The First Seed of Creativity

Before techniques.
Before skills.
Before disciplines, professions, or outputs.

Creativity begins much earlier.

At ByBa, we understand creativity not as a specialized activity, but as a fundamental human condition. And when we look closely at its origin, we find that all creative activity grows from two essential roots — two primal impulses that precede any form of making.

They are simple, radical, and universal:

1. The definition of oneself

2. The definition of the universe

Everything else comes later.

The First Act: Defining Oneself

The very first creative act is not to make something.

It is to become someone.

Before any object, idea, solution, or artwork exists, a more radical creation must occur:
the creation of a self.

Creativity cannot emerge from non-identity.
There must be a “someone” who creates.

This is why identity is not a secondary aspect of creativity, but its foundation. To create is first to say:

This is who I am.

Not who I should be.
Not who I was told to be.
But who I choose to define myself as.

This is not only a creative act — it is also one of the most fundamental creative rights:
the right to define, create, and declare oneself.

Without this act, creativity has no ground to stand on.

Why This Matters (and Where AI Diverges)

This is also where a fundamental divergence appears with artificial intelligence.

Creativity requires subjective presence — what philosophy calls qualia: the fact of experiencing something from the inside.

To define oneself is not to execute a function.
It is to inhabit an identity.

Knowing that you are someone, here, now, with a history, a body, a perspective — this is not data.
It is lived experience.

And without it, creation becomes simulation.

The Second Act: Defining the Universe

Once a self exists, a second creative act becomes inevitable:
the definition of the world around that self.

Creativity is not only about expressing who you are.
It is also about expressing how you see things.

To be creative is to claim the right to say:

This is how the world appears to me.

Reality is not passively received.
It is actively interpreted.

Every creative person defines the universe in a singular way:
what matters, what doesn’t, what is beautiful, what is broken, what is worth changing.

This is why no two creative gazes are identical.
Each one is anchored in a specific point of view, in a specific presence.

Again, subjectivity is not a flaw.
It is the engine.

Being Someone, Somewhere

These two acts — defining oneself and defining the universe — are inseparable.

You cannot define the world without knowing you stand somewhere in it.
And you cannot define yourself without recognizing what you are not.

Creativity is born in this tension:

• I am this

• The universe is that

From this distance, from this contrast, meaning emerges.

And with meaning, creation becomes possible.

Creativity Beyond Professions

This is why creativity is far more universal than any profession or artistic practice.

You don’t need to paint, write, compose, or design to be creative.
You only need two things:

• to consciously define who you are

• to consciously hold opinions, interpretations, and concepts about the world you inhabit

A creative life begins when someone decides not to disappear into anonymity —
not to dissolve into what is already defined.

Creativity is not what you do.
It is how you stand in the world.

The First Seed

If we had to name the first seed of creativity, it would not be a technique or a talent.

It would be this:

The awareness of being someone — and of not being everything else.

From there, everything grows.

Blithe Ernst, Minister of Play at ByBa