Seminar at the UCL Knowledge Lab by Dr. Mark Readman exploring the ways in which the concept of creativity is socially constructed, mobilised, and mythologised. At its simplest, creativity is a word used to describe certain kinds of activity. But these activities can be very different – a mental activity such as solving a mathematical problem or a physical activity such as making a sculpture, for example – which should make us question the coherence of the single word which accounts for them. ‘Creativity’ is a potent signifier, but what it signifies is slippery; it is a particular kind of problem – a problem of meaning rather than a problem of practice This talk examines some of the dominant versions of creativity – from Ken Robinson’s formulation of ‘having original ideas that have value’, to Csikszentmilhalyi’s notion of an alchemical phenomenon arising from a confluence of different factors – and puts them to the test in relation to some contemporary examples. Much research tends to treat creativity as a ‘thing’ and seeks to identify what ‘it’ is; I suggest that it is more critically rigorous to circumvent questions which seek equations for answers and to look, instead, at the factors which produce a sense of ‘things’ and which give them real effects. I argue, ultimately, that to think critically about creativity means asking what we talk about when we talk about creativity.

Lecture on Basic copyright and the current enforcement of the law and the negative impact on Artists and Designers.

David Gauntlett's inaugural lecture from November 2008, in which he points to a shift from a 'sit down and be told' culture to a more creative 'making and doing' culture, which may offer one of the necessary keys to tackling climate change and environmental problems.

Entrepreneurship Guest Lecture Series Autumn 2009: Ken Powell, Arrow Therapeutics