Innovation and the Artistic Imagination

What does the Morse Code have to do with the Sensory Alphabet and creativity?

This article about innovation, art and scientific advances in the Psychology Today blog may help us understand!

The kinds of innovation and inventiveness that the authors write about in this post -- including the development of the Morse Code -- is the kind of linked-up thinking that "learning your sensory alphabet" makes possible. Yes, it's also about arts experiences, but under that " art label" what the innovators cited in the article had in common was the ability to think across fields, to use the sensory information of the world in ways that solve problems in technological fields, health, medicine, communication and more. Knitting might help with medical knots; Seurat's color field paintings inform television communication. Here's what the authors, Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein say:

The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs an artistic imagination."

Comments

[Charlie]

I never really related arts with technical innovation so this article was very eye opening for me. I must totally agree that the arts should continue to be funded. Perhaps we could learn to get along better with the rest of the world and cut some of our military budget to make up the shortfall. Not a very innovative idea but certainly long overdue.