Physical Setting        The physical setting consists of everything in a persons surroundings which physically exists and may affect one's creativity.  People become creative when they experience something new or when they see something which causes them to look at something else in a new way.  Ultimately, what will happen is that the situation will be just right so that an innovative idea is generated and acted upon.
    Some physical settings which have been thought to increase creativity are inspirational places in the outdoors.  There is no proof that a beautiful place in nature causes an increase in creativity, it is only evidenced by quantity of art, music, philosophy, and science which has been created in such places.  "The idea is that such a setting will stimulate though, refresh the mind, and thus bring forth novel and creative ideas." (Csikszentmihalyi, 135)
    Companies sometimes design the physical environment of the office area to facilitate better creativity.  Steelcase, Inc. is a perfect example.  They designed the building for their Corporate Development Center in the shape of a pyramid.  They set up the interior to encourage better interaction and communication. (Thompson, 20)  Certainly, such a layout would encourage creativity because ideas would more likely be communicated to others causing action on those ideas to be more likely.
    Sometimes the creative process takes place in undesirable places where lighting is poor, the room is too cold, or where there may be nothing to look at out the window but a brick wall.  Certainly the theory presented here about the physical setting does not hold true in every case. Although, it might be argued that creative work done in poor settings could have been inspired by something previously experienced in other surroundings.   Next Page: Social Setting