Looking back at the development of computers and creative tools in her article "Computers and Creativity", Molly Mielke shares insights from her experience as a designer at Figma and her current work in media and collaboration for Notion and Stripe.

While there's certainly a PR element to her piece, her background makes her perfectly suited to write about this topic, offering clear definitions and origins of "digital creative tools." These tools are what people use to cultivate creative thinking, whether for design, writing, or multimedia work.

The earliest computers were the origin point, with many artists utilizing these primitive machines for creative expression. The real transformation came in the 80s with text editors, hyperlinks, spreadsheets, and CAD software, much of which was inspired by Douglas Engelbart's paper Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. His goal was to use digital tools to enhance human intelligence and thereby improve our collective wisdom.

Tools are becoming new mediums for expressing and inspiring creativity.

In 2019, I participated in an interview with Liqi (Tools) where I answered many questions about hardware and software—all of which could be considered creative tools. Tools were also the original intention behind the Liqi media platform. Looking back now, I find that while my choice of tools has changed considerably, the core hasn't changed:

Tool is about created, recorded, and stored.

Finally, channeling Susan Sontag, here are a few loose, unstructured notes and thoughts about creative tools:

• As a child, getting new art supplies or tools brought the same joy as receiving new toys. Back then, I didn't understand what creativity was—teachers taught imitation, observation, and depiction. The tools we used were better suited for mimicry and recording, capturing moments spontaneously and randomly.

• Textures and materials: The textures produced by tools and materials are also part of creativity. What tools to choose? Pencils, charcoal, crayons, watercolors, gouache, oil paints, brushes, oil pastels, or markers. We can also use paper cutting, ceramics, fiber, metal, light and photography—no tool can limit the expansion of thought.

• Artistic progress partly comes from the expansion of tools. Artists also push the limits of existing tools based on their own needs.

• Digital tools have made large-scale collaboration possible. However, systematic requirements have been enhanced to an unprecedented degree.

Original Post in Chinese.