CALL: The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 1)

Oliver Ding

Published in

CALL4

13 min readSep 30, 2023

From Creative Action to Creative Course

This is part of a series of articles about my journey of developing Creative Life Theory from 2020 to 2023.

Part 1: First-wave Development
Part 2: Second-wave Development
Part 3: Third-wave Development
Part 4: Three Themes of a Journey of Theory Building
Part 5: Creative Dialogue and Mental Moves
Part 6: Four Perspectives and Creative Identities
Part 7: The World of Works and Five Possible Books

On April 19, 2023, I wrote a short post about a possible book (draft) titled Knowledge Engagement: Knowledge Center and Creative Life Theory. It is a 228-page file that collects 15 notes on Mr. Ping-keung Lui’s book Gaze, Actions, and the Social World.

One year ago, I contacted Ping-keung Lui who is a theoretical sociologist.

Ping-keung Lui aims to build a brand new theoretical sociology as a candidate for the paradigm of sociology. According to Lui, “There are three kinds of theories in sociology, namely, social theory, sociological theory, and theoretical sociology. ”

I reflected on the following three projects while replaying Lui’s theory development journey.

The Knowledge Engagement Project
The Creative Life Framework
The Theme of “Value Circle”

I also developed several new frameworks that form the Creative Life Theory (v2.0), see the diagram below.

On May 15, 2023, I finished a “Creative Life Curation” project which is about my journey of engaging with Ping-keung Lui’s theoretical sociology from April 2022 to April 2023. You can find more details in Value Circle #2: Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology.

Gaze, Actions, and the Social World was written in Chinese. My notes were written in Chinese too. In the past several months, I have written several articles about the Creative Life Theory (v2.0) and the Knowledge Engagement project.

Today I am going to reflect on the long journey of developing the Creative Life Theory from 2020 to 2023.

I will use the Creative Life Curation framework as the primary model for this project. The framework is also called “Life as Sandglass”. See the diagram below.

The Creative Life Curation framework is the core idea of my 2022 book (draft) Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements.

It’s the product of the journey of developing Creative Life Theory.

Now let’s use it to reflect on the journey of developing Creative Life Theory.

A Brief of “Creative Life Theory” Knowledge Journey

My journey of developing Creative Life Theory started with the CALL project in 2019. CALL stands for Creative Action Learning Lab.

The CALL project represents my passion for exploring Creativity and Action Science.

In 2020, I made the Pinwheel framework and worked on the Action-based Creativity direction. I also developed the Process-as-Product approach for studying Creativity.

In 2021, I moved to the Knowledge Curation Project and made a diagram called “The Path of Creative Life”.

In 2022, I rediscovered the “Creative Life” diagram and used it to curate several frameworks together. The Creative Life Theory (v1.0) was born with four books (drafts).

In April 2023, I wrote Knowledge Engagement: Knowledge Center and Creative Life Theory and developed Creative Life Theory (v2.0).

Inspired by Ping-keung Lui’ creative life, I decided to commit to the Creative Life Theory project. On April 23, 2023, I made the diagram below and used it to frame my creative space.

The Creative Life Theory was inspired by the following four theoretical resources:

Theoretical Sociology (Ping-keung Lui’ approach)
Activity Theory
Ecological Psychology
The Psychology of Creativity

This was a multi-theme developmental journey. There are several creative dialogues between each two theoretical approaches.

The Psychology of Creativity

In 2020, I worked on developing a new approach to studying Action-based Creativity in the age of platforms.

The NICE Way and Creative Actions

In 2022, I started the Slow Cognition project and applied Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to conduct a research project about creative work.

The Slow Cognition Project and related methods

Ecological Psychology

From 2019 to 2022, I worked on developing the Ecologial Practice Approach which is inspired by Ecological Psychology.

Activity Theory

From 2020 to 2022, I worked on the Activity U project and Activity Analysis Center.

Theoretical Sociology

From 2022 to 2023, I worked on a project about Theoretical Sociology.

This article will focus on “Creative Life” related projects and ideas.

What’s the Creative Life Theory?

My primary interest is located in the intersection between Knowledge, Creativity, and Adult Development. I roughly use Creative Life to name this focus.

It’s clear that I don’t want to develop a general framework about adult development for everyone. I only consider Knowledge Workers and Creators as my target audience.

