Speaking about the value of creativity

Aesthetic knowing and practice is what drives that creativity, and it is through tapping into those rich personal narratives of aesthetic knowing that a new popular language will emerge.

We operate daily in a complex and chaotic ecology where our very survival and personal identity is tied up in improvising knowledgeable answers to problems using iterative processes we have adapted intuitively over time - our personal experience!

This is essentially the ecology of the artist. The artist must ask himself every day that he turns up to work in front of a blank canvas, a blank sheet of paper, or rehearsal room, “What IS the problem to be solved? How can I solve this problem?” And he works at it until the immediate problem is defined and solved. He then reflects on the overall value and quality of his work before proceeding to the next stage, and so on. It is an endlessly reflective process. This is why art and philosophy are closely linked.

In this way the artist's value is built on his creative experience, his ability to be able to make sense of what he is producing through improvisation, iteration, implementation, dialogues, collaborations, reflections, and pattern-seeking, while never having full control of his working output. And yet paradoxically, the artist invariably knows at what point the work is completed and how to speak about the value of this work - that is, its meaning and purpose.

In the business setting, the CEO and his or her team are presented daily with a set of problems in a complex and chaotic environment; they seek advice in whatever manner they feel is appropriate; they seek and assess to the best of their ability and knowledge solutions using a variety of techniques influenced by their personal reflective practice and experience and make a decision to act. This entire process could also describe the domain of the theatre director and his actors in daily rehearsals.

The operation of industry in the contemporary world very much reflects the ecology of the artist, and yet continues to use Industrial Age notions and language to gauge results.

The language of aesthetics seems currently to be confined in the corporate world to a discussion on the economic value of the art pieces on the wall as opposed to the hidden value of what it describes as its greatest assets, its people and their ability to be thoughtful and creative in solving problems.

There is more than a metaphorical paradox when the CEO addressing his shareholders at the Annual General Meeting refers to the balance sheet, observing that he has been extremely diligent in his handling of the corporate assets. He has depreciated them correctly in accordance with proper corporate governance. How should his greatest assets, his people, feel about this?