The novelty myth as a normative model of creativity

A critical study of design practice

Bibliographic Data

ID24218554
AuthorsEglė Počiuipaitė (Vilnius Academy of Arts)
Year2026
Volume19
Issue2
Pages515-525
Publication date2026-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCreativity Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2345-0487 • E-ISSN: 2345-0479
PublisherVilnius Gediminas Technical University (PUBLISHER • LT)
DOI10.3846/cs.2026.27323
OpenAlexW7215741099
References cited17

This article examines how creativity is understood within contemporary graphic design practice, arguing that it is increasingly reduced to the continuous production of novelty. While creativity research generally treats novelty alone as insufficient to constitute creativity (Amabile, 1996; Boden, 2004; Runco & Jaeger, 2012), contemporary design environments often equate creativity with visible differentiation and constant renewal. Drawing on sociological and systems-based approaches to creativity, Barthes’ concept of myth and Reckwitz’s creativity dispositif, the article introduces the novelty myth to describe how “the new” operates as a normative expectation. Through practice-based artistic inquiry, combining autoethnographic reflection with parafictional design experiments developed within Unagency, the study examines how procedural forms of novelty become visible when familiar operations of design practice are isolated and exaggerated. It contributes to critical creativity studies by bringing sociological theories of creativity into dialogue with situated artistic inquiry, using graphic design practice as a diagnostic site for examining continuous novelty.

Autoethnography · Creativity · design experiments · Differentiation · graphic design practice · normative expectations · Novelty · Reckwitz · Artistic and Creative Research · Creativity in Education and Neuroscience · Design Education and Practice

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