OUCA501 - Creative Rhetorics/The Creative affordances of technology

What is creativity?

"Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative." (creativeartwork.com)

"The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination." (dictionary.com)

Creative Rhetoric: The Creative affordances of technology
"If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and
situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in
the creativity of individual users. This rhetoric covers a range of positions, from
those who applaud all technology as inherently improving, to those who
welcome it cautiously and see creativity as residing in an, as yet,
undertheorised relationship between contexts, users and applications"
(The Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. pg.71)

Screenshot of Nuji.com

A perfect example of this can be found by 2011's Emerging Talent Awards winner Vincent Thome (London) who created the site Nuji.com in which you can "...tag your favourite products in the offline world on your mobile by scanning the product barcode or simply taking a picture of it - or you can bookmark it at Nuji (in just one click). It identifies the products, helps you remember them and allows you to share and recommend the products you have found with your friends." (campaignlive.co.uk)

One of the most impressive digital/technological campaigns are for Apple Inc. In particular, the iPod Touch silhouette advertisements (as shown to the right) created in 2002. This campaign is one of the most memorable for it's links to both art and growths in digital technology (in terms of Apple products and digital media). Apple's advertisements fully embrace the idea of technological development and use it as a means of communication for the masses. As well as identifying us all as individuals (multiple songs and people were used in various versions of this particular campaign), it also seems to acknowledge how both music and technology can bring us all together.

Bibliography:
Anon (2014) What is Creativity? [Online] http://www.creativityatwork.com/2014/02/17/what-is-creativity/

Anon (N.D) Define Creativity [Online] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/creativity

Banaji, S., Burn, A. and Buckingham, D. (2006) The Rhetorics of Creativity: A Review of the Literature. Creative Partnerships Arts Council England [Online] http://www.creative-partnerships.com/literaturereviews

Harris, D. (2011) Emerging Talent Awards: The Winners [Online] http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1095809/