Marshall Summary

Darrin Gailey

Digital Creativity

Chen, 3.2

Marshall- Thinking outside and on the box.

Summary:

The intent of this article is to inform about Wallas’ Stages of Creativity theory. There are four stages:  preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. This idea has lead to three modes of thinking:  analytical, associative, and transformative.

Main Points:  The Four Stages

Preparation: The first step. This includes identifying the “Name”, then locating the problem, finding and constructing the background info, and finally examining the ideas in the background information.

Incubation: The second step. This includes combining ideas. This creates concepts, change connotations, and then it extends ideas further.

Illumination: The third step. This includes creating something out of the composed ideas.

Verification: The fourth step. This includes discovering meaning through the process and extending ideas through other imaginative analysis.

Example:

A good example from the article is the “box project.” This was a good example because it reflected the author’s theories of creativity extremely well. Within this example, the author let each of the students use their own creative expression and move off in different directions. That was a good thing because if he didn’t, they most likely would have ended up with a lot of similar results.

Response:

I agreed and disagreed with the article. Parts were great and others not so much. I liked how he created a structure for the creative process. But, at the same time I feel as though the creative steps that he outlines are too static.