Though there are many important aspects of Creative Life, I selected the transformation between Individual Actions and Collective Culture as a significant aspect of Creative Life.

Originally, I only considered “Activity” as the mediation of the transformation in 2021. However, I realized that this is one path of creative life. If we adopt more theoretical perspectives, we can find more paths to the creative life.

The Creative Life Theory is a large knowledge enterprise that includes multiple units of analysis, a series of frameworks, and a set of tools. I also wrote several books about it.

I’d like to use the following diagram as a sign of the theory. It highlights three major ideas of the theory with the following three metaphors:

The Square
The Circle
The Sandglass

The Square refers to “Lifescope” which is also called “World of Activity”. I use it to define the boundary of a person’s creative space in his/her entire life. You can find more details in Lifescope: The World of Activity for Creative Life Curation.

The Circle refers to “Knowledge Center” which is the container of Knowledge Engagement. You can find more details in TALE: A Possible Theme called “Knowledge Center”. For the Creative Life theory (v2.0) and the Knowledge Engagement project, a “Knowledge Center” is a Collaborative Project too.

The Sandglass refers to the S-T-O Tendency which is a core idea of the Creative Life Curation framework. It highlights three keywords of the framework:

Subjectification: turning the world into a person’s experience
Crystallize Thematically: discovering a match between individual life themes and collective cultural themes.
Objectification: turning the person’s experience into artifacts for the world

You can find more details in Slow Cognition: The Creative Life Curation Framework.

The meta-framework of Creative Life Theory (v2.0) is the following Creative Course framework which was inspired by Lui’s Subjectivist Structuralism, a part of his theoretical sociology. You can find more details in Knowledge Engagement: The Creative Course Framework.

I also connected it with other frameworks such as Value Circle, Anticipatory Activity System, Universal Reference, etc. The outcome is an expanded version of the framework.

The above diagram is formed by five sub-diagrams that represent five frameworks.

Center: The Creative Course Framework
Left: The Value Circle Framework
Right: The Universal Reference Framework
Up: The Anticipatory Activity System Framework
Down: The Knowledge Circle Framework

You can find more details in Knowledge Engagement: The Expanded Creative Course Framework.

First-wave Development of “Creative Life Theory”

I roughly use five movements to develop the Creative Life Curation framework. In order to consider the dynamics of the model, I also use First-wave, Second-wave, and Third-wave for discussion.

First-wave Development of Creative Life Theory is represented in the diagram below.

1.1 Explore Widely

I started learning theories around 2014. From 2014 to 2018, I read many books and papers about various theories.

I have over twenty years of work experience which can be divided into three stages: the creative stage, the strategic stage, and the innovative stage. At the creative stage, I worked for the advertising and media industry as a creative copywriter and designer. At the strategic state, I worked for pre-IPO stage enterprises as a business strategist and fundraising consultant. At the innovative stage, I worked on making brand-new digital tools and platforms as a researcher and designer.

Before 2014, I spent most of my spare time on digital nonprofit communities as a digital activist. From 2014 to 2015, I transformed my focus from nonprofit activities to theoretical learning. Since then, I have been spending most of my spare time learning ecological psychology, creativity research, and other related subjects.

2014–2020: Ecological Psychology and Creativity Research
2014–2018: Action Science, Activity Theory and Cognitive Science
2018–2019: Practice Theory, HCI, Strategy and Work
2020: Social Theory, Social Media, Information Systems and Platform

The Psychology of Creativity is one of my reading interests. Also, Ecological Psychology offers me a new perspective on Action and Opportunity.

This is the seed of “Creative Life Theory”.

1.2 Inquire Deeply

From 2019 to 2022, I worked on several projects related to creative action and creative work and developed several related ideas.

In 2019, I found CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab) as my personal studio for exploring Creative Action. I developed the Pinwheel framework in Feb 2020. Later, I wrote an article titled The NICE Way and Creative Actions on July 8, 2020.

The article started with the above picture and introduced the Process-as-Product approach for Studying Action-based Creativity in the Age of Platforms.

Then, I thought that I had done my job in the field of Creativity. So, I moved to the Knowledge Curation and Creation direction.

The new journey started with the above picture which is part of an article titled HERO U — A New Framework for Knowledge Heroes. I made a diagram HERO U and used it to discuss knowledge curation and creation. It led to the Activity U project and three books. You can find more details in Slow Cognition: The Activity U Project and Creative Life Curation.

