CALL: The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 5)

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

I have developed a set of tools for Creative Life Theory. This article will use the ECHO Way (v3.0) to discuss Creative Dialogue and Mental Moves within the journey.

Contents

1. The ECHO Way (v3.0)

2. Four Significant Creative Dialogues

2.1 The “Concept — Diagram” Creative Dialogue
2.2 The “Slow Cognition” Creative Dialogue
2.3 The “Project — Platform” Creative Dialogue
2.4 The “Theoretical Sociology — Creative Life Theory” Creative Dialogue

3. Three Significant Mental Moves

3.1 The Path of Creative Life
3.2 The concept of “Knowledge Center”
3.3 From Objectification to Subjectification

4. More Attachances

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 Jan 2022, I designed the above picture and wrote a short post on Linkedin.

I used “A Theme for Creative Work Study in 2022” as the title of the short post. I spent 30 minutes designing a logo for Slow Cognition. This technique is called Objectification from the perspective of Project-oriented Activity Theory. Cognitive psychologists called it Cognitive Offloading. If an idea is very important to you, you could make a logo, design a picture, write a slogan, and print out these things.

It’s clear that I wanted to apply Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach to conduct a research project.

On May 19, 2022, I closed the Slow Cognition Project (Phase I) with a possible book titled: Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowlege with Thematic Space Canvas.

On Oct 1, 2022, I closed the Slow Cognition Project (Phase II) with a picture for a possible book titled Creative Journey: The ECHO Way to Creative Work Study. Later, I renamed the possible book Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements on November 23, 2022.

There is a specific aspect of my creative journey:

I always worked on thematic dialogues and most my significant insights were born from thematic dialogues.

In the past several years, I worked on connecting THEORY and PRACTICE. Since I didn’t work on only one theory, there was a challenge for me. I had to maintain the boundary between one theory and the others. For example, Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology.

However, I found the zone of boundary is a great creative space for developing new ideas. Sometimes, I can find similarities between these two theories.

1. The ECHO Way (v3.0)

Eventually, I found a new way to develop a thematic dialogue between two different theories.

The above diagram represents the process of the journey of making the Thematic Engagement framework by running a thematic dialogue between Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology.

What’s my strategy behind the process?

• Move from “Theory” to “Thematic Space”
• Move from “User” to “Maker”
• Switch between Host and Guest
• Second-wave Development
• Close A Thematic Dialogue

You can find more details in Slow Cognition: The “Activity — Opportunity” Thematic Dialogue.

I also found there are six “ECHOes” within the journey of making the Thematic Engagement framework. “Themes of Practice” and “Project Engagement” are not the only two sources of the final outcome. See the diagram below.

You can find the large-size diagram and more details in Slow Cognition: The Echoes of A Thematic Dialogue.

I realized that there is a deep pattern behind these journeys. See the diagram below.

The basic unit of creative thematic dialogue is visualized with the “MEET — ECHO-MOVE” schema in the above diagram.

• MEET: When Container X meets Container Y!
• ECHO: There is an ECHO inside the Container Z.
• MOVE: The ECHO leads to a Significant Insight that guides a Move.

Container Z is the creative space where we face challenges and opportunities.

For the thematic dialogue, Container X means Thematic Space X. For example, my “Activity” thematic space. X1, X2, X3, and X4 refer to members of the thematic space X.

Container Y means Thematic Space Y. For example, my “Opportunity” thematic space. Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4 refer to members of the thematic space X.

The key to the thematic dialogue is the differences and similarities between members inside one thematic space.

We also need to pay attention to the differences and similarities between members inside Container Z: the ECHOZONE.

A real ECHO is based on discovering differences and similarities between members.

This is the ECHO Way (v3.0)! A new approach to understanding Creative Journey and Creative Life in general.

2. Four Significant Creative Dialogues

The ECHO Way (v3.0) is based on the following three-container diagram. The concept of Container is the core of the Ecological Practice approach. By adjusting the quality and quantity of the Container, we can create advanced frameworks for discussing complex phenomena. The quality of the Container can be potential and actual, the quantity of the Container can be one and two. If we develop a new framework with one potential container and two actual containers, the outcome is the above diagram.

I named the potential container (Container Z) Echozone which refers to a creative space containing echoes between Container X and Container Y. The term “Echo” of “Echozone” refers to a dialogue between two containers.

