The intellectual history of science and computer science has placed undue weight on the propositional, symbolic and linguistic side of thought; leaving unexplained how thought can occur in non-verbal systems, based closer to our senses, and often coordinated with non-verbal processes in the socio-technical world. The goal of this study is to develop a new computational model of creativity based on an experimental and ethnographic study of choreographic invention. The core question is how the distributed system consisting of choreographer and dancers are able to be so generative. In all design and research work, creativity inevitably makes important use of non-propositional thinking. It is important, therefore, to deepen our insight in this ill-understood process. A further reason to study choreographic production is that it resembles large design and research projects in taking place over many weeks or months, it involves the collaboration of multiple parties, and a new production may easily cost a million dollars. At a group level the dynamics are similar to other large design efforts.The choreographer being studied has developed techniques for keeping the generative phase of the creative process open longer and for maintaining substantial variance among the dancers despite the urge for group think and convergent behavior. He has also developed techniques for exploiting the coding language of sensory systems, of both himself and his dancers, to create new movement ideas.
In this project shareable ethnographic and experimental data will be gathered that broadens the development of new computational theories about: 1) Distributed creativity: how the distributed components work to generate creative product - the mechanisms by which team members harness resources to interactively invent new concepts and elements, and then structure things into a coherent product; and 2) Embodied cognition: how the embodied aspect of cognition is harnessed to generate new 'thought' - the mechanisms by which designers, engineers, artists, dancers, and scientists think non-propositionally, using parts of their own sensory systems as simulation systems, and in the case of dance, using their own (and other's) bodies as active tools for physical sketching. The close study of both of these processes bears directly on the goals of developing new theoretical models of creativity and new models for research and education that will foster and reward creativity. The theory relocates creativity from a within-the-mind process to a more socio-technical process involving resources and other people; and it recognizes the important role that bodies and sensori-motor systems - both non-verbal and perhaps sub-rational elements - play in creative cognition.
Our stated objective in this research effort and its primary intellectual merit was to gather shareable ethnographic and experimental data, and to develop new computational theories about: Distributed creativity: how distributed components – dancers, choreographer, resources in the environment, associate choreographer, and communication events – work to generate creative product. This requires showing the mechanisms by which team members harness resources to interactively invent new concepts and elements, and then structure things into a coherent product Embodied cognition: how the embodied aspect of cognition is harnessed to generate new ‘thought’ – the mechanisms by which designers, engineers, artists, dancers, and scientists think non-propositionally, using parts of their own sensory systems as simulation systems, and in the case of dance, using their own (and other’s) bodies as active tools for physical sketching. The value of such research is that the close study of both of these processes – and providing a dataset that documents it – bears directly on the goals of developing new theoretical models of creativity and new models for research and education that will foster and reward creativity. Our objective, and what we confirmed is that it is possible to show how creativity can be seen to be a more socio-technical process involving resources and other people rather than a within-the-mind process. We also were able to show the important role that bodies and sensori-motor systems – both non-verbal and perhaps sub-rational elements – play in creative cognition. This is much needed because the intellectual history of science and computer science has placed undue weight on the propositional, symbolic and linguistic side of thought; leaving unexplained how thought can occur in non-verbal systems, based closer to our senses, and often coordinated with non-verbal processes in the socio-technical world. Specific Outcomes Data gathering and ethnographic analysis. Our team captured 4 major dance creations, each a major creative effort by Wayne McGregor | Random Dance and each now touring the international dance world. The high definition video output of each of these captures runs to 20TB each capture. These videos have been indexed and distributed to several academic groups around the world as well as hundreds of snippets cut and put on display at the Wellcome Collection installation entitled Thinking with the body: Mind and movement in the work of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance (09/19/2013 – 10/27/2013). This installation was seen by approximately 30, 000 visitors, and a major component was a large installation with ten video screens displaying the work funded through this grant. Experimentation: An experiment was conducted with the dancers inteh Random Dance Company to test whether practice by marking was as effective a method as full-out practice, and practice by mental simulation. Our conjecture was that marking was better than mental simulation – lying on the floor running through a movement in one’s mind – and worse than full-out, that is practicing phrases or phrase fragments in their full complexity, the way they are supposed to be performed on stage. To our great surprise marking was the best way to practice. The reasons have much to do with the way people use their bodies as thinking and sketching tools. The implications are significant for practice in the arts and for practice more generally. It shows how the idea of embodiment can be extended to include processes that are not internal to the central nervous system. It shows how the body can figure in extending the range of thought. Computation: A sketch of a computational theory was offered explaining how translating between sensory modalities facilitates creativity owing to the representational differences between modalities. For example, thinking in our kinesthetic modality is able to reveal aspects of a movement that are hard to represent and grasp in the visual or auditory modalities. This idea has broad implications for innovation and creativity in design, science and engineering, where currently thinking and creativity is assumed to be a central process, substantially symbolic or quasi-linguistic, and it non-linguistic components are admitted then they come in the form of visual imagery. Our work shows that visual imagery is just one important source of creative novelty.
