joy in work, that speaks to wealth. Therefore, creative offspring is probably mostly tied to having wealthy parents. Discuss.
Tintt, I'd posit that it's probably tied with higher levels of educational attainment, not necessarily wealth. As part of the hallmark of being an entitled millennial means that I have countless memories of school teachers telling me to study/work on what makes me happy.
I somewhat agree with this article. But I have mixed feelings about the initial premise of the value of creativity.
Is it better to be creative, with all the angst and turmoil that go with it or blissfully unaware of all that could be better? While I'm sure I don't want to raise a robot I'm also fairly sure I do want to raise a child to be one of you cranky jaded architects either.
I think the creative pursuits of those mentioned (The music and painting of Nobel Laureates) Has more to do with stress relief or finding a creative outlet when so much of the day and society in general grinds against that. I would venture to say that's a root problem of with many people today. Generations of people have been raised this way in the US and we now have a lot of people who all think they are special and creative, but many are depressed and pessimistic because of it. Society cannot support so many creatives. "The world needs ditch diggers too" and sometimes I'm very envious of those ditch diggers.
I do want to raise a child to be one of you cranky jaded architects
i can't tell if this is what you wanted to say, or if it's a typo, or if it's a freudian typo, where you didn't intend to type it, but your subconscious felt the need to just get it out there.
i guess i sort of feel complimented that being cranky and jaded is a quality to aspire to. :)
@Miles I had same question. Could only get to abstract which states "40 of 64 invited architects participated in a weekend 'intensive assessment.' Ratings on creativity were compared with numerous personality assessments."
the article accepts that Art and Music are inherintly creative playgrounds over say math. it also questions the nature of practice - forced or loved. creativity can happen in any field and has nothing to do with practice. in architecture it sure as hell has nothing to do with "studied" rigourous processes that ylur studio professor thinks is the only way to design.
funny i came from engineering undergrad (linear thinking and problem solving) to architecture grad school - it was the faculty that had to beat my linear work process out of me to go off on seemingly worthless tangents until I learned that it helped the process.
it takes some level of security to feel like you should do what you love: either have money to fall back on via friends & family or be comfortable living precariously poor (but with some means of survival -probably tied to education).
I had a similar experience in my MArch. I'm happy with what I got out of it, but that education was my teeth to pull, very little was provided for me.
My biggest complaint with what I see of schools in this area (Pacific NW) is the tendency to praise program over design. I love that sustainability and social consciousness are at the forefront of every problem, but I've seen far too many Theses showered with praise for tackling a juicy problem with a dull building. You need both.
I’m still thoroughly baffled by the ethics and rules thing having anything to do with creativity. Maybe at the core is non-creatives tend to see black and white, right and wrong, and narrow spectrum. Creative folks see all the shades of grey and that there really isn’t a right and wrong... So if you say you want it white; we’ll ask what shade of white.
re: creativity and architecture
Thought this might be of general interest.
When psychologists compared America’s most creative architects with a group of highly skilled but unoriginal peers, there was something unique about the parents of the creative architects: “Emphasis was placed on the development of one’s own ethical code.”
Discuss...particularly including the possible irony of below bit, given all the griping (here and elsewhere)...
Yes, parents encouraged their children to pursue excellence and success — but they also encouraged them to find “joy in work.”
via NYT
To extend this a little: my M.Arch program paid lip service to creativity, but the curriculum was rigid, and when there were opportunities to do electives, they all fell within a pretty narrow scope. Our critics liked variations within accepted types, but jumped on the folks who deviated from the norm. (While praising the creativity of the students who mimicked the hip new projects in the design mags.) Good school, and from what I've seen, not atypical of design education in the U.S.
We had "design thinking" rammed down our throats - a way for dull normals to build an easily explained "process" around a trite idea and make it look rigorous and fresh.
It doesn't matter if kids are encouraged to be creative by their parents if their professional education teaches them that it's easier to stay in the box. (Yes, bitter.)
