RULE 43

In the generative research I have conducted over the last three years for many different clients, it has become increasingly evident that everyday people are no longer satisfied with simply being “consumers.” They want to be “creators” as well. This unmet need for creativity is being expressed through the use of participatory tool kits (Sanders and William) whether we are conducting research with people about their home experiences, their learning experiences, or their work experiences. Their examples of what constitutes creative behavior are surprisingly varied. For example, some people say they feel creative when they are exercising or when they are cleaning out the closet. Others feel creative when making scrapbooks from family photographs. And others feel creative when they are cooking “freestyle,” making up the recipe as they go from whatever ingredients they have on hand.
The interest in more creative ways of living can be seen also in the recent spate of new books dedicated to the topic. Two good examples include Ray and Anderson’s The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World, and Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class.
New forms of creativity in art and design are emerging as well. Post production (Bourriaud) refers to the increasing number of recent artworks that have been created based primarily on pre-existing works of art. Artists today are interpreting, reproducing, and re-using the art originally created by others. Similarly, “ad hocism” is the idea that describes the trend in industrial design whereby old products are salvaged and recombined to create new ones. The new products are often humorous, such as cheese-grater lamps and scrub-brush coat racks (Thompson).