Finally, there’s proof. Something I always felt I saw happening. Something many people have commented on in various ways, perceiving, but not quite able to articulate. Probably part of the reason why a lot of films are starting to feel redundant, why the music is so repetitive, why you probably can’t name four contemporary pioneers of visual art right now…
Creative intelligence is dropping.
I got this article from Newsweek that states that creative intelligence has been steadily dropping year by year since 1990.
Intelligence can be marked in various ways. Some have emotional intelligence, meaning they can perceive emotions well or how to manipulate the emotions of others around them. Some have a spatial intelligence, which would make them a great architect or artist. Some have academic intelligence. Some are creatively intelligent, meaning they are good at taking one thing and creating something new or improving it. It could mean a whole range of things. For all these kinds of intelligence there is usually some kind of test that is associated. We most know of IQ tests or SATs. Well then there’s the Torrance test. The article goes into some detail on the test and so forth, but here are the most striking parts of what the article says about the decline of creativity over the years…
…there is one crucial difference between IQ and CQ scores. With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect—each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making kids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling.
Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says. It is the scores of younger children in America—from kindergarten through sixth grade—for whom the decline is “most serious.”
It’s too early to determine conclusively why U.S. creativity scores are declining. One likely culprit is the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing videogames rather than engaging in creative activities. Another is the lack of creativity development in our schools. In effect, it’s left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there’s no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children.
The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded. When scholars gave creativity tasks to both engineering majors and music majors, their scores laid down on an identical spectrum, with the same high averages and standard deviations. Inside their brains, the same thing was happening—ideas were being generated and evaluated on the fly…
A large part of the reason why I created this site is because I wanted to use the arts as a way of communicating the idea of “creative intelligence”. It’s my belief that in order to be a great artist/entertainer, you have to have some kind of creative intelligence in order to move what you’re doing forward. Of course, there are plenty of musicians who can play instruments, but do not have the creativity to improvise a piece. Many people who are artists can copy a picture, but probably can’t create something out of their own head without a direct reference in front of them. But that’s what, to me, means they are not ARTISTS in the sense of it being their path of life. The life of a person who produces a product based on their creativity.
Leonardo to Picasso. Stravinsky to Stevie. Hitchcock to Spielberg. Some of these folks have an ability to take a medium to the next level. That’s the kind of thinking I am talking about. Someone that can take one piece of an idea (like the Torrance test does in it’s drawing section) and being able to expand on it to create something different. It’s a quality of leadership. It’s problem solving.
So when we hear music, see movies, or other things that make you say “I’ve seen that before” and we feel that it’s copying something else, it’s probably because the person behind it was not entirely creatively intelligent. But the folks who have a deep following and fan base, that have set the trends, that have changed the game, were creatively intelligent. Kanye West. Heath Ledger. You name it. They take the art to the next level that inspire us. They are leaders.
It’s not enough for a person to get a mic, pro tools, and a computer program to make beats, and then call yourself a music artist. Sure you can do it, or imitate others. But come up with something on your own, that’s honest, and catches fire like Prince? That takes another level of thinking.
I’ve seen a lot of people suddenly take up cameras and call themselves photographers. People who jump in front of that camera and call themselves models. Folks who buy the cheapest Flip Mino and want to make music videos. But compare the work of an amateur to that of the creative intelligent person with the natural knack and learned skill? You can’t compete.
So before someone jumps up and calls themselves an artist, I ask, are they creative? And as the article says you don’t necessarily have to be in the arts. A business person can be creative. Anyone can be use a creative mind in any field, it’s just that we usually recognize efforts of creativity in musicians and storytellers.
And who are the culprits when it comes to the fall of creative intelligence? Well we can definitely point toward the American school system. We measure achievement by how well you can do on academic tests. Your grade is reflection of your ability to learn. But plenty of people in leadership positions didn’t do well in school. Along with that, how many of us learn how to create the solutions to problems? We learn the process and get the answer. But how often are we asked to create the process itself?
