Innovationandart

The linkage between art and innovation are intertwined, and many skills are transferred between the two.

Art is the product of one’s imagination and expression. The core of the art is human curiosity. Art is the crafted pieces in designing innovative products or services. Innovation is the process that makes the artistic work functioning, customer-centric and generates commercial value. Innovation is the science in the eyes of scientists; innovation is the art in the eyes of artists; innovation is the bridge between art and science. But more specifically, what's the correlation between innovation and art?

Art is driven by our wide imagination and unlimited creativity; Innovation is a systematic way of applying creativity in real life: Art is most usually seen by artists themselves as being principally about the act of creation; of bringing into existence something which did not previously exist. When connected to enriched resources, the artist’s creativity remains fresh, unique and harmonious, they craft the art pieces through the varying form of artistic expression and sensitivity. Without innovation, art is a decoration. Art becomes functioning when innovation as a process embedding art in the design to produce creative products or services for delighting customers.

We are all inspired by great art pieces or some innovative works, and motivated by many things - excellence, achievement, recognition, revelation of the divine spark within, self-discovery. Creative people are inspired to think and work nearly every day on pondering and creating, they proactively stimulate the new energy, letting the fountain of creativity flow smoothly. Art starts from abstract thinking and wide imagination; innovation starts with an idea – either an artistic craft or a scientific invention; following with a management process that helps to expand the initial ideas and building a set of hypotheses about how the product of the idea will look like, and how the customers will react to the product, converting the artistic or scientific ideas to functioning work and achieve their commercial value.

Curiosity is a human nature; a good question is a piece of art; inquisitiveness stimulates creativity: Innovators are the artists who keep learning and practicing how to master the “art of possible.” The art of questioning is to ignite innovative thinking, help to validate how thorough and deep your thinking is on a particular issue: as well as assess various perspectives; it’s one of the crucial steps in innovation management. Like a piece of art, the great question is beautiful and insightful, to spark imagination, connect the dots to spur innovative thoughts and ideas; bring us courage to think alternatively and reimagine the ways to do things differently.

Many people live in their old thinking box for so long, their minds get stale. Artistic thinking is about imagination, aesthetics, abstraction, which are all important elements to develop creativity. The art of innovation is actually to simplify - eliminating unnecessary layers of complication so that innovative solutions come out. Engaging in creativity inevitably creates tension, conflict, and emotionally charged debates and disagreements because we need both control and predictability, creativity and process. The artist’s mind is more visualized, the intention of their creativity is not for direct problem solving, but for abstract expression, aesthetic appreciation, visionary blueprint, or inspirational creation. An innovator has the courage and emotional strength to step out and expand their thinking to trust the process of creativity. Open-mindedness leads to imagination, imagination leads to discovery, and discovery leads to innovation.

Art is a perception of the past, today or tomorrow; innovation is either an incremental or a breakthrough progress based on future-driven perception: Artists attempt to create forms for their feelings, review the history via artistic touch; explore the reality, reimagine the world, and hope for their eternal value for human kind. Innovators discover opportunities to change the world for the better. It is important to create conditions so that the creative potential can manifest. The true artist channels from head to hand for creativity to be realized. The source of these creative channels is the link to the future. At the highest level of imagination engagement, we become driven to leverage our imagination into creative or innovative results.

Innovation will happen when people are given free space to be creative without overly rigid structures for holding them back. At the individual level, innovation is a personal irrationality that is unique to every individual, it’s one’s inward creativity leading to outward innovation. Collectively, innovation is the team work that people can complement each other’s thinking or interact mindfully to generate fresh ideas and renew innovation energy. It is essential that we in business operate with a full understanding of both art and science, as well as how we can work together to create stronger ideas and implement the best of the best to generate business value.

The linkage between art and innovation are intertwined, and many skills are transferred between the two. Contemporary artists take cross-disciplinary activities to become artistic technologists; or artistic entrepreneurs. If idea creation is more art than science, and then idea implementation is more science. Perfecting the art of innovation is not about pursuing a state of being perfect, but about taking a continuous journey of improving the success rate of innovation.

Posted in: Creativity,Innovation