2.8.1 Any definition of complexity is necessarily context-dependent, even subjective. (Gell-Mann, 1994, pg. 33)

2.8.2 One of the most important scientists who has commented on the similarities between artists' and scientists' creative process is physicist Werner Heisenberg (1958). He believed artists' creativity arose out of the interplay between the spirit of the time and the individual. For McLuhan, artistic inspiration is the process of subliminally sniffing out environmental change: "It's always been the artist who perceives that alterations in man caused by a new medium, who recognises that the future is the present, and uses his work to prepare ground for it." (Norden, 1969) In fact both artist and scientist are involved in the work of intuiting change of perception and materialising it for other to experience, see and ultimately change.

2.8.3 Prior to my MPhil PhD research, I videotaped interviews concerning invention, discovery and the creative process with Murray Gell-Mann, Glenn Seaborg, and Norman Cousins among others. [7] The most intriguing personality to me was Murray Gell-Mann, whose individual complexity is an example of a new type of scientist, just as Fuller was an example of a new type of architect. His "personal statement" include interests in modern literature, cosmology, nuclear arms-control policy, natural history, population growth, sustainable human development, and the evolution of language. Murray Gell-Mann won a Nobel prize in 1969 for discovering a unifying order beneath the alarmingly diverse particles streaming from accelerators. He called his particle-classification system "The Eight-fold way" after the Buddhist road to wisdom. Although he pointed out many times that he meant this as a joke and did not intend in any way to connect physics to Eastern mysticism, his and many other contemporary scientific theories have been assimilated and reinterpreted in the worlds of philosophy, art, science, and New Age mysticism. He has made his mark in the world of physics by proposing that neutrons, protons, and a host of other short-lived particles were all made of triplets of more fundamental particles called quarks. Gell-Mann coined the term "quark" while perusing James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and was inspired by Joyce's exclamation, "Three Quarks for Muster Mark."

2.8.4 In an interview I videotaped he discussed his earlier discovery of "strangeness" and the creative process involved. The problem he was wrestling with was resolved as a slip of the tongue while giving a lecture. He used the Helmholz theory to explain this creative process that many share in all disciplines. Helmoholtz divided the creative process into three periods: saturation, incubation, and illumination. Saturation is a period when one thinks about the problem for a long time and confronts the need with the machinery available, finding out that the available mechanisms do not help in solving the problem. The mind is then filled with that contradiction of what can be done with available methods and what needs to be done, and at a certain point, further conscious thought seems futile. After the period of saturation the mind apparently continues working on the problem outside of ones awareness. This Helmoholtz referred to as the "period of incubation" after which comes the "illumination," which can happen at any time and place quite spontaneously. No matter what the discipline or process is, this illumination comes from the "pre-conscious" mind, which is what artists most freely tap into when working. [9] Gell-Mann adds that illumination is followed by a stage of "verification" to make sure that the solution is indeed correct. This may be where the key difference lies between the arts and sciences. In the arts, there is no attempt or need to try to prove and verify this moment of illumination. [top]

Notes:

7. In 1992, I produced and directed a number of interviews for the Tesla Foundation: Dr. Murray Gell-Mann; Dr. Glenn Seaborg and Norman Cousins. The idea was to track the creative process of scientists. Unfortunately funding to complete this project was never secured. [back]

9. The second law of thermodynamics is the law of nature which says that things wear out. One expression of the second law of thermodynamics is that heat cannot flow from a cold object to a hotter object of its own volition. For instance, if you leave your house unattended for a long time, it will crumble away under the influence of wind and weather, whereas a pile of bricks will never spontaneously form itself into an arrow of time. (Gribbin, J. 1998, pg. 359.) [back]