CALL: The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 2)

Oliver Ding

Published in

CALL4

9 min readOct 1, 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

The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023) aims to use the Creative Life Curation framework to reflect on my journey of building the Creative Life Theory.

You can find the following sections in Part I:

A Brief of “Creative Life Theory” Knowledge Journey
What’s the Creative Life Theory?
First-wave Development of “Creative Life Theory”

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

From Creative Action to Creative Course

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Part 2 will share stories behind the Second-wave development and Third-wave development.

Second-wave Development of “Creative Life Theory”

As mentioned in Part 1, a key theoretical resource for developing “Creative Life Theory” is Ping-keung Lui’s theoretical sociology, especially the “Ontology — Realism — Hermeneutics” schema and sociological semiotic system.

Ping-keung Lui is a theoretical sociological theorist. He was the Principal Lecturer (retired) at the Department of Applied Social Science at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Lui aims to build a brand new theoretical sociology as a candidate for the paradigm of sociology. In 2007, Lui published a Chinese book titled Gaze, Action, and the Social World in which he presented his account of theoretical sociology.

I didn’t read Gaze, Action, and the Social World during the fall of 2022.

In Dec 2022, Lui mailed Gaze, Actions, and the Social World to me. I read it from January 2023 to April 2023 and wrote 15 notes, a total of 228 pages. I also 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).

I’d like to claim this is the second-wave development.

In Dec 2022, I received a package that contained a hard copy of Lui’s 2007 book Gaze, Actions, and the Social World. Since the book is out of print, Lui mailed a copy to me for my study.

From Jan 2023 to April 2023, I read Gaze, Actions, and the Social World at various places. I brought it to libraries, a tennis court, and parks.

I also wrote 15 notes which total 228 pages.

Gaze, Actions and the Social World was published in 2007. I wrote notes chapter by chapter. This idea turned my normal notes into a passion project.

In May 2023, I reflected on my journey of engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology. In fact, it was a 3-week “Creative Life Curation” project.

April 25 to May 12: Collected email conversations and wrote summaries
May 12 to May 15: Designed diagrams to map the conversations and wrote the final report

I found 35 email conversations in my Gmail account from 2019 to Jan 2, 2023, and sorted them into the following three categories:

Social: it refers to interpersonal connections. It was divided into four sub-categories.
Communication: it refers to normal online discussions and thematic conversations. It was divided into eight sub-categories.
Work: it refers to emails about my creative projects that were inspired by Lui’s theoretical sociology. It was divided into five sub-categories.

The final report was divided into three parts. Part One is the summary of 35 email conversations. Part Two is about W4 (How did I adopt knowledge elements from Lui’s theoretical sociology to inspire my creative projects?). Part Three picked two events from W4 for deep discussions.

Let’s have a look at the Table of Contents of Part Two:

2.1 What are Knowledge Elements?
2.2 Mental Moves
2.3 Moving Knowledge Elements between Knowledge Centers
2.4 A Model of Mental Moves
2.5 Appropriating Lui’s Theoretical Sociology
2.6 The Development of the Knowledge Engagement Project
2.7 Reframe Knowlege Engagement
2.7.1 Foundational Ontology
2.7.2 Ontology
2.7.3 Realism
2.7.4 Hermeneutics

On May 15, 2023, I finished the “Creative Life Curation” project with a 65-page thesis. The following thematic network diagram is a summary of section 2.5 Appropriating Lui’s Theoretical Sociology.

The above diagram summarizes the major mental moves between Lui’s knowledge center and my knowledge projects.

The left column lists 7 knowledge elements of Lui’s theoretical sociology while the right column lists ideas under my four knowledge projects.

The middle column uses a few words as clues of connections between the left column and the right column.

You can find more details in Value Circle #2: Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology.

The most amazing idea in the Second-wave development is the Universal Reference framework.

On Oct 27, 2022, I made the following “Diagramming Reference Frame” diagram.

