do you think that rules/guidelines restrict or harness creativity?

Question

there's three schools of thought on this:
1. "writing a sonnet outside of guidelines is like playing tennis without a net"
2. "think outside of the box"
3. "what box?"

seriously, is creativity more original and, well, creative if you are able to get past the limitations and still make something amazing? or should we just flush all the rules associated with art/creation down the drain?

Answer 1

I think that there is something called creative disipline. Limits on our imagination are counter productive for the artist, but limits on our work habits are not.

Answer 2

Rules and guidelines, if used properly, are intended to guide and protect creativity. Yet with too much of them it quickly limits and makes creativity toothless.

For example, if you are playing football and you just decide that hiking the ball is good enough to score a point, the game becomes boring and pointless. Or if you are working on a project for a building you can put as many cool turrets and lights, and tech toys on it as possible. But if the toys aren't real or the money isn't there the building stays just in the mind. To go further one must be told to design a building, which is a rule/guideline or else one could create a sonnet instead of doing the actual project.

On the other hand if football had too many rules then it would be unplayable (essentially it would become basketball...but I digress). Likewise if the rules for the building are make a building 400 stories tall, for 35 cents, and make it out of Mars, the building would be pointless to design.

Answer 3

I think having rules and guidelines makes people aware of their creativity. There have been many times I wanted to throw the guidelines out the window but I couldn't. I learned as a child to learn the basics and then once I new the "right way" to do something I earned my artistic license, so to speak. If there were no rules maybe we wouldn't have as strong of a yearning to be creative.

Answer 4

whether there are rules or not it has to be good to be art. You could say that "good" is the rule, but since goodness is something unique to every person, it is more like a guideline than a rule.

Answer 5

All innovations are after breaking rules. Rules are to be broken to create a new rule!

When we can play tennis without even having a ball (e-Tennis), why bother about net? Get out of the net and hit the ball to nowhere! That is the new rule of tennis; How many balls where hit to nowhere!!, may be!

Answer 6

creativity is easy without rules. The real trick is take highly restictive rules and still create something magnificant.

Answer 7

restrict. Creativity cant be sculpted and shouldnt be. its not a mold to be followed its...its anything, not a particular something

Answer 8

I say no rules for art

Answer 9

If the request is "Do something amazine!", there are no rules.

If the request is "Do an amazing painting!" and you submit a poem, well, expect to fail completely.

Answer 10

these matters nothing to creativity.