Introduction to Creativity

About

The ability to think creatively is a critical asset in today’s society and working life. It allows us to stay innovative and approach challenges with new perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking while navigating the complexities of the modern world.

The course Introduction to Creativity gives you fundamental knowledge about the mechanisms of creativity. After the course, students will be able to understand the definition of creativity, innovation and imagination, factors that enhance and kill creativity, intuition as part of creativity, and limitations as a resource for being creative.

This interdisciplinary course welcomes students from all fields: engineering, business, education, arts, and others who are simply curious about tapping into their creative potential. The students are encouraged to find new cross-disciplinary perspectives and get to know their strengths through a series of lectures, workshops, discussions, and assignments.

The course aims to explore the creative process with examples from the creative industries and art. With instructors hailing from the film industry, the assignments involve writing, but various other creative exercises are explored as well.

Course leader

Kirsi Reinola is a versatile writer, researcher, and educator with a rich experience in the field of art. With over two decades of experience, Kirsi has excelled in various roles, including freelance writer and researcher, project manager, partner, and strategist. In addition to her practical experience, Reinola is actively engaged in academia, teaching and lecturing at Aalto University and other institutions. Elisabeth Morney honed her competence in interdisciplinary creativity in 2015 at the University of Georgia at the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, USA. In 2021, she served as the chair of the international Aalto Creativity Symposium, which brought together participants from 15 different countries. She has lectured and presented on topics related to non-domain-specific creativity in universities and organisations across Finland, Norway, Spain, the United States, Japan, and Uruguay.

Target group

This course does not require previous experience in the topic. Participants must have completed a high school or vocational degree or equivalent by the time the course starts. However, they do not have to be a degree student at a university to participate in our courses.

Additionally, all summer school course students must be 18 years or older, as it is the legal age in Finland.

Course aim

The course offers a broadened view on creativity, making tacit creativity visible. After completing the course, the student is able to:

- Integrate academic and practice-based creativity research knowledge with their real-life challenges
- Recognize various implications of creativity in the creative process, the creative product, and the circumstances influencing creativity
- Grasp the mechanisms of creativity in group collaboration and individual settings
- Understand how imagination, senses, emotions, and subconscious work together in the creative process

Fee info