Fifty Shades of Creativity: Case Studies of Malevolent Creativity in Art, Science, and Technology (original) (raw)

2016, Creativity in Arts, Science and Technology

The darker shades of creativity have recently attracted great interest because negative and malevolent creativities are found in multiple domains. It is easier to conceive of creative acts that meet negative goals as uncreative, primarily because of their immoral and unethical nature. However, a complete understanding of the creativity construct may be obtained by 1 Pre-Publication version of: Kapoor, H., Tagat, A. and Cropley, D. H. (2016). Fifty shades of creativity: Case studies of malevolent creativity in art, science, and technology. In F. K. Reisman (Ed.), Creativity in Arts, Science and Technology, Chapter 2 (pp. 25-44). London, UK: KIE Conference Publications. assessing it within a valenced framework, wherein each component of creativity is positive or negative. In this anecdotal account of malevolent creativity, we review manifestations of such creativities in the contexts of art, science, and technology. That is, original, subjectively useful, and surprising actions taken by actors in each of these domains, which meet negative goals, with the deliberate intent to harm another individual or society at large. First, a brief review of literature in the areas of dark, negative, and malevolent creativity is presented. Second, anecdotal accounts of malevolent creativity in art (forgery), science (academic dishonesty), and technology (cybercrime) are analyzed through Cropley's (2010) framework integrating valence and Rhodes' (1961) four Ps model of creativity. Each domain is first examined independently; subsequently, attempts are made to identify commonalities underlying malevolent creative behaviours across domains. Suggestions for future research in this emerging subfield of creativity are provided.