From 2020 to 2023, I developed several versions of the ECHO Way framework. You can find more details in Theme U for Single-theory Curation and WXMY for Interdisciplinary Curation. I also used it in the journey of developing Creative Life Theory.

This section shares four examples of using it to develop creative dialogues.

2.1 The “Concept — Diagram” Creative Dialogue

On May 25, 2021, I made a framework called Career-fit and used it to guide my personal innovation. The Career-fit framework has four keywords: Experience > Themes > Projects > Opportunities. It roughly suggests the following five steps for personal innovation:

• Reflect on career experience
• Discover pairs of opposite themes
• Fit all pairs of opposite themes
• Join or initiate relevant projects
• Fit career themes with career opportunities

The core of the Career-fit framework is the Structure and Dynamics of career themes. The idea of Pairs of Opposite Themes refers to significant differences between career themes. The idea of Meta-themes refers to using one high-level theme to curate similar career themes. The idea of the Development of Themes refers to the transformation of career themes.

If we want to explore personal innovation, the great starting point is Pairs of Opposite Themes because they could lead to Structural Tensions such as boundary, distance, difference, heterogeneity, contradiction, and complementation. If we can turn one or more structural tensions into creative opportunities, then we could find a way of personal innovation.

I applied it to reflect on my career themes. See the diagram below.

I found three major Pairs of Opposite Themes from my past over twenty years of work experience. The first Pair of Opposite Themes “China vs. America” refers to cross-cultural work & life experience. There are significant differences between China and America.

The second Pair of Opposite Themes “Theory vs. Practice” refers to cross-discipline knowledge experience. There is a huge gap between academic knowledge and practical work activities.

The third Pair of Opposite Themes “Concept v.s. Diagram” refers to cross-domain cognitive experience. According to Cognitive scientist and psychologist Barbara Tversky, Concept is about linguistic thought while Diagram is about spatial thought.

My work experience covers designing and writing. I can switch between verbal thinking and visual thinking. I like to develop brand-new abstract concepts and design brand-new concrete diagrams. I can switch between high-level strategic ideas and pixel-level interface design.

Knowledge frameworks are formed with concepts and diagrams. Eventually, I move to the direction of Knowledge Curation and consider Knowledge frameworks as my creative products.

The above diagram shows the ECHOZONE of my personal innovation.

In 2018, I wrote a 108-page personal thesis titled Diagram Explained which offers a theoretical model about diagrams and diagramming. I also collected over 80 cases for writing the thesis.

After the reflection, I decided to work on the D as Diagramming project on August 10, 2021. The outcome of the project is two books (drafts) about diagrams and diagramming: Diagramming as Practice, and Diagram Blending: Building Diagram Networks.

I also worked on Themes and Concepts. From 2019 to 2021, I developed the Themes of Practice approach. In August 2023, I started a new project about Concepts.

Diagrams and Concepts are significant containers of knowledge elements. They are the foundation of Knowledge Curation and Knowledge Creation.

2.2 The “Slow Cognition” Creative Dialogue

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.

After closing the D as Diagramming project in Dec 2021, I started the Slow Cognition project in Jan 2022.

From Jan 2022 to May 2022, I worked on Phase 1 of the Slow Cognition project which aims to explore the historical-cognitive approach and the long-term development of thoughts. I used two strategies to conduct the project:

• 1) I use my own real-life experience as data for the historical-cognitive analysis. From Jan 2022 to May 2022, I recorded ideas of my thoughts and wrote many articles on Medium. These records and articles represent the long-term development of my thoughts.
• 2) I use Donald Schön’s Reflective approach to reflect on the development of my thoughts within these months.

The primary project in these months is the Thematic Space project. Originally, I used the term “Thematic Space” to name an item for the Knowledge Curation model and canvas. Later, I developed a canvas for the concept of “Thematic Space”. This led to a series of canvases and a series of activities. You can find more details about the book here.

I use “Phase” to manage knowledge projects. Each phase is closed with a milestone and a knowledge product.

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

From the perspective of Methods, I consider Phase II of the project as a dialogue between Howard E. Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach and Activity Theory.

On May 30, 2022, I designed the diagram below.

The concept of “Mediated Action” refers to Lev Vygotsky’s idea about human psychological development.

The Developmental Work Research (DWR) methodology was developed by Yrjö Engeström who is the author of Learning by Expanding: An Activity-Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research (1987). The DWR is based on the Activity System model and the model of Expansive Learning. You can find more details in Activity U (IV): The Engeström’s Triangle and the Power of Diagram.

