Democratizing Creativity: How Arts/Philosophy Can Contribute to the Question of Arts Bias

Abstract

This article critically deconstructs the 21st-century economization and massification of creativity. It extends the discussion of arts bias and the associated ideas that artistic creativity is institutionalized, elitist, and an obstruction to more profitable applications of creativity. A tension is thus highlighted between the historically prevalent domain of art, and newer domains which focus on everyday, functional, organizational and the dark sides of creativity. The aim is to open up a genuine debate about the place of art in modern creativity discourse, and to examine the problematic theme of democratization in creativity as it relates to cultural, economic and industrial issues. A new framework for conceiving creativity in hermeneutics is also suggested, with a view to cohesively and logically balancing the artistic with other domains, and eliminating some of the current problems that render creativity less than it has been regarded in generations past.

FUNDING

This research was supported by the Commonwealth of Australia.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is submitted with sincere gratitude for the support and input of Distinguished Professor, Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania.

Notes

¹ Note the prediction that up to 47% of middle-class jobs could be redundant within a decade, given the rate of growth in technology (United Nations, as cited in De Jong, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Commonwealth of Australia.