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ERIC Number: EJ1046412
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Dec
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0175
EISSN: N/A
Thinking inside the Tool Box: Creativity, Constraints, and the Colossal Portraits of Chuck Close
Stokes, Patricia D.
Journal of Creative Behavior, v48 n4 p276-289 Dec 2014
This article presents a problem-solving model to examine the often problematic relationship between expertise and creativity. The model has two premises, each the opposite of a common cliché. The first cliché asserts that creativity requires thinking outside-the-box. The first premise argues that experts can only think and problem solve inside the tool boxes of their expertise. The second cliché, that creativity requires freedom from constraints, points to the problem with expertise. Free to do anything, experts repeat what has worked best in the past. A solution is suggested by the second premise: to circumvent the liabilities of expertise, creativity requires constraints of a particular paired kind. The model is introduced as an expansion of prior process models focused on problem identification and construction. Problem-finding is reanalyzed as constraint-finding. A case study shows how one recognized creator, painter Chuck Close, uses constraints as a tool to solve the expertise-creativity problem.
Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A