According to Haydn Shaughnessy, a writer on the emerging economy, creativity has gone through several stages throughout history, including 1) an association with religion 2) romantic concept, 3) a discipline taught in art and architecture 4) as a method related to science and technology 5) as an expression of human potential. Interesting charts on page […]
Creativity and the Three Stages of Conscious Design Build, Part I: Unconsciousness
First off, I would like to thank the profound work of David Deida, and my partner at Conscious Design Build, Hristiyan Atanasov, for inspiring this three part series. The built landscape all around us has come into being through the power of human beings’ most defining aspect: conscious self-awareness, the awareness of being aware that […]
Creativity and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Part V: How Creativity Expands Our Sense of Self
We began this series by looking at Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, noting how Maslow has creativity positioned at the uppermost level, at the level of Self-Actualization. We also noted that while the first four levels were characterized by a sense of “deficiency” or lack, this uppermost level of Self-Actualization was marked by a sense […]
Creativity and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Part I: The Leap from Lack to Creative Fulfillment
In 1943, psychologist, philosopher, and leader of the Human Potential movement, Abraham Maslow wrote a paper entitled, A Theory of Human Motivation, in which he produced one of the most useful diagrams for understanding the human condition, the now famous Hierarchy of Needs. It also serves as an excellent model for understanding the nature of […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part VIII: More Advanced Practices for Engaging Consciousness
Last time we looked at some basic practices for engaging consciousness. Let’s up the ante a bit, exploring some more advanced practices for engaging consciousness, lighting a more ardent fire in the hearth of creativity, delving headlong into some of the deeper pools of awareness. Engage in fasts of various sorts, removing certain objects or […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part VII: Basic Practices for Engaging Consciousness
Let’s further our exploration of consciousness, this time focusing in on how to better engage it. How do we begin to befriend the dynamic lens through which we see the world when we are looking through it all the time? How can we get any real perspective on consciousness when we are dependent upon it […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part IV: Tweaking Waking Consciousness to Suit Our Creative Needs
Taking a closer look at our waking consciousness, the type of consciousness we use to maneuver the manifest world around us, we notice that we are constantly tweaking it to meet our various needs. In the same way a photographer is continuously playing with light to capture the essence of her subject matter, we are […]
Consciousness and Creativity, Part II: The Most Defining Aspect of the Human Organism
Conscious self-awareness is the key to creativity Consciousness, specifically conscious self-awareness, is perhaps the single most exciting aspect of our capacities as human beings. More than any of our other qualities, our conscious self-awareness—our awareness of being aware—adds an entire universe to our experience, granting us a cognitive freedom that was unheard of anywhere in […]