World creativity and Innovation Day 21 April 2025, There's a definition of creativity

The UN has coined April 21 World creativity and Innovation day. According to the UN, there may be no universal understanding of creativity. According to Ricord (1840) “The highest development of the Intellect is in the power it has of combining its conceptions, so as to form creations of its own; a world within itself. This is the province of Imagination”. The first manifestation of creativity is the Lion-man. I define creativity as a social process where non-related objects, or fragments thereof, are combined or melded into new distinct cognitive categories. See my previous talks about creativity. 4 pages.

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The UN has coined April 21 World creativity and Innovation day. According to the UN, there may be no universal understanding of creativity, and the concept is open to interpretation from artistic expression to problem-solving in the context of economic, social and sustainable development.

Link to source.

The current interpretations about the concept of creativity seem to be about music and theater:

“Creative industries –which include audiovisual products, design, new media, performing arts, publishing and visual arts– are a highly transformative sector of the world economy in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings.”

Contrary to UNs conception about creativity, there have been an available definition of creativity since at least 1840. This is what Elisabeth Ricord wrote:

“The highest development of the Intellect is in the power it has of combining its conceptions, so as to form creations of its own; a world within itself. This is the province of Imagination” (p. 284).”

Ricord wrote about our species' unique ability to imagine things (Moulton och Kosslyn, 2009). It is this ability that distinguishes us from other animals.

The first manifestation of creativity is the Lion-man, which was discovered in Germany in 1939. The Lion-man has the body of a man and the head of a lion. That implies that the person who created the figurine must have been able to apply combinatory thinking.

 Picture 1. Löwenmensch figurine or Lion-man (Link).

This ability seems to have emerged 90 000 - 60 000 years before the present (Ambrose, 2010; Pringle, 2016).

I define creativity as a social process where non-related objects, or fragments thereof, are combined or melded into new distinct cognitive categories (Österberg, 2012, 2021). Aesthetic expressions facilitates creative thinking (Österberg Köping Olsson, 2018, 2021).

In 2011, I attended the Science Festival in Gothenburg as a speaker on parent-child relations and creativity (Österberg, 2004, 2012).

In 2012, I was invited to the Science Fesival in Gothenburg as a Keynote speaker on the relation between Dancing and creativity (Österberg, 2012; In Swedish).

In 2014, I was invited to the National Aesthetic Congress to be the Keynote speaker (Österberg, 2014 a, In Swedish).

In 2014, I was back at the Science Festival in Gothenburg to talk about music and creativity (Österberg, 2014 b, in Swedish).

In 2016, I was back at the Science Festival in Gothenburg with The Talk: an evolutionary perspective on creativity (the public program and the school program).

In 2019, I did 2 Talks about Creativity (Österberg, 2019).

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