Update 31 July 2012:
Jonah Lehrer resigned from the The New Yorker yesterday following allegations that he had invented quotes by Bob Dylan in his book Imagine. Michael C. Moynihan in Tablet magazine broke the story on 30 July. Lehrer’s statement and the response from The New Yorker is here.

--

Despite all the clever studies and rigorous experiments, our most essential talent remains our most mysterious.
– Jonah Lehrer

Since our very earliest periods of reckoning most of us will have heard mention of this mysterious thing called 'creativity'. We hear about the importance of creative activity all the time - whether to invigorate the more established mediums of the arts and humanities, or to breathe innovation into technology, business, or industry – everyone seems to want more of it.

Prized in our schools, coveted by industry and business, we are surrounded by the aftermath of creativity in all the entertainment, inventions and innovations that we encounter as part of our daily lives - a fact which has not gone unrecognised by the world of business, whose pursuit of creativity strives to distill its magical essense and wrangle it into profit. So lucrative is creativity, that business clichés like ‘blue sky thinking’ (something which evidently happens 'outside the box’) and 'chasing rainbows', have long been part of the popular lexicon. On an individual level, creativity makes us happy - whether it is our own, or the creativity of other people, its legacy is everywhere, driving progress, and leaving its indelible mark on us all.

But what exactly is creativity? And how does it work? Where does it come from, and how can we use it to solve everyday problems? In his best-selling book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, author and journalist Jonah Lehrer explores the neuroscience behind the creative process, and the social aspects of creativity.

In this video, Jonah Lehrer discusses the ideas he explores in Imagine: How Creativity Works, and answers audience questions.

Jonah Leher is an author and journalist who writes about psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities. Lehrer is also contributing editor at Wired, and has written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall-Street Journal, and  The Boston Globe.

Related Links:
Jonah Lehrer

A Festival of Ideas event in partnership with Watershed.

Posted on Tue 24 April 2012.

---