I spent a great deal of my time in undergrad and master's painting alongside my studio & thesis projects. It was encouraged however it only a small minority of students who took it up... That minority group was composed of myself... and no-one else out of the 60 or so students. I found my fellow classmates were afraid of colour, afraid of concept exploration and more importantly, afraid of being labeled as "arbitrary". Their loss.
Anon, totally fucking true.
"One's own ethical code" seems to blatantly violate any sense of community and shared ethics (morals).
Miles, narrow-sighted as fuck. Morals are a way of describing ethics along a multitude of individuals. You're assuming that architects are little unique butterflies rather than just part of the hive.
Also, Quondam, you're horrible. Please uninstall Microsoft Paint. Or just delete all shortcuts to it.
I think creativity comes from more than one environment, this article is just saying that this commonality is enough to measure, whatever. I thought creativity came from parents that had too many rules and shallow, illogical rules that you had to learn to break by thinking creatively.
As for parents encouraging kids to find joy in work, that speaks to wealth. Therefore, creative offspring is probably mostly tied to having wealthy parents. Discuss.
Tintt, I'd posit that it's probably tied with higher levels of educational attainment, not necessarily wealth. As part of the hallmark of being an entitled millennial means that I have countless memories of school teachers telling me to study/work on what makes me happy.
Yeah, I think creativity is tied to several things that are opposing. Wealth. Poverty. Dyslexia. Formal education.
Who defined America’s most creative architects, and who are they?
I somewhat agree with this article. But I have mixed feelings about the initial premise of the value of creativity.
Is it better to be creative, with all the angst and turmoil that go with it or blissfully unaware of all that could be better? While I'm sure I don't want to raise a robot I'm also fairly sure I do want to raise a child to be one of you cranky jaded architects either.
I think the creative pursuits of those mentioned (The music and painting of Nobel Laureates) Has more to do with stress relief or finding a creative outlet when so much of the day and society in general grinds against that. I would venture to say that's a root problem of with many people today. Generations of people have been raised this way in the US and we now have a lot of people who all think they are special and creative, but many are depressed and pessimistic because of it. Society cannot support so many creatives. "The world needs ditch diggers too" and sometimes I'm very envious of those ditch diggers.
I do want to raise a child to be one of you cranky jaded architects
i can't tell if this is what you wanted to say, or if it's a typo, or if it's a freudian typo, where you didn't intend to type it, but your subconscious felt the need to just get it out there.
i guess i sort of feel complimented that being cranky and jaded is a quality to aspire to. :)
@Miles I had same question. Could only get to abstract which states "40 of 64 invited architects participated in a weekend 'intensive assessment.' Ratings on creativity were compared with numerous personality assessments."
"Creativity may be hard to nurture, but it’s easy to thwart."
They want too much money.
I was also interested in how it was designed to see if they used self reporting measures etc.
the article accepts that Art and Music are inherintly creative playgrounds over say math. it also questions the nature of practice - forced or loved. creativity can happen in any field and has nothing to do with practice. in architecture it sure as hell has nothing to do with "studied" rigourous processes that ylur studio professor thinks is the only way to design.
funny i came from engineering undergrad (linear thinking and problem solving) to architecture grad school - it was the faculty that had to beat my linear work process out of me to go off on seemingly worthless tangents until I learned that it helped the process.
it takes some level of security to feel like you should do what you love: either have money to fall back on via friends & family or be comfortable living precariously poor (but with some means of survival -probably tied to education).
anonitect +++
I had a similar experience in my MArch. I'm happy with what I got out of it, but that education was my teeth to pull, very little was provided for me.
My biggest complaint with what I see of schools in this area (Pacific NW) is the tendency to praise program over design. I love that sustainability and social consciousness are at the forefront of every problem, but I've seen far too many Theses showered with praise for tackling a juicy problem with a dull building. You need both.
I’m still thoroughly baffled by the ethics and rules thing having anything to do with creativity. Maybe at the core is non-creatives tend to see black and white, right and wrong, and narrow spectrum. Creative folks see all the shades of grey and that there really isn’t a right and wrong... So if you say you want it white; we’ll ask what shade of white.
necessity is the mother of invention. to really be pushed to exercise your creative potential, you have to get yourself in a lot of trouble.
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