A Walk in the Park
Tell me where is fancy bred.
Or in the heart or in the head?
– William Shakespeare1
AMBULATORY CREATIVE RESEARCH
A few years ago, four of us met in Los Angeles to present a roundtable discussion on “Time and Temporality in Theme Parks.” It promised to be a brilliant presentation, but maybe more important, it gave us the opportunity to further explore our latest passion: Creative Research.
Each of us had a professional interest in theme parks, but our backgrounds couldn’t be more dissimilar. Florian Freitag is a professor of North American Studies in Germany; Filippo Carlá-Uhunk, a lecturer in classics and ancient history in England; Scott Lukas, an author, anthropologist and professor of theme park studies in the U.S.; and I’m a Canadian architect. As it happens, this quirky mix is perfectly suited to Creative Research, which we have chosen to define as: the examination of a subject, approached simultaneously from a variety of directions, with the intent of stimulating new insights – in a manner of speaking, serious research conducted as a creative act.
Creative Research, as the name suggests, combines two disparate elements into a single exercise that is spontaneous and deliberate, carefree and rigorous, cerebral and visceral, mindful and mindless – all at the same time. The tension that exists between the two parts – the disorder of creativity and the methodical orderliness of research – is what provides the motive force, as well as the unpredictable results. So, to further test the effectiveness of our methodology, we decided that, before our presentation, we would both expand and focus our minds by strolling through some local theme parks – a decision that introduced a whole new adjective to our exercise, creating what we might call Ambulatory Creative Research.
WALKING AND THINKING
Methinks the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
– Henry David Thoreau2
Only thoughts reached by walking have value.
– Friedrich Nietzsche3
Psychologists Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz have conducted studies demonstrating that walking doesn’t simply stimulate thought, it facilitates the formation of creative thoughts: “Walking opens up the free flow of ideas.” They conclude, “While research indicates that being outdoors has many cognitive benefits, walking has a very specific benefit – the improvement of creativity.”4
The objective of our visit was to stimulate our own creative thoughts by walking and observing inquisitively – to notice, and then to notice what we’ve noticed, as writer Verlyn Klinkenborg might put it5 – to collect data in the form of unhindered observations, to form ideas and to discuss these among ourselves to spark further study and examination. Here, it’s worth mentioning another of Oppezzo and Schwartz’s observations: “Walking increased the tendency to talk, and people were especially loquacious when walking outside.”6
If this sounds like a fancy way of describing something that any group of friends might do at a theme park, there’s some truth to that. The difference is that our discussions were aimed at finding sources of creative intuition – sources that might yield further creative ideas. Our observations were made, secure in the knowledge that any observation that one of us made would trigger a response from the others that would lead to insights and deeper discussion – the very basis of Creative Research.
Oppezzo and Schwartz would have pointed out another interesting feature of our walk. In their research, they found that: “Walking had a strong influence on the expression of associative memory. People presented more ideas, and the ideas tapped each person’s unique associative network, which led to an increase in novelty compared with other people’s ideas.”7
As mentioned, an important feature of our foursome is the variety of disciplines that it represents, not to mention considerable overlaps and extensions into other areas. Theme parks may seem an odd, even unworthy, subject to have attracted the scrutiny of such an eclectic group. But in many ways, it is the quintessential subject, since it reflects, possibly epitomizes, all of our areas of interest.
WHERE DOES CREATIVITY COME FROM?
We seem obsessed these days with “creativity,” “imagination,” and “leadership.” Curiosity gets neither attention nor respect. Except that without curiosity there is no creativity.
– Charles Fishman8
Creativity is a hot topic these days. Type the word “creativity” into the Amazon.com search box and you will get more than 80,000 results. Leaders in every imaginable sector – from business to academia – tout the wonderful advantages of creativity, as if they had just invented it. According to urban theorist Richard Florida, there is even an entire Creative Class. But the vast majority of these books, gurus, and even design professionals are obsessed with process and product: creativity is a tool; how can it be put to work? But the more interesting question is: Where do creative thoughts and ideas come from in the first place?
We think we’re on the path to answering this question. But the Creative Research model is still a little new and too untried to draw any definitive conclusions, although early evidence is very encouraging. Much more research is needed and is, we hope, imminent.
REFERENCES
The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, scene 2, ll. 64–66. Shakespeare was using “fancy” to mean “desire.” The quotation works just as well if you use the Shorter Oxford dictionary definition 6: “Orig., imaginations, esp. creative imagination”
Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau’s Journal, Aug. 9, 1851
Friedrich Nietzsche (1889) “Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows 34”
Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 2014, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1142–1152
Verlyn Klinkenborg. Several Short Sentences About Writing, New York: Random House, 2012
Oppezzo and Schwartz, op. cit.
Ibid
From an email synopsis for “Putting Curiosity in its Rightful Place Among the Qualities That We Seek, Nurture and Value,” Thursday January 15, 2015, Desautels Hall, Rotman School, 105 St. George Street, Toronto. SPEAKER: Charles Fishman, Co-Author (with Brian Grazer), A Curious Mind - The Key to a Good Life (Simon & Schuster, April 15, 2015)