Educating Genius: Hedy Lamarr
Mentor 1
Amanda Seligman
Start Date
10-5-2022 10:00 AM
Description
Hedy Lamarr once said “all creative people want to do the unexpected.” No truer words have been spoken of the actress and inventor who starred in films such as Samson and Delilah all while inventing the technology that would eventually become the foundation for Bluetooth. This project explores the life of Hedy Lamarr and the traits she possessed that qualify her to be considered a creative genius. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a key trait to creativity is that of complexity, which are two seemingly opposing characteristics the creative person can harness at once; an example of this is introversion and extroversion. Furthermore, the creative process itself combines the traits of dedication, passion, depth of knowledge and flow, the latter of which is yet another trait first explained by Csikszentmihalyi. Hedy Lamarr shows all these traits and more. While Hedy Lamarr is being recognized for her incredible work today, she battled sexism both on and off screen. Lamarr was known for being “the most beautiful woman in the world,” yet she showed the world that she could do the unexpected and dream up a whole new technology that only a creative genius could.
Educating Genius: Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr once said “all creative people want to do the unexpected.” No truer words have been spoken of the actress and inventor who starred in films such as Samson and Delilah all while inventing the technology that would eventually become the foundation for Bluetooth. This project explores the life of Hedy Lamarr and the traits she possessed that qualify her to be considered a creative genius. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a key trait to creativity is that of complexity, which are two seemingly opposing characteristics the creative person can harness at once; an example of this is introversion and extroversion. Furthermore, the creative process itself combines the traits of dedication, passion, depth of knowledge and flow, the latter of which is yet another trait first explained by Csikszentmihalyi. Hedy Lamarr shows all these traits and more. While Hedy Lamarr is being recognized for her incredible work today, she battled sexism both on and off screen. Lamarr was known for being “the most beautiful woman in the world,” yet she showed the world that she could do the unexpected and dream up a whole new technology that only a creative genius could.
