Carte Blanche

"My skill is the ability to put ideas together. If you give me a blank piece of paper, I will give you a blank piece of paper back. I find imitating and innovating a creative exercise. What I am able to do is take a couple of different ideas and merge them so they appear to be something different. And I think that is what artists do." [Leslie H. Wexer, chairman and CEO, Limited Brands]

Tabula rasa (Lat.) is the state in which we are completely blank and our entire resource of knowledge is built up gradually from experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world (Wikipedia). The nurture part of nature vs. nurture.

Carte blanche (Fr.) is literally a blank cheque, one already signed but with no numerical value assigned to it (Wikipedia).

In creative pursuits, both or either can be paralyzing. We're much better at building from existing material and information; having any resource we can dream up may make us lazy in maximizing what we have.

True/false?

Comments

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

True, true, true! I point you to the pivotal scene in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13". If you haven't viewed the movie, some equipment breaks on the spacecraft, leading to, "Houston, we have a problem."
The engineers on the ground spent a lot of time trying to figure it out - to no avail. Then the Ed Harris character, Gene Kranz, takes inventory of what the astronauts have available to them. He gets his best engineers in a room:

(Several technicians dump boxes containing the same equipment and tools that the astronauts have with them onto a table]
Technician: We've got to find a way to make this
[square CSM LiOH canister]
Technician: fit into the hole for this
[round LEM canister]
Technician: ... using nothing but that.

Of course, they were able to be incredibly creative because they had some direction, structure, and confinement.

I agree with Leslie Wexer: blank slate begets a blank slate.

Make it a great day!

Joe

[Geoff Livingston]

False, creativity is something from the soul. While it may play off of something, it is always new, because it has a unique expression or approach. That comes from inside, not outside. Not everyone is creative, either.

[Karen Hegmann]

Valeria

False. I think it's possible to create something from a blank slate, because we draw from our imagination to do it. How we do that depends on our interpretation and perception of the world and by starting with a blank slate, we are in effect "setting the stage" for our story.

Where would the arts and literature worlds be, if painters weren't able to express their ideas on a blank canvas - and writers weren't able to write masterpieces on a blank page?

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

It is interesting the semantical turn this conversation is taking!

Geoff and Karen - I agree, creativity is innate and a bit esoteric, like what is truth or love. Yet in the practical application of creativity, didn't masters like Cezanne, Matisse, Bonnard, Gaguin confine themselves to drawing and paper, paint and canvas? This seemingly small, yet critical structure is the foundation for the application of their genius.

So it this the difference between creativity as a concept and creativity as an action?

Vermeer used both concept and action in creativity when he first did a drawing, then painted, "Girl with a pearl earring".

Cheers, Joe

[Karen Hegmann]

Hi Joe

You raise some interesting points.

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention," creativity does not happen inside people's heads, but "in the interaction between a person's thoughts and a sociocultural context. It is a systemic rather than an individual phenomenon."

In other words,to judge whether an idea is creative or not, means we have to refer to some standards, and we can't judge its value until it passes "social evaluation."

While this seems a practical definition, I can see some artists voicing their opinions on this one!

[Valeria Maltoni]

I was reading your comments on the train this morning as I was making my way to NYC and smiling. It may very well be a personal preference.

From a business perspective, I have found that people are much better then reacting to something vs. staring at a blank page. That's why it has become so critical to have good writing skills and the ability to articulate and present information.

Would this perspective change your answer?

[Karen Hegmann]

Valeria

I absolutely agree with you that business people are better at reacting to something than they are at staring at a blank page.

Maybe it's because my disposition lies somewhere between the mindset of an artist and a businessperson, that I personally feel that I could articulate ideas and information and put them down on a blank page.

That said, the fact that my thoughts (in the business world) would be based on pre-existing information and/or a specified business challenge would cater to MC's definition of creativity. My success would be judged on how effectively my ideas were able to meet the pre-specified challenges.

[Carolyn Ann]

The difference between craft and art?

Art is taking a blank piece of paper and creating something from it. Take a block of some material, and create "David" - that's a little different to Mr. Wexner's take on what 'art' is!

Mr. Wexner is creative in a business context; he created "The Limited" and managed it to its current staggering success in a very short period of time. That takes a certain creative energy, but I'm not sure that the comparison to artists is valid.

Carolyn Ann

PS Full disclosure: I've met Mr Wexner a few times. I wouldn't say I know him, though.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Karen -- I swing between creator and builder, it all depends on the permission I give myself and the context. In many cases I am the one writing the plans and recommendations that people will react to; in some I edit or build on material generated by others. Would blogging qualify as a creative pursuit?

@Carolyn Ann -- as I read your definitions I am thinking about art class in middle school. One of our assignments was to glue a postcard in the center of a blank white sheet and then continue the image/conversation as we wished to. In some cases I would match the colors so closely that you could tell the postcard only from the shiny coating. I was clearly starting from something, but I was also creating of my own... On a separate note, you do have met many interesting people!

[Tim Brunelle]

Both are true, in the proper context.

An old mentor of mine used to say, "The trick with the blank page is, never start with a blank page." In essence, start with something to react to and play off.

I've found that conceptual skills--coming up with ad campaign ideas, writing music or writing an original novel--are a distinctly different skill set than those described by Leslie Wexer. It's the difference between Miles Davis writing and recording a tune and a DJ sampling that tune to create a new tune.

Both have their place in the world.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Tim:

When I read "The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp I was intrigued by the whole concept of having a creative habit. I would call what she does a form of art. And certainly I have now felt for a long time that there are no new ideas, just new implementations. I think we all react to something, even from memory, even from feeling -- what is left of a memory ;-)