Creativity in the Age of Information: An Essay on Gilles Deleuze’s Transcendental Empiricist Philosophy

ABSTRACT In this paper, I explicate twentieth-century French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze’s paper, “What is the Creative Act?” as a response to the “crisis of creativity” in the Age of Information. I contend that for him, the creative act does not consist of circulating information, but of eliciting the experience of “defamiliarization”. This thesis will be developed over the course of five sections: first, on Deleuze’s lecture, “What is the Creative Act?”, second on the “act of communication”, third and fourth on, respectively, “space–time(s)” and the “Idea”, and fifth, on a synthesis of the paper’s overall account of the creative act, along with a discussion of its role in transcendental empiricism. I draw from “What is the Creative Act?”, texts from throughout Deleuze’s oeuvre as well as the secondary literature. This paper aims to contribute to ongoing discussions in Deleuze Studies and the Philosophy of Creativity.