It was based on a diagram called the Means—End Spectrum (Nov 29, 2021) that was a by-product of the D as Diagramming project.

On Oct 27, 2022, I modified the above diagram and made a new version. Now it has a new name: the Diagramming Reference Frame. See the above diagram.

The major change was adding two types of diagrams:

Semiotic System Diagrams
Meta-diagrams

I really liked Lui’s Semiotic System Diagrams and the related method using Semiotic System Diagrams to curate sociological theories.

Lui’s Semiotic System Diagrams are quite unique because remove the spatial structure from normal diagrams and only keep concepts.

This is a counterexample of the Means—End Spectrum. Originally, I can place it on the Means—End Spectrum. Later, I realized that I could expand the spectrum into a matrix.

Lui’s Semiotic System Diagrams inspired me to reflect on the Means-End Spectrum.

If we put Lui’s Semiotic System Diagrams and my meta-diagrams together, we can find two extreme examples of diagrams.

Semiotic System Diagrams: remove the spatial structure from normal diagrams.
Meta-diagrams: remove all texts from normal diagrams.

This is a significant insight!

I realized that there is a new dimension for thinking about diagrams and diagramming: the Langue—Space dimension.

The Diagramming Reference Frame was made on Oct 27, 2022. Later, I reflected on the matrix. I realized that it can be used for discussing other things.

The matrix defines a Reference Space in which we can place diagrams, concepts, models, and other knowledge-related entities.

It is a universal tool of thought!

On Nov 11, 2022, I made a new diagram called “Universal Reference”.

The above canvas uses a new approach to name dimensions. I use multiple words to name one dimension.

Later, the “Universal Reference” diagram led to two things: 1) The World of Activity, and 2) The Knowledge Engagement Framework.

You can find more details in Lifescope: The World of Activity for Creative Life Curation and The Knowledge Engagement Framework (v4).

Moreover, I also used the following diagram as a sign to inspire myself.

As mentioned above, the square refers to the “Universal Reference” diagram and the World of Activity. From Nov 2022 to July 2023, I worked on several knowledge projects which are represented with the diagram below.

In Nov 2022, I finished a book (draft) titled Creative Life Curation: Turning Life Experiences into Meaningful Achievements.

In Jan 2023, the “Frame for Work” theme was born (1, 2).

In Feb 2023, my mental focus was “Developing Knowledge Frameworks” (1, 2) which led to the “Strategic Thematic Exploration” project.

In June 2023, I finished a book (draft) titled Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement (book, v1).

In March 2023, I started working on the “Mental Moves” knowledge project (1, 2).

In July 2023, I closed the “Mental Moves” project with a book (draft) titled Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition.

The above diagram has three different types of elements:

Thematic Cards (pictures)
Thematic Spaces
Mental Models

The mental model I used for the above diagram is the “Universal Reference” framework.

I am eating my own dog food!

I just used the Creative Life Theory (v2.0) to guide my own knowledge projects.

Why did I consider the Thematic Engagement project and the Value Circle project as part of the Second-wave development?

I used a unique approach to develop theory and theoretical concepts. I do both conceptual work and practical work. While I was developing the concept of “Knowledge Center” as a core concept of the Creative Life Theory (v2.0), I also worked on running several Knowledge Centers.

TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement) was launched to host the Thematic Engagement project in January 2023. In the past several months, it became a Thematic Transformation Hub.

You can find more details in Value Circle #3: TALE as A Thematic Transformation Hub.

The theme of “Knowledge Center” was initiated by CALL in Feb 2022. Later, Curativity Center followed it in 2022. TALE joined the micro movement in January 2023.

In the past 14 months, I built a network of seven knowledge centers:

Curativity Center
CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab)
Activity Analysis Center
Platform Ecology Center
Life Strategy Center
ARCH Center
TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Lab)

Each knowledge center has its uniqueness. A knowledge center is a collective project that aims to develop certain unique knowledge. A “center” should have its own uniqueness in order to establish its identity and theme. Otherwise, there is no need to build a “center”.