**4. Discussion**

Creativity as a human phenomenon has also become the focus of scientific research in recent decades, with the aim of better understanding it and possibly promoting it through imitation of observed circumstances and identified conditions. The first major scientific study of creativity was begun at Stanford University in 1959, involving a large group of the most distinguished contemporary architects [32]. Stanford remains a centre for the study of creativity, and as part of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (Stanford d.school), workshops are held for students and faculty members on how to apply design thinking to scientific and scholarly research and to learn about creativity [33].

Several schemes or stages for creativity have been proposed, such as:

1.preparation (e.g. investigation in all directions),

2.incubation (i.e. unconscious processing),


However, pioneering psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [34] has suggested an underappreciated but crucial aspect of the creative mindset: a predisposition to psychological androgyny. Indeed, based on interviews with 91 highly creative people from a variety of fields, Csikszentmihalyi has found that female artists and scientists tend to be much more assertive and self-confident, and that the men in the same sample are more preoccupied with their families and their sensitivity to subtle aspects of the environment that other men tend to dismiss as unimportant.

The second phase of the above scheme, incubation, usually requires some release from other obligations—in other words, leisure. Pieper [35], a mid-twentieth century German philosopher, already claimed that leisure is the basis for culture and creativity. Margared Mead [36], the famous anthropologist, noted that activities that can be freely pursued by people who make their living from another source are degraded and corrupted when pursued for gain. Workaholism, a trend and a malaise of modern developed societies, does not leave enough free time to devote to creative activities. However, the latest negative trend affecting more people is addiction to media and social networking, especially mobile phones. An addicted person tends to spend all available free time surfing the Internet, social networking sites, playing computer games, etc. and cannot engage in creative activities. Therefore, the call for regular, weekly unplugging and abstinence from screens is in vogue to gain more time, creativity and connection [37].

### **5. Conclusion**

So, based on my own experiences, what similarities do I see between creativity in computer science and creativity in art?

**Stage 1 (preparation)** in academic research consists mainly of reading research articles, attending conferences and talking to other researchers. For making sculpture, this means visiting galleries and exhibitions of other sculptors, but nowadays it also means searching websites about sculpture and sculptors. It can also consist of collecting or selecting material for sculpture.

In winter, I often look for river stones in the hopfields around our country house in the Savinja valley. In prehistory, the Savinja River changed its riverbed several times, leaving quite large and well-rounded stones in the ground, which come from the Smrekovec Mountains, the only place in Slovenia with extinct volcanic activity. Andesite, an extrusive volcanic rock, and its variants such as basalt and rhyolite are typical of Smrekovec (see e.g. **Figure 6**).

**Stage 2 (incubation)** need not be all idleness. I often find that switching what I do, for example, from academic writing and research to sculpture, is very beneficial from a creative standpoint. In my computer vision research, this stage often involves thinking about how to combine known methods and techniques to find solutions to new problems or applications. In sculpting, I try to imagine possible abstract and regular 3D shapes hidden in mostly irregularly shaped stones.

**Stage 3 (illumination)** usually means that a particular configuration of methods finally 'clicks' and seems perfect for a solution in a new problem area. In sculpting, a

#### **Figure 6.**

*Foot of the Giant, 2017, 38 16 11 cm, Oligocene volcanic—effusive rock, andesite, with white phenocrysts of Na-Ca plagoclase and rare black hornblende within green chloritised glassy to microcrystalline groundmass with traces of fluid lava flow, formed during the time of effusive activity of the Smrekovec volcanism.*

particular shape finally emerges in the stone under consideration and wants to be explored further.

**Stage 4 (verification)** in research means that the solutions envisioned must be implemented, tested and reported. As in research, the planned implementation in sculpture, especially when using the direct carving approach, requires constant adjustments and changes necessitated by the actual shape of the material and its structure. The final stage in sculpting also requires documentation by photographing the finished sculpture. Sometimes the intermediate results are also of interest. Finally, one hopes to exhibit the sculptures or find a permanent outdoor location for largescale works. This often requires the procurement of suitable bases for the finished sculptures, wooden bases for indoor display and stone bases for outdoor use.

Despite many similarities, there are also some differences between creativity in science and in the visual arts. Although there are many advantages to knowing important people in your field of research, the evaluation criteria for published research papers are really quite objective. The means of reaching a wider audience, such as conferences and scientific journals, are basically open and democratic. However, a large circle of enthusiastic followers is even more important in the arts, as objective criteria for evaluating art are much harder to define. Opportunities to show and exhibit one's own art are therefore rarer.

Creative work in either field requires, at least in my experience, concentrated, largely individual effort. In programming and academic writing, we like to isolate ourselves from the rest of the environment. For example, when programmers are not alone in a room, they often put on headphones to isolate themselves. A sculptor working on stone wears a mask and noise reduction ear muffs to isolate himself from dust and noise. This also isolates him from his surroundings, making conversation impossible.