The concept of “Networks of Enterprise” refers to Howard E. Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach. 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)

The Slow Cognition Method echoes the lifespan perspective and follows Vygotsky and Gruber. It was also inspired by the following ideas:

• The Historical-cognitive method (HC)
• The Cultural-historical method (CH)
• Experience Sampling Method (ESM)
• Project Engagement method (PE)

The Historical-cognitive method combines historical research and cognitive research together. This method was developed by Gruber.

• Also, Nancy J. Nersessian used “A Cognitive-Historical Approach” to name her approach to Creativity in Conceptual Change.

The Cultural-historical method refers to Activity Theorists’ methodology in general. We should notice the newest development of Activity Theory is CHAT which stands for Cultural-historical activity theory.

The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is also called ecological momentary assessment (EMA). It asks participants to report on their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and/or environment on multiple occasions over time. The experience sampling method was developed by Larson and Csikszentmihalyi.

The Project Engagement method is called Cultural Projection Analysis which is inspired by Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology. You can find more details in Activity U (X): Projecting, Projectivity, and Cultural Projection.

On Oct 1, 2022, I closed the Slow Cognition project (phase II).

2.3 The “Project — Platform” Creative Dialogue

From Jan 2022 to June 2022, I worked on the Life-as-Project project and discovered several new insights about Project Engagement (v2.0).

Initially, I used the term “Project Engagement” to name the second part of my 2020/2021 book Project-oriented Activity Theory which introduces Andy Blunden’s “project as a unit of analysis of activity” to Activity Theory. The Project Engagement (v1.0) is about the “Person — Project” relationship.

From Jan 2022 to June 2022, I worked on testing Project Engagement (v1.0) and realized that I should expand it to the “Project — Project” relationship in order to cover the complexity of Project Network.

In July 2022, I worked on writing a thesis about Project Engagement (v2.0). During the writing process, I asked myself the following question:

Now, I have v1.0 and v2.0. What about v3.0?

This question led to a creative attachance. I adopted an idea from Lui’s approach to frame my question. There are three focuses in his account: subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and otherness. I used this idea as a meta-theoretical framework to reflect on the development of the Project Engagement approach.

• V1: the “Person — Project” relationship is about Subjectivity.
• V2: the “Project Network” complexity is about Intersubjectivity.
• V3: the “X” … should be about Otherness.

Lui uses the term Otherness to refer to “non-human others” such as Society, Death, etc. For the Project Engagement approach, It seems the notion of “Genidentity/From Project to Platform” echoes the focus of Otherness.

Here is a creative dialogue between “Project Engagement” and “Platform Genidentity”. See the diagram below.

This idea is a Significant Insight because I realized that I can detach the Platform Genidentity framework from the Platform Ecology project, and attach it to the Project Engagement approach.

I used the above Mental Configuration for two projects and I found there is a Creative Swapping between these two projects.

• 2020: The Platform Ecology Approach
• 2022: The Project Engagement Approach

In the Platform Ecology Approach, the theme of “Project” was used to support the theme of “Platform”.

In the Project Engagement Approach, the theme of “Platform” was used to support the theme of “Project”.

This creative dialogue also indicates a “synchrony — diachrony” attachance. The Synchronic perspective sees Project and Platform as two entities at the same time. In 2020, I moved from the ‘Project’ thematic space to ‘Platform’ thematic space and attached the concept of ‘Project’ to the Platform for Development framework.”

The Diachrony perspective sees Project and Platform as one entity at different times. In 2022, I moved back from the ‘Platform’ thematic space to the ‘Project’ thematic space. This time, I detached the concept of ‘Platform’ and ‘Platform Genidentity’ framework from the Platform Ecology approach and attached them to the Project Engagement approach (v2.0).

You can find more details in Project Engagement (v2.1) as an Innovation Approach and Mental Moves #2: Creative Swapping of Mental Elements.

2.4 The “Theoretical Sociology — Creative Life Theory” Creative Dialogue

A key theoretical resource for developing “Creative Life Theory” is Ping-keung Lui’s theoretical sociology. From 2022 to 2023, I adopted many ideas from Lui’s approach to developing Creative Life Theory.

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.

I’d like to share a creative dialogue as an example. In the 65-page thesis, I selected a process of making a semiotic system of Creative Life Strategy and related models as a case for the “Mental Moves” knowledge project. See the diagram below.

