"Everyday Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review" by Ana Luisa Ilha Villanova and Miguel Pina e Cunha

Summary

This article from the Journal of Creative Behavior presents a systematic literature review of "everyday creativity," aiming to clarify its definition and characteristics. The authors highlight the lack of a comprehensive, singular definition for this concept, often referred to as "little-c creativity," in contrast to "Big-C creativity" which denotes genius-level achievements. The review proposes a more inclusive understanding by integrating individualistic and sociocultural perspectives, emphasising that everyday creativity involves producing something original and meaningful that can be either a personal "creative experience" or a "creative product" judged by one's immediate social circle. The paper also explores everyday creativity through the "4 Ps" framework (person, process, product, and press), revealing its habitual, ubiquitous, and personally significant nature in daily life, and ultimately suggesting future research avenues to expand its study beyond the traditional creativity field.

"Augmented Creativity: Bridging the real and virtual worlds to enhance creative play" by Fabio Zünd, Mattia Ryffel, Stéphane Magnenat, Alessia Marra, Maurizio Nitti, Mubbasir Kapadia, Gioacchino Noris, Kenny Mitchell, Markus Gross, Robert W. Sumner

Summary

This paper introduces "Augmented Creativity," a concept leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) on mobile devices to enhance real-world creative activities and education by bridging physical interaction with digital experiences. The authors present six prototype applications demonstrating this concept, including a colouring book app that animates children's drawings, a music app for tangible song arrangement, and AR games promoting physical movement and cooperation. Other applications involve a city-wide gaming framework for urban exploration, a system for authoring interactive narratives, and an approach to visual robot programming that makes abstract concepts tangible. Ultimately, the work aims to use AR to direct attention back to classic creative play while offering engaging digital enhancements, fostering both creativity and learning.

"Beauty in the Eye of Expert and Nonexpert Beholders: A Study in the Appraisal of Art" by Paul Hekkert and Piet C. W. Van Wieringen

Summary

This scholarly article, "Beauty in the Eye of Expert and Nonexpert Beholders: A Study in the Appraisal of Art," by Paul Hekkert and Piet C. W. Van Wieringen, delves into how both professional art experts and non-experts perceive and evaluate art. Published in The American Journal of Psychology in 1996, the study investigates the criteria and agreement (or disagreement) in judgments of art between these two distinct groups. It particularly focuses on how factors like originality and craftsmanship influence their assessment of aesthetic quality, noting that experts tend to prioritise originality more highly than non-experts. The research aims to provide a more detailed understanding of art appreciation differences by using a methodology that more closely resembles real-world art appraisal scenarios.

"The Influence of Art Expertise and Training on Emotion and Preference Ratings for Representational and Abstract Artworks" by Jorien van Paasschen, Francesca Bacci, David P. Melcher

Summary

This research article explores how art expertise and training influence emotional and preference ratings for both representational and abstract artworks. The study involved art experts and novices, with a subgroup of novices receiving brief art historical training, rating artworks in both laboratory and museum settings. Key findings indicate that while art experts rate artworks higher in terms of beauty and personal preference, basic emotional responses (valence and arousal) remain consistent across all observer groups, suggesting a universal element to immediate emotional reactions to art. Interestingly, artworks viewed digitally in the lab were often preferred over those seen in the museum, and prior exposure to artworks generally led to higher ratings of beauty and liking.

"Who Cares About Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation, and Why? A Review" by Marie J. C. Forgeard and James C. Kaufman

Summary

This research article investigates how academic papers articulate the importance of imagination, creativity, and innovation (ICI). The authors reviewed 200 empirical studies across various disciplines, including psychology, business, and education journals, to determine if and how researchers explain why these concepts are worthy of study. The findings reveal that a significant majority of articles (71%) offered little to no explicit discussion on the importance of ICI, often treating them as dependent variables to be predicted rather than predictors of other outcomes. While reasons for studying ICI varied by journal type, with "business, economics, and productivity" being the most common, the overall trend suggests researchers often assume their audience already understands the inherent value of ICI, missing opportunities for deeper justification.

