The Emergence of Creativity: Insights from Carnatic Raaga Improvisation and Mathematical Proof Generation

Abstract

Creativity is a broad phenomenon that scholars have interpreted in a multitude of ways. We notice that a majority of the views describe creativity as something innate. This paper aims to verge from this perspective and explore creativity in terms of the constant mutual interaction of a person and their environment. Using the theoretical framework, enactivism, and the notion of emergence, we investigate the creative processes involved in musical improvisations of south Indian classical or Carnatic music and mathematical proof generation. Interview excerpts from professional Carnatic musicians and research mathematicians on their respective creative processes during musical improvisation and proof generation are analyzed. This study gives a perspective to think about creativity, with an emphasis on emergence. This paper has been partly informed by selfreflections on musical improvisations and mathematical proof generation by the first author, who is a performing Carnatic vocalist and a mathematician. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics Volume 10 Number 2 (July 2020) Srividhya Balaji and Sean Chorney 195