There were four moves between the “Theoretical Sociology” thematic space and the “Creative Life Theory” thematic space.

• #1 Reference
• #2 Reflection
• #3 Expansion
• #4 Curation

In the first move, I used the “Nested Structure” of Theoretical Sociology as Frame of Reference and curated four theoretical frameworks into one semiotic system called Creative Life Strategy.

In the second move, I reflected on the #1 move and made a model called Three-space Model.

In the third move, I expanded the Three-space Model into the Five-space Model which was also called the Strategic Curation model.

In the fourth move, I curated the Strategic Curation model into the Advanced Life Strategy toolkit.

You can find more details in Mental Moves #4: Attachance and Creative Dialogue which was written on May 22, 2023.

On August 4, 2023, I made the fifth move which detached my mental focus from the Strategic Curation model and attached it to the theme of Ecological Strategic Cognition. You can find more details in TALE: A Possible Theme called “Ecological Strategic Cognition” and Value Circle #3: TALE as A Thematic Transformation Hub.

3. Three Significant Mental Moves

On July 31, 2023, I edited a book (draft) titled Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition.

I used the term “Mental Moves” to refer to 1) moving mental elements between containers such as knowledge models, knowledge projects, and knowledge centers, and 2) moving mental focus between containers.

It can be used to discuss perspective shifts and the change in mental models. For the present discussion, I’d like to highlight three significant mental moves in the journey of developing Creative Life Theory.

3.1 The Path of Creative Life

In August 2021, I worked on the D as Diagramming project which aims to explore the power of diagrams and diagramming. What I really wanted to know is about the value of diagrams for turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

I use three approaches for the project:

• Reflect on my own works
• Interview others
• Collect examples

On August 30, 2021, I wrote a post titled D as Diagramming: The Path of Creative Life. The sub-title of the post is: How to name a diagram?

Originally, I used “the Life-as-Activity framework (v1.0)” to name the diagram below.

Each time I name a diagram in order to save it as a new file. Each time I reflect on my thoughts behind naming a diagram.

The above diagram was named The Life-as-Activity Framework (v1.0). Why did I use this name for this diagram? In fact, I wrote an email to a friend and told her the name for this diagram is not the final solution. I just needed a name for this diagram.

The Life-as-Activity framework aimed to adopt Activity Theory for discussing life development. The v0.3 of the framework was published on Nov 29, 2020. I started writing articles about Project-oriented Activity Theory on Dec 26, 2020 and edited these articles into a book on Jan 24, 2020.

The Life-as-Activity framework (v0.3) is based on a branch of Activity Theory: the Activity System model. However, the book Project-oriented Activity Theory focuses on the Project-oriented approach.

Though I had suggested a solution for balancing the Activity System model and the Project-oriented approach in the book, I had not conducted a solution to upgrade the Life-as-Activity framework (v0.3) yet.

The Life-as-Activity framework (v1.0) used the same diagram that was originally designed for Project-oriented Activity Theory. So, I just used the name for the new diagram.

However, I was not sure it was the ideal solution for the new version of the Life-as-Activity framework (v1.0) because it was inspired by Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory System theory too.

On August 30, 2021, I realized that what I want to develop is not a general framework for everyone. What I want to develop is a framework for Creative Life. That’s the reason why I love Howard E. Gruber’s approach.

So, I decided to rename the diagram “The Path of Creative Life”.

The original purpose of the Life-as-Activity framework is to develop an activity-theoretical approach to biography-based study. I’d like to continuously work in this direction if I could find a good solution.

The new name “The Path of Creative Life” removes the word “Activity”, which means I want to apply the new diagram to develop a framework for creative careers. The new framework doesn’t need to be a pure application of Activity Theory.

You can find more details in D as Diagramming: The Path of Creative Life.

Honestly, I didn’t pay attention to the above diagram too much from August 2021 to August 2022, because I was busy developing the Life-as-Project approach which belongs to the field of Activity Theory.

However, I rediscovered the value of the above diagram from other perspectives after August 2022.

In April 2022, I contacted Ping-keung Lui who is a theoretical sociological theorist. 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. ”

In the past several months, I read his books and papers and learned about his approach to theoretical sociology. Finally, I realized that the above Creative Life diagram echoes his approach. You can find more details about Ping Keung Lui’s idea in this blog post: Re-learning Activity Theory.