And furthermore, we have a society that doesn’t really reward creative thinking…at least, not until the thought has been proven to work. Imagine someone coming up with the idea for an iPhone in 1978? A computer, a camera, AND a phone all in one? Yeah right. How is that going to happen? We doubt imaginations that don’t seem immediately practical. A seed of doubt can kill an idea. So we place a lot of doubt on “out the box” thinkers. So then they also doubt their own intelligence. But the ones that truly believe in their idea, and prove others wrong? We praise them later, especially once they make millions of dollars.
I can go into a whole rant on the industries (i.e. film, music, television, radio, etc) that take “creative” works and market them. Contrary to popular belief, people aren’t dumb. It may take a while for others to catch on, but when they notice a remade film disguised as being “new”, a song that follows the exact same format as another one, people begin to catch on. And when they notice their pockets being drained by nothing but the same product, that’s when the pirating happens. And yes, the industry wants things “proven” to work, so they ask folks to copy the creative minds. It’s a very interesting cycle that always happens in every business, but we treat it with a different regard when it comes to art. We think of art as usually needing to have some kind of unique mind behind it. I don’t care if my socks are the exact same, but the art I enjoy? Some of it needs to be original and unique to me.
It’s no wonder that a lot of younger people now are listening to older music. They feel the creativity and honesty in it. People are going back to older things trying to figure out where to go next. Leadership is dropping. A lot of people sense it happening.
I saw this video a while ago and couldn’t wait for the right post to put it up. I think you all should check out the WHOLE LECTURE HERE.
Def Sound is my hero. If I had more audacity I’d be like him.
What I like about this interview is that he really articulates the nuanced thoughts of an artist. The restrictions, fears, questions, experiments, and things that make creation and self-expression fun and agonizing at the same time.
I had seen Def around L.A. I only knew him as the cat that did poetry and dress kinda funny. Then one day we met at a mutual friend’s house. I always wondered if he was really a visual artist. The way he immediately stands out visually made me think he was a painter or something. Well I wasn’t too far off..he does music and poetry!
Once I had a conversation with him at that friend’s house I saw how seriously he takes his craft. Me and Def think a lot alike, but he’s more willing to execute the far out thought and jump right in. He speaks a lot in double-entendres and wordplay in conversation, and if you’re not quick witted you’ll miss it. His music is much the same way. Miss one line, and you missed the whole meaning of the song. While playing his music for us you can tell how in it he is, singing along with it. He marvels in just how the words came to him much how the listener might ask, “How did he think of that?”
After the initial regular interview he started playing me some music and we got into one of our music discussions again. He said so much good stuff I had to throw it in here too. Eve kept that camera rollin! (*gives dap*)
While editing I didn’t feel it would be right to present it like a regular interview. I had to get creative to represent him right.
Take a listen to his latest project, “Def Sound IS Alive”, and give it a free download!
Let’s keep it real. This summer kinda sucked in terms of films. Once I saw that long awaited atrocity, The Last Airbender, it was clear this summer was on a downward spiral. Strangely enough, it seems like cartoons and movies aimed at younger audiences have been gettin the best reviews and drawing in most adults. What’s going on with films right now? Why are there so many copycat formatted movies? What happened to the original stories and the films that pushed the edge for new standards of film? Yeah OK…Avatar. Right. But all that really spawned was a bunch of copy cats. Now everything is in 3D, or 3D converted. And the film industry seems to be killing itself slowly by overusing 3D and those terrible conversions that nobody likes. After a while people are going to stop seeing things in 3D altogether, unless it’s clear that it will look better that way.
Sidenote- What do you do if you have poor eyesight and they give you 3D glasses? Do you have to wear them on top of your glasses? That’s seems wack.
Anyway, I have a new small prediction. Call me crazy, but I think if the movie business stays on this course, it’s going to start crumbling like the music industry.
