Rhythm

Abstract

To study the rhythm(s) of creativity—this sounds like a novel idea! Especially if we don’t confine the notion of rhythm to music alone. The rhythm of creativity, as I discuss it here, doesn’t refer to the melodic quality of accomplished compositions but, rather, to the rhythmic nature of our creative movement in the world (Glăveanu, 2020). Did you ever consider the movement and sounds one hears in spaces where creative work is performed—not only art studios, scientific laboratories, but also schools and streets, squares and markets? Some are very noisy environments, others mostly silent but, in all of them, one can distinguish a certain regularity of activities and sounds, a rhythmicity of doing and perceiving, of acting and being acted upon. This regularity is paired with uniqueness, the distinct quality of each ‘melody’ of living and creating. The universe of sound we are immersed into often escapes us, when focused too much on the visual world (Hendy, 2013). And yet sounds, and the rhythms they create, are the essential markers of what makes our existence dynamic and temporal: continuous movement.