In 2007, Lui published a book titled Gaze, Action, and the Social World in which he presented his account of theoretical sociology. The fundamental starting point of his approach is an Ontology of action, which was inspired by Saint Augustine (354–430), Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). See the statement below:

The body is in action, action is in the fleeting moment, the fleeting moment is in the body.

According to Lui, “This moment is Augustinian, it comprises at the same time the Present of the Past, the Present of the Present, and the Present of the Future. The actor Remembers in the present of the past, Pays Attention in the present of the present, Expects in the present of the future.” (p.235–236, 2010, The Scientific Project of Sociology)

Now we can look at the Path of Creative Life diagram again. I realized that the diagram is similar to Lui’s notion of the fleeting moment.

• Reflection: Remembers in the present of the past
• Emergence: Pays Attention in the present of the present
• Anticipation: Expects in the present of the future

The connection between the Path of Creative Life and Lui’s ontology of action encouraged me to rethink the value of the path of creative life.

I realized that I could use it as the ontology of life strategy project. Moreover, I could use Lui’s approach as a frame to curate my frameworks as a meaningful whole.

As mentioned above, my focus is knowledge workers and creators. 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.

• Path 1 — Activity Theory
• Path 2 — Curativity Theory
• Path 3 — Project Engagement

On Oct 26, 2022, I used Lui’s “Ontology — Realism — Hermeneutics” schema and sociological semiotic system diagram to curate three paths and made a new semiotic system diagram. You can find more details in Slow Cognition: Three Paths of Creative Life and A Semiotic System.

Later, the semiotic system diagram guided me to edit Creative Life Curation and Advanced Life Strategy.

I also curated two other books (drafts) and them together in order to make the “Aspects of Creative Life” series.

3.2 The concept of “Knowledge Center”

The concept of “Knowledge Center” is the primary theme of the journey.

Initially, I used it as a core idea for the “Building Knowledge Enterprise (BKE)” Activity. See the model below.

Originally, I developed the above model for the Activity Analysis project. Later, I realized that it can be a general model for building knowledge enterprise activity. You can find more details in CALL: How to Grow A Knowledge Enterprise (May 6, 2022).

The model aims to answer a related question:

How to grow a knowledge enterprise?

The model is inspired by Project-oriented Activity Theory. Each phase refers to a focus. The three-phase development is inspired by the following diagram which is one of a series of diagrams in the book.

I used the above diagram to explain the concept of “culture” from the perspective of Project-oriented Activity Theory. It zooms out to a large view that connects the Individual mind (Idea) and Collective theme (Zeitgeist) through Collective Projects (Concept).

A knowledge center is a collective project that aims to develop a 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”.

For a high degree of uniqueness, we can look at the following examples:

• Santa Fe Institute
• Niche Construction Theory
• CSDT (Center for Self-Determination Theory)
• CRADLE (Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning)
• Presencing Institute (Theory U)

A related issue is the degree of influence of the “Knowledge Center”. However, I consider “Knowledge Center” as a small-scale level. If a “Knowledge Center” establishes a high degree of influence, it becomes a “Knowledge Community”. In other words, the “Knowledge Center” is the seed stage of the “Knowledge Community”.

I used the above model to guide my real projects on building a set of knowledge centers.

Based on the real work experiences of building seven knowledge centers, I modified my mind about the concept of “Knowledge Center”.

If we apply the “Themes of Practice” framework to reflect on my journey of engaging with the theme of “Knowledge Center”, then the above ideas are all about thinking about a theme. Later, I moved to the “Practice” part.

On June 2, 2022, I launched Curativity Center.

Curativity Center was defined as a meta-center for building a network of knowledge centers:

• Creative Action Learning Lab (CALL)
• Activity Analysis Center
• Platform Ecology Center
• Life Strategy Center
• Curativity Center

You can find more details in CALL: The Launch Day of Curativity Center.

From June 2022 to March 2023, I did three things.

• I built six knowledge centers. It is a network of knowledge centers.
• I developed a set of tools for understanding the complexity of knowledge centers
• I developed a systematic theoretical approach to Creative Life and wrote four books (drafts).

The above diagram represents the landscape of my knowledge centers. You can find more details in TALE: A Possible Theme called “Knowledge Center”.

On April 18, 2023, I adopted Ping-keung Lui’s Subjectivist Structuralism to develop a meta-framework about Creative Life. The outcome is the Creative Course Framework.