Let’s go back to about the mid-90s. Cd’s cost nearly $20 a pop. And a great deal of them would have a few hot singles, but the overall product was wack. At some point, some people in the industry figured out if you have some great singles, and just put some filler material on the albums, it wouldn’t matter. So you can drop a cd every 6 months to a year with just all your material and get back your money without puttin much time or energy into it. After all, if the radio singles are killer, then people have no choice but to buy the album on instinct. The CD sales would still be counted even if the CD was returned, and that was that. The customers started losing out. You had to wait and see if the album was really worth it. Then Napster hit the scene. And we know how the story goes from there. Now you’re lucky to even go Gold. Your album better be straight fire from start to finish if you expect anyone to actually buy all your tracks, and not just single songs off Itunes, IF they even want to do that. It’s an option to pay.
Well think about it like this, the singles were the trailers for the album. You hear a few good songs like seeing a few good scenes, and you anticipate it. “Oh that’s gonna be a dope album (movie).” You end up paying nearly $20, and then what do you get? A bunch of crap. 2 hours of time gone, for $20. Nothing to talk about. Just a few flashy things, and it’s done.
Well now, a lot of films can be bootlegged online. Torrents. You name it. Streaming online. Folks bootlegging and putting parts on Youtube even. With Twitter and other online networks the word can spread like wildfire if a movie is bad. Last Airbender had a $250million budget overall, and over the weekend (with it’s HIGH anticipation/inflated price with 3D tix by the way) made about 60-70million. Now of course it’s going to open world wide and etc, but some people have gone to see it because they heard it was bad (which I pray won’t become a new marketing tactic). Then some others stayed away altogether, and saw it for free online. My own Airbender reaction video got nearly 1,500 views in 4 days. That’s nearly $30,000 potentially lost from 1 bad review. And there’s a lot of similar reviews with way more views than mine.
Now films are gong to DVD even faster, which means they will appear on Netflix faster. Going to the movies really means you want to see it immediately instead of a few months later.
Have you noticed the high amount of movies with names tied to already established followings or have a recognizable name?
Karate Kid.
Last Airbender.
Twilight.
A-Team.
Predators…
I read an article that opened up my eyes that even though they are doing Kung Fu in the Karate Kid, it still has that title because the name Karate Kid is such a recognized franchise. But before the Karate Kid remake, someone came up with that original plot and script. Are there anymore NEW original films that are starting their own franchises? The Twilight series was based on the book. Iron Man on the comics. The new Tron on the old 80s movie. But many of these films still don’t capture the essence of the books, or the original films. So as these kinds of films keep gettin released with inflated names, people will wonder if its really worth their time and money. The films are like huge gift wrapped boxes…that YOU have to pay for! And you have no idea what’s in there til it’s too late Could be something awesome, or it could be a Cracker Jack prize. But, if you bootleg it, or stream it for free, you lose a whole lot less in the gamble.
The only film I see coming so far that seems to have an original concept is Inception. I can’t wait for that, especially since director/writer Christopher Nolan has made nothin but heat!
I really think there is going to be a point, if the film industry and studios don’t focus a bit more on story quality and move into original film franchises, where people will wait to see the reviews first, and get it for free. They will pay top dollar if, and only if, it really seems worth their time. They may just pay for one movie, and see the others they want for free. I’m sure that’s been happening anyway. But I think people go to a theater for an overall experience. Seeing a movie on your computer isn’t the same as the popcorn, soda, Red Vines, huge screen, and surround sound. But some people may not care about that especially in this economy.
So I dunno folks. You tell me. Is the film industry headed in the tank like the music industry? Is there a sacrifice on quality film that is being put out, or is this current trend so far just a fluke?
What films did you see so far this year that were great? Let me know! Peace.
I just saw the Last Airbender, and when it ended, revealing that there would be a sequel, I shuddered at the idea that you would make a sequel, and that you actually had the audacity to PLAN to make a sequel.
I pray to God that you never make another film again.
EVER.
Here’s what I bet happened.
You saw a few episodes of the cartoon with your kids. You were interested in it’s philosophic and spiritual undertones, since we all know you love stuff like that with “hidden meanings.” You contacted the creators. You said “Hey guys, I wanna make a live action version of this!”
