Creativity is Everywhere (The Creativity Explorer. Episode 137)
What can we learn about creativity from an archaeologist?
Yesterday I spoke on creativity for The Historical Museums of Sweden, an organisation that consists of a number of historical museums and of the archaeologist of Sweden.
As part of my research, I interviewed an archaeologist about why creativity is important in their job.
He said: “We have to be able to walk into a landscape and by looking at it be able to create an image of what this land looked like 10,000 years ago, 1,000 years ago and 500 years ago – all at the same time. To create multiple images of the same landscape throughout time, so that we can make an estimate of where people would have lived and worked during different times.
Basically, archaeologists imagine the past – in a multitude of layers.
I like that.
It reminds me that creativity is never about finding ONE answer.
Creativity is never about having ONE perspective.
It’s the ability to be able to keep multiple points of view simultaneously.
What other points of view would you benefit from taking?
Fredrik Haren – The Creativity Explorer.
ps. I was delighted to see that the group of archaeologist and history museum employees were one of the most creative groups I have had as an audience in a long time. Creativity truly is everywhere. Very inspiring.
14
Oct