There are three significant projects which contributed to the development of “Creative Life Theory”.

CALL: Network of Enterprise (2020–2021)
The Slow Cognition Project (2022)
Building A Knowledge Enterprise Activity (2022–2023)

CALL: Network of Enterprise (2020–2021) and The Slow Cognition Project (2022) were both inspired by Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to the study of creative work (1974,1989).

Gruber’s approach uses “Task — Project — Enterprise — Network of Enterprise” as a structure to understand a creative person’s work. It is different from Activity Theory’s “Operation — Action — Activity” hierarchy.

Task
Project
Enterprise
Networks of Enterprise

The concept of “Networks of Enterprise” refers to the pattern of work in the life of a creative individual. Gruber said, “We use the term enterprise to stand for a group of related projects and activities broadly enough defined so that (1) the enterprise may continue when the creative person finds one path blocked but another open toward the same goal and (2) when success is achieved the enterprise does not come to an end but generates new tasks and projects that continue it.” (1989, p.11)

Inspired by Gruber’s approach, I used it to manage my own creative work. For example, I use the following diagram to visualize my Networks of Enterprise.

I sorted my frameworks into seven enterprises. Each enterprise has a short nickname. Each enterprise has its primary theme. Each theme refers to a core framework and a set of related concepts, diagrams, and sub-frameworks. You can find more details here: CALL: Annual Review (2020–2021).

The Slow Cognition project represents my motivation to apply Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to conduct a research project. On April 26, 2021, I sent an email to a friend of mine and introduced my book The ECHO Way which reflects on my journey of writing three books in six months. I coined a new term called Slow Cognition to describe my favorite methods such as Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to creative work.

In January 2022, I started working on the Slow Cognition project. Phase 1 of the project was closed on May 19, 2022. The outcome is a possible book titled Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowlege with Thematic Space Canvas.

My original intention behind the Slow Cognition project is to adopt Howard E. Gruber’s approach and method to studying creative work.

From Jan 2023 to May 2023, I worked on both Howard E. Gruber’s approach and “Activity Theory” related approaches (especially Project-oriented Activity Theory and the “Anticipatory Activity System” framework). I realized that it’s possible to use the concept “Slow Cognition” to connect these two approaches.

On May 30, 2023, I read Creative People at Work: Twelve Cognitive Case Studies (1989, Doris B. Wallace and Howard E. Gruber) and saw the first sentence of the Preface of the book. See the sentence below:

Our book is about how creative people do what they do.

In fact, “How…People do what they do” is the primary interest of Empirical Activity Theorists because they tend to watch how people do their work.

This sentence inspired me to write the new subtitle of the Slow Cognition project and make the picture below.

The picture represented the Phase II of the Slow Cognition project.

While Phase I of the Slow Cognition project focused on Instruments (the Thematic Space Canvas, etc.), Phase II returned to its original focus: Methods (the Historical-cognitive approach, etc.)

I also found a connection between the Slow Cognition project and the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) project because some ideas of the AAS framework are related to the Slow Cognition method.

On Oct 1, 2022, I closed the Slow Cognition project (phase II) and moved to the Creative Life Curation project.

In May 2022, I started a new project called Building A Knowledge Enterprise Activity (2022–2023). The core idea of the project was inspired by Project-oriented Activity Theory.

I used the Project Engagement approach to understand the concept of “Knowledge Center”. In fact, I just made a network of seven knowledge centers from May 2022 to May 2023.

1.3. Crystallize Thematically

From 2020 to 2022, I worked on the Knowledge Curation project. On Sept 18, 2022, I closed the Knowledge Curation project (phase 1) and moved to a new project: the Life Curation project.

In 2019 I wrote a section about Knowledge Curation in my book Curativity. However, I didn’t write about Life Curation intentionally. I wanted to keep this topic for my second book about Curativity Theory.

On Oct 19, 2023, I reflected on the journey of Knowledge Curation and developed the Creative Life Curation framework which also connected to other frameworks such as the General Curation framework.

On October 26, 2023, I decided to curate several frameworks about Creative Life Development together. Since these frameworks came from different different theoretical perspectives, it needed to find a new approach to make theoretical curation.

My solution was to adopt some ideas from Ping-keung Lui’s theoretical sociology, especially the “Ontology — Realism — Hermeneutics” schema and sociological semiotic system.