They said “Um….we’ll think about it.”
Really they wanted to see if they were on the same page of NOT trusting you with their creation. They didn’t trust you. So they didn’t get back to you. Then you hit them up a few times and said “Hey guys, come on! Let me make it!”
And they said “We don’t think a live action version will convey well.” Really they didn’t think YOU would do it right. So you bugged them over and over and said “Hey guys the story is already done, all I have to do is adapt it to be a film, direct it…I got money! I can do it! Come on guys!”
Now, I’m expecting this deal went down sometime before The Happening came out. If they had seen that, then they would have said “Oh hell no!”
So in the middle of it, you rushed to studios to get the green light and hurried to get it made before anyone would change their minds. You watched all the episodes as fast as you could, and just wrote one draft of the script, which explains why it was so juvenile. Or maybe you wrote multiple drafts, dumbing it down as much as possible because, after all, “the masses are stupid”.
Then the studio said “You know what…we need you to cast some white people so we can guarantee the majority population of America will see it.” And you said “OK!” and casted damn near EVERYBODY white. But of course, you didn’t want to look like a complete sell-out so you casted some East Asian folks.
By the way, why the hell would you cast the reigning villains as being of your Indian ancestry? Should I read into your subtext as it being some self-hate?
So when the creators saw your casting choices they had to come to their own defense and said “We didn’t choose this casting!” Yes I know Indians are Asian, but you didn’t even try the vast array of Pan-Asian looks! But what’s really crazy is the mind boggling weirdness of your casting actually falls back on how BAD you made this movie!
You took an awesome show, and ruined it. It was as if you made it bad on purpose. You did everything a film is not supposed to do and more.
Sokka (holding hand out)- Katara, do not break that magical sphere that just appeared out of the ice with a little boy and strange beast in it! (*Katara breaks sphere*)
Katara- It’s just like father told us before he disappeared some years ago, and before our mother died in that horrible raid by the Fire Nation villagers just 3 years ago on this very day! Don’t you remember?
Every line was back story. You tried to cram entire episodes of the show into 5minutes.
I thought you were JUST directing the film. That made me figure “Oh, well then it won’t be that bad.” No…you WROTE it too!?
You are clearly one of those overconfident artists that thinks you can’t make anything good without complete creative control. HOW you get studios to grant you that, I will never understand.
Then you had the nerve to put it in 3D. I’m sure the studio told you to do that because they saw how bad the film was and said “We gotta get as many dollars out of this as we can before people tear it apart…M. Night! Convert it into 3D!” *clap, clap*
And you said, “OK!’.
I’ve liked a couple of your films. Apparently your swan song was Sixth Sense, which I have never seen fully ’cause I kept falling asleep (don’t worry, I already know the twist).
Then you made Unbreakable (which was weird). Then Signs was redeeming (but really, the aliens die with water!? Couldn’t you have chosen something a little more unsuspecting!?). Then The Village (don’t get me started). The Lady In the Water (which I found to be pretty good). The Happening (WTF is wrong with you?) and now you took an AWESOME story and made it worse than your worst movies!?
I’d call you a one trick pony, but that’s a disrespect to the hard work put in by ponies that have to perform acts. At least a pony doing one trick over and over will be more interesting than The Last Airbender.
How did you possibly make fight scenes so boring?!
I’m on a one man mission to make sure you NEVER make another film, and that you DO NOT make a sequel to The Last Airbender. Even as an adult I still watch some cartoons because many of them are better than films being made for adults. You took a great fantasy and destroyed it to the point where I’m afraid that people won’t go see the original series.
And shame on you, for single-handedly ruining the possible futures of people like Noah Ringer. He’s talented, but now his name will be tarnished. I pray he doesn’t get made fun of at school. You even made a great actor like Dev Patel look like an amateur.
Get over yourself, and stop making films.
I think you’d be better at writing children’s books….but please do it under a pen-name. Any other mention of your name now is going to have people running away in fright.
Def Sound. What person could better exemplify and compliment the discussion of the creative mind than this guy?