This is a major mental move because I moved from the theoretical tradition of Activity Theory to the theoretical tradition of phenomenological sociology. Lui’s Subjectivist Structuralism is influenced by Alfred Schütz’s phenomenological sociology and Max Weber’s interpretive sociology.

This mental move also indicates a new theoretical core: the concept of Subjectification.

3.3 From Objectification to Subjectification

On Sept 5, 2022, I developed a diagram called Thematic Landscape Map and used it to reflect on my “Curativity” knowledge enterprise.

The map uses three nested circles as a basic model.

• Theme: this inner circle is for displaying Themes and Books.
• Work: the middle circle refers to Projects and two types of Knowledge Frameworks: Abstract Models and Concrete Models.
• Play: the outer circle is about Programs that consider two types of things: Tools and Actions.

While the Theme circle and the Work circle are about knowledge makers’ individual work, the Play circle refers to the collaborative space between knowledge makers and knowledge users.

These three circles also have different significant aspects of complexity.

• Theme: the cognitive aspect of complexity is the primary challenge.
• Work: the material aspect of complexity is the primary challenge.
• Play: the social aspect of complexity is the primary challenge.

The above model is inspired by a model of Project-oriented Activity Theory. It represents three types of Objectification of a Concept:

• Symbolic Objectification: “Verbal” and “Visual”
• Instrumental Objectification: “designed” and “found”
• Practical Objectification: “Branded” and “Shared”

I use “Curativity” as an example of the meta-theory. Though the concept of “Curativity” is a member of the Ecological Practice Approach, it led to a series of projects such as the Knowlege Curation project, the Life Curation project, and the Career Curation project. My “Curativity” thematic space became a large knowledge enterprise.

You can find more details in Slow Cognition: Mapping Thematic Landscape (Curativity, 2019–2022).

On Oct 20, 2022, I developed the Creative Life Curation framework and used it to reflect on the Knowledge Curation project.

This is a significant mental move!

The Thematic Landscape Map is only about the “Objectification” part. The Creative Life Curation framework added the “Subjectification” part to the model.

Moreover, the new framework also connects to the General Curation framework and the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework.

I also divide the process into two tendencies:

Subjectification

• Experience 1: turning the world into a person’s experience.
• This echoes Second-order Activity.

Objectification

• Experience 2: turning the person’s experience into artifacts for the world.
• This echoes First-order Activity.

The term “Experience 1 / Experience 2” connects to the General Curation Framework. See the diagram below.

As an application of Curativity Theory, the above General Curation Framework represents the structure and dynamics of general curation practice. The activity of general curation aims to collect pieces of things into a meaningful whole in order to present a theme to a group audience.

I use Experience 1 to refer to turning the world into a person’s experience. For Life Curation Activity, this means Collecting pieces of life experiences.

Experience 2 refers to turning the person’s experience into artifacts for the world. For Life Curation Activity, this means Presenting a new meaningful whole to a group audience.

The key to the transformation between Experience 1 and Experience 2 is Crystallize Thematically which refers to the process of discovering a match between individual life themes and collective cultural themes.

The term “First-order Activity / Second-order Activity” comes from the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework. See the diagram below.

While First-order Activity refers to normal activities which are defined by traditional Activity Theory, Second-order Activity is a specific type of activity in which subjects aim to define objectives and goals for their further activities.

For Life Curation Activity, the process of Subjectification is about turning the world into a person’s experience. The outcome of Subjectification is a match between individual life themes and collective cultural themes.

This match, also called the process of Crystallize Thematically, determines the direction of the process of Objectification.

In this manner, Objectification means First-order Activity while Subjectification means Second-order Activity.

The pair of concepts “Subjectification — Objectification” became the core of the Knowledge Engagement framework and Creative Life Theory.

On March 23, 2023, I made the Knowledge Engagement framework (v4) and listed six basic concepts. See the diagram below.

In April 2023, I finished the book (draft) Knowledge Engagement: Knowledge Center and Creative Life Theory. I also made a sign to represent the theory.

I use the S-T-O Tendency to highlight three keywords of the above 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

The S-T-O Tendency is the core idea of Creative Life Theory.

4. More Attachances

From the perspective of Attachance Theory, creativity is all about moving between thematic spaces. In Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition, I made a set of case studies on different types of mental moves.

I coined the term Attachance by combining Attach and Chance in 2018 to discuss some ideas related to Affordance, a core idea of Ecological Psychology.

