The systems model of creativity and Indian film: a study of two young music directors from Kerala, India

At first glance there appears to be significant cultural differences between South Asia and the West. Jandt has argued that the cognitive processes of various cultures ‘are embedded in different naive metaphysical systems and tacit epistemologies, which in turn are rooted in divergent social systems’ (2013, p. 423). It’s therefore possible that these differing cultures ‘perceive different worlds’ (Jandt, 2013, p. 59). For example, we can see that at the macro-level cultural assumptions in the West tend to emphasise extraordinary individual activity (Howe, 1999) often embedded in Romantic and inspirationist frameworks (Boden, 2004, p. 14), which are partially set in foundational ideas from Judeo-Christian creation myths and the works of Plato, Kant, Lombroso, Galton and Freud (collected in Rothenberg & Hausman, 1976). By comparison the South Asian world-view is strongly committed to the notions of renewability and transformation. According to Misra et al., ‘the Indian way of thinking has been characterized as context sensitive’ with an emphasis on ‘the interplay of continuity and change in one’s existence’ (2006, p. 424). Divinities such as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh also regulate through intervention the creation, maintenance and destruction of the world (Misra et al., 2006; Kishore, 2011; Srinivasan, 2007; Pattanaik, 2011).