Practical Creativity
To describe Trent Wadsworth in full detail would take more time than any viewer would want to stare at a computer monitor for; however, in the interest of introduction I will give an short summary.
Trent could only be described as a jack of all trades. However, if you ever told him outright that he was a jack of all trades, you would get a chuckle and a "jack of all trades, but master of none" in return. Trent's hardworking spirit and ability to adapt to any situation are only outdone by his kind words and fantastic sense of humor. Thus far, Trent has worked for construction companies, worked on trains and railroads, owned a body shop of his own, and is currently the Director of the Performing Arts Center at a high school in Michigan. Just one aspect of his job is to create all stages and sets of the drama shows at his high school. A few examples of his work are posted below.
The reason I chose to interview Trent is because he has been described to me as one of the most creative individuals around. Additionally, he deals with both small and large scale creative projects by designing sets as a whole, and fixing minor details that he encounters while building the set. This combination of talent and type of creative process he was involved with made interviewing him the obvious choice. The following paragraphs are his response to the questions listed asked during the interview.
Trent could only be described as a jack of all trades. However, if you ever told him outright that he was a jack of all trades, you would get a chuckle and a "jack of all trades, but master of none" in return. Trent's hardworking spirit and ability to adapt to any situation are only outdone by his kind words and fantastic sense of humor. Thus far, Trent has worked for construction companies, worked on trains and railroads, owned a body shop of his own, and is currently the Director of the Performing Arts Center at a high school in Michigan. Just one aspect of his job is to create all stages and sets of the drama shows at his high school. A few examples of his work are posted below.
The reason I chose to interview Trent is because he has been described to me as one of the most creative individuals around. Additionally, he deals with both small and large scale creative projects by designing sets as a whole, and fixing minor details that he encounters while building the set. This combination of talent and type of creative process he was involved with made interviewing him the obvious choice. The following paragraphs are his response to the questions listed asked during the interview.
What are the components of creativity in your own words?
"Well, creativity for me usually happens in two circumstances. It either happens when I am totally relaxed or when I am extremely under pressure. There doesn't seem to be much of anything creative in between those two extremes. Other creativity just kind of happens whenever I encounter a problem that no one else has done before. Often times, I'm just trying to figure it out and so I pull from similar experiences of the past and just try to make it work. Part of that just comes from having to improvise for so long that you you just begin to get good at it, mostly because you have to. I guess the last thing I would say that makes up creativity would just be pure inspiration, somehow sometimes you just get an idea out of seemingly nowhere, and it's pretty helpful when that does happen."
What comes to mind when you think of creativity?
"For me, it's just as simple as coming up with a solution to a problem that hasn't really been done before. Although it seems that every time I fix one problem, it seems to create more problems. It's interesting like that..."
Do you have a clear example of creativity?
"Yes, about twenty-five years ago I had Civic Theater (A local theater in Michigan) ask me to get a car on stage for a show. That was all fine and dandy, but there were three small problems with that request. The car was just a tiny bit to heavy, the car didn't actually fit in theater, and the care ran on gas. What I ended up doing was going to and junkyard and buying a car very similar to theirs, cutting out all the things that made it heavy, cut the car in half (He owned a body shop so he had access to heavy-duty tools) and put it back together again inside the theater. Then I had to rig up an electric motor to make it go, and I ended up just doing that with a series of belts, pullies, and other stuff I got from the hardware store. Oh and they also wanted the headlights to work, but not blind the audience, so I had to take the headlights out and tapped a little hole in the back of the glass and put in a much smaller light so it didn't blind the audience. (I asked him how did he break the glass so carefully, and of course he said) I didn't, I actually broke quite a few before I figured out how to do it right haha, but I guess that's just part of the trial and error."
Do you have any personal theories about creativity?
"I would assume that it doesn't have much to do with intellect because I'm not that smart (joke), and a few people have called me creative. In all seriousness, I feel as thought you have to have a basic understanding about what you're being creative about. I know how to solve problems that I work with, but past that I don't usually have the basic knowledge to be creative. I alsI feel as though you're born with a certain amount of it, and from there it's what you make of it. I feel like it's sort of a nature vs. nurture thing. I always like to think that poorer folk are more creative because creativity is often driven by need. When you have a lot of money, you don't need to be creative because you can just pay other people to fix a minor problem instead of having to be creative about it"
"Well, creativity for me usually happens in two circumstances. It either happens when I am totally relaxed or when I am extremely under pressure. There doesn't seem to be much of anything creative in between those two extremes. Other creativity just kind of happens whenever I encounter a problem that no one else has done before. Often times, I'm just trying to figure it out and so I pull from similar experiences of the past and just try to make it work. Part of that just comes from having to improvise for so long that you you just begin to get good at it, mostly because you have to. I guess the last thing I would say that makes up creativity would just be pure inspiration, somehow sometimes you just get an idea out of seemingly nowhere, and it's pretty helpful when that does happen."
What comes to mind when you think of creativity?
"For me, it's just as simple as coming up with a solution to a problem that hasn't really been done before. Although it seems that every time I fix one problem, it seems to create more problems. It's interesting like that..."
Do you have a clear example of creativity?
"Yes, about twenty-five years ago I had Civic Theater (A local theater in Michigan) ask me to get a car on stage for a show. That was all fine and dandy, but there were three small problems with that request. The car was just a tiny bit to heavy, the car didn't actually fit in theater, and the care ran on gas. What I ended up doing was going to and junkyard and buying a car very similar to theirs, cutting out all the things that made it heavy, cut the car in half (He owned a body shop so he had access to heavy-duty tools) and put it back together again inside the theater. Then I had to rig up an electric motor to make it go, and I ended up just doing that with a series of belts, pullies, and other stuff I got from the hardware store. Oh and they also wanted the headlights to work, but not blind the audience, so I had to take the headlights out and tapped a little hole in the back of the glass and put in a much smaller light so it didn't blind the audience. (I asked him how did he break the glass so carefully, and of course he said) I didn't, I actually broke quite a few before I figured out how to do it right haha, but I guess that's just part of the trial and error."
Do you have any personal theories about creativity?
"I would assume that it doesn't have much to do with intellect because I'm not that smart (joke), and a few people have called me creative. In all seriousness, I feel as thought you have to have a basic understanding about what you're being creative about. I know how to solve problems that I work with, but past that I don't usually have the basic knowledge to be creative. I alsI feel as though you're born with a certain amount of it, and from there it's what you make of it. I feel like it's sort of a nature vs. nurture thing. I always like to think that poorer folk are more creative because creativity is often driven by need. When you have a lot of money, you don't need to be creative because you can just pay other people to fix a minor problem instead of having to be creative about it"
Conclusions
Throughout this interview, I felt as though Trent was in the same spot that many people are at when trying to define creativity. He knew what creativity is, what it's made up of and what's it not made up of, and even some of the basic assumptions listed in the three theories on creativity; however, Trent and many others, often can only describe creativity through example. A clear definition of just the raw concept itself is often hard to come across. This is what makes creativity such a difficult concept to understand. Additionally, Trent is approaching his mid sixties at this point and commented, off hand instead of in response to a question, that the value that society has put on being creative has changed dramatically over the years. He states that, "It seems as if creativity has become a required skill like cooking and cleaning are".