4.1 When Do People Create?

Teacher. When do people create?

Beta. What do you mean "when?"

Kappa. Well, sometimes we do, don't we?

Delta. And the question is,''when?''

Beta. I'm thinking we need to clarify the question.

Teacher. This never harms.

Gamma. We are not talking about time, are we? We're talking about situations, right?

Teacher. Of course.

Alpha. I know! It is when someone hasn't prepared for a test. One should be ver-r-ry creative!

Teacher. Could be. Can you elaborate?

Gamma. Could it be that one has to reinvent some scientific data in that case? Is that what you mean?

Alpha. If people are not prepared they guess, nothing else.

Kappa. But some people guess better than others.

Alpha. "Creative guessing!" Ha-ha-ha!

Kappa. Why don't we turn to the arts?

Delta. It's too obvious. Of course people create while doing arts. That's got to be true by definition!

Teacher. Not necessarily.

Delta. I got it. If a painter is just copying a unique work of another artist, he is not creating, is he?

Teacher. Not necessarily.

Gamma. I watched a movie "The Moderns." There was one very talented painter and he got a commission to make copies of some Matisse's paintings, because the customer wanted to sneak the originals away from her husband... Then she robbed the painter, because she didn't want to pay him, but she mistook the copies for the originals. And the painter was really proud afterwards that he was able to make such perfect copies!

Alpha. OK, he was proud. What does that tell us?

Beta. Well, he was talented and he was proud he could do it. It does tell us something.

Alpha. What?

Delta. I believe, that not every single painter can make a precise copy of a great work. He has to be talented to be up to the job.

Alpha. If someone is a talented copier, does this mean he is creating while copying?

Teacher. Good question!

Beta. I wish I had a good answer.

Kappa. Maybe it is something like understanding of other people? Don't you think?

Delta. You mean, to see all of the details on one's painting and reproduce them?

Beta. Look, what have we got here: if exact reproducing requires creativity, then not exact reproducing, when you substitute author's details by yours, is not creativity!

All, but Alpha. Wow!

Gamma. How can it be?

Alpha. Wait-wait, who says it can? Who says that reproducing requires creativity?

Beta. No one does, so far. I said "if."

Gamma. But can it be that a talented work, even if it is copying, is not a creative one? What is talent for?

Alpha. How about photography?

Beta. I got something. Look, a photograph reflects something real, exactly how it is, right?

Gamma. So? There are interesting and telling pictures out there, and there are many of them that are good for a trash can only. How is this possible?

Beta. That's where I was heading. When you make a picture and manage to get what you wanted and how you wanted it...

Delta. You mean, when you have a goal to catch something or what?..

Alpha. My uncle is a photographer, a very good one, everyone says that. He says you have to be ready for a quick shot. It is not like you have to have some goal...

Beta. I understand, you have to be prepared... But this is also a goal, isn't it?

Alpha. It's different.

Kappa. Alpha is right... And Beta is right...