The Act of Creation

Dear Colleagues ATC

Artur Koestler was both an award winning novelist
(Darkness at Noon) and a biologist.  His Act of Creation
addresses the phenomena of humor, science, and art
as 3 responses to a "same" situation: the clash of 2 or
more matrices (frames of reference).

Imagine me and Dr Bradshaw  in a no-exit situation--on
the same committee, say, where we couldn't leave until a
solution was determined. A kind of cross roads where devil
and blues hang out. You are going to get humor, science
discovery), or art (tragedy) out of this situation--
the mother of invention. 

The action of creation, says Koestler. And the second half
of his book  is biological: showhing the same stress-to-emerging
phenomena pattern.    "Stress "is such a popular word these days,
almost as popular as surreal. Look: here's a way of thinking that
frames conflict in terms of creativity.   Empowering.,

Consider or ignore  (be considerate, then, or ignore-ant)
Isn't that the free-willy/nilly choice we have with us
always?  Freedom!. 

We could argue about these things.
 
                  Creativity and the Unconscious
 
“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning
process where teacher and pupil are located in the same
individual. Creative people like to ascribe  the role of the
teacher to an entity they call the unconscious, which they
regard as a kind of Socratic demon—while others deny its
existence and still others are prepared to admit it but deplore
the ambiguity of the concept. I (Koestler) belong to this last group
 
Bright new skills acquired by learning—regardless  whether
perceptual, motor or cognitive skills—tend to condensate into
habits, and their control to migrate to the twilight zones of
awareness.  (subsidiary )
 
But this down grading doesn't necessarily diminish
or impoverish the skill and does not exclude virtuosity
of a  kind which is often mistaken for creativity.
 
To ride a bicycle over a tightrope or perform feats
of a calculating prodigy are virtuoso achievements
but at the opposite pole to creative originality.
 
But the games we play in everyday life are more complex
than those in the laboratory or on the chessboard, where
the rules are laid down by explicit orders.
 
In the normal routines of thinking and talking, the rules
exercise their control implicitly, from  way below the
level of conscious awareness.
 
Not only the codes of grammar and syntax operate
hidden in the gaps between the words, but also the
codes of commonsense logic and of those more
complex methods of reasoning which include our
 built-in axiomatic prejudices and emotional
inclinations.
 
Even if consciously bent on defining the rules which
govern our thinking,  we find it extremely difficult
 to do so. We play the games of life, obeying the
rule-books written in invisible ink or a secret code.
 
In TheAct of Creation I proposed the term “matrix”
as a unifying formula to designate those cognitive
systems which we variously call “frames of reference,”
associative contexts,” “mental sets,” of “universal
discourse”--that is to say, all  habits, routines and
skills governed by an invariant code of rules (which
may be explicit or implicit) but capable of varied
strategies in attacking a problem or task.
 
 When life confront us with a problem or task, it will
be dealt with according to the same set of rules which
enables us to deal with similar situations in our past
experience. It would  be foolish to belittle the value
of such law-abiding routines. They lend coherence and
stability to behavior, and structured order to reasoning
 
But when the difficulty or novelty of the task exceeds
a critical limit, the matrices of daily routines are no
longer adequate to cope with it. The world is on the
move, and new situations arise, posing questions
which cannot be met within the conventional frames of
references, the established rule-books.
 
In science, such situation arise under the impact of new
data which shake the foundation of well-established theories.
The challenge is often  self-imposed by the insatiable
exploratory dive, which prompts the original mind to ask
questions which nobody has asked before and to feel
frustrated by dusty answers.
 
In the artist's case, the challenge is a more or less permanent
one, arising out of the limitation of his medium of expression,
his urge to escape from the constraints imposed by the
conventional styles and techniques of his time, his
ever-hopeful struggle to express the inexpressible.
 
A problem solved or a task accomplished in accordance
with established rules of the game leaves the matrix of
the skill intact—unharmed and possibly even enriched
by the experience.