In a recently published article, Julio M. Ottino, Argentinian chemical engineer known for his research in fluid dynamics, chaos and mixing argues that creativity is central to many disciplines (science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, technology, and art) and that we often overlook how these domains interconnect. He calls attention to the idea of “creative fluidity”, where individuals, ideas or teams move across traditional boundaries between fields, producing novel outcomes. In his article, he states that creativity is an essential, unifying force spanning a wide variety of fields, and that to truly understand it we must look beyond isolated domains to the intersections and fluidity among them.
He contends that the common assumption, i.e. creativity as a rare, isolated event or strictly within individual fields, limits our grasp of how novel ideas emerge and evolve.
Ottino’s thesis is that creativity arises most powerfully when individuals or teams cross, blur, or link domains, using what he terms “creative fluidity” to generate insights that would be less likely if constrained to one discipline.
The article, called “Creativity across domains: Thoughts in science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, technology, and art”,invites us to reconceive creativity not as confined to one discipline, or one genius moment, but as the product of interactions among person/team, domain, and field—especially when those boundaries are crossed or reconfigured.
Ottino’s perspective helps us see creativity not as magic but as a structured phenomenon: it involves domains, rules, people, crossings, and innovation. It invites readers (especially those in science/engineering) to consider how thinking in art or humanities might enrich technical creativity—and vice versa.