Genius at work

Daniel Pink wrote a year ago in Wired about David Galenson’s hypothesis that there are two types of creative geniuses: conceptual geniuses who peak early and experimental geniuses who peak late. This is a much more interesting hypothesis than the one that geniuses peak at different ages, or the one that simply defines genius as youthful hyperachievement and ignores those who peak late. Who among us does not wish to believe that there is still time for us to achieve fame and fortune, and who does not long for an excuse for not already having achieved both? The notion of the experimental genius, the middle-aged or older little engine that could, heralds plaudits that we could still receive. It drapes workaholics with a faint aroma of noble effort.

I appreciate the notion that creativity is not the sole domain of the young, and I absolutely agree that economists should follow business writers and business consultants down the path of encouraging and measuring creativity. One person’s creativity may be another person’s failure, or worse, another person’s inability to understand the task. But we are shifting, I hope, from an information economy to a creative economy. Galenson offers a reason to keep employing older folks in a creative economy.

Does creativity necessarily include actually creating something? If we remain near Galenson’s original focus on the art world, Geoff Edgers writes in the Boston Globe today about art created by museum employees or collectors rather than by the artist. A sculptor may not pour the metal for a casting of his sculpture, but we expect that he created the original and cared about the final result. Dale Chihuly can no longer blow glass himself, but he closely directs the glassblowers in his studio in experimentation with new techniques and execution of old techniques, and directs the details of his pergolas and other complicated installations. Conceptual artists like Tara Donovan, however, remove themselves much further from the process of creation, selling instructions and provenance to pieces they will never touch or even see. Pure creativity, unsullied by effort. I’d call that process design rather than art, but design is also a creative enterprise. A creative economy will inevitably lead to efficiencies that make us rethink what we value. Conceptual art has just been leading the way.