"Creative Synthesis- Exploring the process of extraordinary group creativity" by Sarah Harvey

Summary

This academic article proposes a dialectical model of extraordinary group creativity, suggesting that rather than simply generating a wide variety of ideas, breakthrough creative output arises from the integration of diverse perspectives within a group, which the author terms creative synthesis. This synthesis acts as a dynamic framework guiding the development of radical ideas, or exemplars, which in turn refine the synthesis over time. The author contrasts this with traditional random variation models of creativity, arguing that creative synthesis offers a better explanation for groups that consistently produce groundbreaking results. The article outlines process facilitators of this synthesis, such as collective attention and enacting ideas, and discusses how group resources like cognitive skills and diversity serve as boundary conditions for the model.

"Leadership of Creativity: Entity-Based, Relational, and Complexity Perspectives" by Russ Marion

Summary

This academic chapter, "Leadership of Creativity: Entity-Based, Relational, and Complexity Perspectives," explores how creativity is fostered within organisations, moving beyond the traditional focus on individual attributes to examine collective and systemic dynamics. It begins by reviewing established "entity-based" research, which investigates individual characteristics and supportive conditions for creativity. However, the chapter then shifts to highlight the emerging concept of collective creativity, where innovative insights arise from the interactions and conflicts among diverse individuals and ideas, rather than from a single person. Finally, it delves into complexity theory as a framework for understanding how leadership can actively enable these emergent, non-linear processes, leading to increased creativity, adaptability, and learning within organisations.

"Collective Creativity and Innovation: An Interdisciplinary Review, Integration,and Research Agenda" by Oguz A. Acar, Aybars Tuncdogan, Daan van Knippenberg, and Karim R. Lakhani

Summary

This interdisciplinary review explores the critical factors influencing collective creativity and innovation, highlighting its importance for organisational competitiveness and economic growth. The authors address the fragmented nature of existing research by proposing an integrative framework built on a new taxonomy of collectivity types: attention-based, divergence-based, and convergence-based collectives. This framework analyses how cognitive, social, and organisational architecture impact innovation, demonstrating that the optimal structure varies depending on the collective's nature. Ultimately, the paper aims to synthesise disparate findings, foster cross-disciplinary communication, and set a comprehensive research agenda for future study in this vital field.

"Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Relationship between Value Diversity and Team Creativity" by Melrona Kirrane, Matthias Kramer & Hermann Lassleben

Summary

This document is an academic article from the Creativity Research Journal, published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) in April-June 2020. Titled "Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Relationship between Value Diversity and Team Creativity," the study investigates how differing personal values within teams influence their creative output. The authors, Melrona Kirrane, Matthias Kramer, and Hermann Lassleben, delve into two specific forms of value diversity – variety (all members are dissimilar) and separation (members form subgroups based on values) – and analyse their respective positive and negative associations with team creativity. Additionally, the research considers the mediating role of team communication in these relationships, ultimately aiming to provide a more nuanced understanding of how deep-level diversity impacts a team's ability to generate novel and useful ideas.

"Collaborative Creativity—Group Creativity and Team Innovation" by Paul B. Paulus, Mary Dzindolet, and Nicholas W. Kohn

Summary

This comprehensive handbook chapter, "Collaborative Creativity—Group Creativity and Team Innovation," by Paulus, Dzindolet, and Kohn, delves into the scientific evidence surrounding creativity and innovation within both temporary groups and long-term teams. The authors distinguish between these entities, highlighting that while research on group creativity often uses objective lab data with students, studies on team innovation more frequently rely on self-reports. The piece explores various factors influencing team creativity, such as psychological safety, leadership styles, the role of conflict, and group cohesion, alongside the impact of team characteristics like size and diversity. Ultimately, it aims to integrate research from both group creativity and team innovation to provide a more holistic understanding of collaborative creative processes in organisations and offer practical suggestions for fostering innovation.