Affordance means potential action opportunities offered by environments. I want to highlight the meaning and value of actual action itself, however, the term Affordance only refers to potential actions. Thus, I coined the term Attachance to emphasize the potential opportunities offered by actual actions, especially the attaching act and the detaching act.

In 2019, I started working on my own theoretical account of the Ecological Practice approach after finishing a book titled Curativity. The 2019 version of the approach is a curated toolkit version. The concept of Attachance is part of the toolkit. In May 2020, I wrote a book titled After Affordance: The Ecological Approach to Human Action in which I proposed several new theoretical ideas for expanding ecological psychology to the modern digital environment. The primary theme of After Affordance is the concept of Attachance.

The concept of Attachance is planned to develop as 1) an ecological practice concept for practice studies such as interaction design and startup innovation, and 2) a philosophical concept for developing a social theory.

The book After Affordance only achieves the first goal and it focuses on the following acts:

• Attaching to an environment
• Detaching from an environment
• Attaching to an object
• Detaching from an object

I use the concept of Attachance in many ways.

The Attachance Perspective refers to its philosophical meaning. You can find more details in D as Diagramming: The Attachance Perspective.

The theoretical concept of “Attachance” for the Ecological Practice Approach. It refers to what I explored in the 2020 book After Affordance. For example, I used it and Affordance together for discussing creative actions. You can find more details in Creative Actions: Second-order Affordance and Attachance.

The word “Attachance” is for normal discussions. I often discuss some stories or topics from the perspective of Attachance. You can find an example in Possible Practices: Attach, Detach, and Opportunities.

In 2022, the development of Attachance was tied to the development of Thematic Space which refers to a specific type of container: cognitive container. You can find more details in [Slow Cognition] The Development of the concept of “Thematic Spaces”.

Traditional Creative Cognition tends to focus on the perspective of cognitive psychology. According to Steven M. Smith, Thomas B. Ward, and Ronald A. Finke, “Although there are many useful and productive approaches to understanding creativity, the creative cognition approach (Finke, Ward, and Smith 1992) focuses on the cognitive processes and structures that underlie creative thinking.” (The Creative Cognition Approach, 1995).

Attachance Theory is about the ecological meaning and value of detaching acts and attaching acts. In other words, we pay attention to the process of moving between containers.

You can find more details in Mental Moves (book, v1) — Introduction and Mental Moves (book, v1) — Table of Contents.

How many Attachances can we find in my journey of developing Creative Life Theory?

It’s so hard to count this number.

I’d like to share a list of approaches and ideas I touched on in the journey of developing Creative Life Theory.

• Keith Sawyer’s “Performance Creativity” → my idea of “Process as Product”
• The Systems Model of Creativity (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 2014) and the concept of “Domain” → my idea of “Domain, Field, and Platform” → my idea of “The Epistemology of Domain” → my idea of “Domain Discovery”
• The Systems Model of Creativity (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 2014) and the concept of “Field” → my idea of “Creative Field” for the Creative Course Framework
• Howard E. Gruber’s evolving systems approach → my idea of “Slow Cognition”
• Howard E. Gruber’s “Networks of Enterprise”→ my idea of “Project Network”
• Howard E. Gruber’s “Purposefulness”→ my idea of “Creative Life Curation”
• Andy Blunden’s approach “Activity=Project=Formation of Concepts” > my idea of “Project Engagement” → my idea of “Thematic Engagement”
• Andy Blunden’s idea of “Objectification of Concepts” → my idea of “Knowledge Center”
• Peter Gardenfors’ “Conceptual Space” > my idea of “Thematic Space”
• James J. Gibson’s “Affordance” > my idea of “Attachance”
• George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s conceptual metaphor Container and image schema Containment > my idea of “Container(Containee)”
• Dean Keith Simonton’s Chance-configuration theory and the idea of “Mental Elements” → my idea of “Mental Moves”
• Benny Karpatschof’s “Sign/Meaning/Concept” → my idea of “Activity Circle”
• Alfred Schutz’s “The World of Working” → my idea of “The World of Activity”/“Lifescope”
• Ping-keung Lui’s Theoretical Sociology → my idea of “Creative Life Theory”

Attachance Theory can be applied to different units of analysis. The diagram below is the basic model of Attachance Theory.

We can also see a knowledge project as a container. In this way, we can also use the Project Engagement approach and its application: the Life-as-Project framework.

In the journey of developing Creative Life Theory, we see a network of knowledge projects.