CALL: The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 7)

Oliver Ding

Published in

CALL4

14 min readOct 5, 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

Part 7 is the last part of the series of articles.

The concept of “World of Works” is a core idea of the Creative Life Theory (v2). I use the “World of Works” to describe knowledge creations such as theories, concepts, frameworks, books, papers, etc.

There are many ways to understand the “World of Works”. In this post, I reflect on my “World of Works” with a tool called Thematic Scrapboard.

1. Thematic Scrapboard
2. Five Thematic Spaces
3. Five Possible Books
4. Early Discovery: Thematic Exploration
5. Late Bloom: Creative Life Curation
6. Project Engagement: Mental Moves
7. Social Support: Advanced Life Strategy
8. Spirit of Unification: Knowledge Curation
9. The Spiral of Creative Life

The core of Creative Life Theory (v2.0) is the Creative Course Framework. See the diagram below. I use the “World of Works” to describe knowledge creations such as theories, concepts, frameworks, books, papers, etc.

Last year I made four books for Creative Life Theory (v1).

In the past several months, I developed the Creative Life Theory (v2) and wrote several new books (drafts). Some books are related to the Creative Life Theory (v2).

It’s time to use a thematic scrapboard to curate these ideas together.

1. Thematic Scrapboard

I often curate my mind by diagramming with pictures, text, and signs. In the past several months, I developed a new visual style of diagrams in order to connect Themes, Thematic Spaces, and Knowledge Models.

On August 25, 2023, I gave it a name:

Thematic Scrapboard

The diagram below is an example of Thematic Scrapboard.

A Thematic Scrapboard has three different types of elements:

Thematic Cards (pictures)
Thematic Spaces
Mental Models

I used the following rules for this special type of diagramming:

Using Thematic Cards (Pictures) to represent Possible Themes
Red dots refer to Thematic Spaces
A Knowledge Model is used as a context for the diagramming
Making Personal Tacit Knowledge Visible
Loose connections between mental elements

You can find some related links about my practice of this type of diagramming:

TALE: Thematic Scrapboard (August 25, 2023)
TALE: A new network of possible themes (August 24, 2023)
TALE: A new network of possible themes (April 21, 2203)
TALE: Possible Themes v.s. Possible Books (July 14, 2023)
TALE: One 10-day Road Trip, 21 Thematic Cards
TALE: Possible Configurations of A Theme Network

Let’s build a thematic scrapboard for Creative Life Theory (v2).

2. Five Thematic Spaces

I use the sign of Creative Life Theory (v2) as the primary mental model to build the thematic scrapboard.

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.

Inspired by the sign, I discovered five thematic spaces:

Early Discovery
Late Bloom
Project Engagement
Social Support
Spirit of Unification

The “Early Discovery” thematic space refers to the early discovery stage of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the early discovery of a particular knowledge project.

The “Late Bloom” thematic space refers to the late stage of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the end of a particular knowledge project.

The “Project Engagement” thematic space refers to the chain of projects of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the activity of a particular knowledge project.

The “Social Support” thematic space refers to the “Self — Other” relevance of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the social environment of a particular knowledge project.

The “Spirit of Unification” thematic space refers to curating pieces of knowledge into a meaningful whole for a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the theory integration in a discipline.

3. Five Possible Books

As mentioned in Part 5, I used the Path of Creative Life to curate four books (drafts).

These four books were assigned to four units of analysis. I also highlighted one knowledge framework for each unit of analysis.

Creative Actions: Ecological Practice Design (The Lifesystem Framework)
Creative Projects: Project Engagement (The Developmental Project Model)
Creative Journeys: Creative Life Curation (The Creative Life Curation Framework)
Creative Life: Advanced Life Strategy (The Anticipatory Activity System Framework)

This time I select five books (drafts) and assign them to five thematic spaces.

Early Discovery: Thematic Exploration
Late Bloom: Creative Life Curation
Project Engagement: Mental Moves
Social Support: Advanced Life Strategy
Spirit of Unification: Knowledge Curation

These five books introduce a set of knowledge frameworks for knowledge engagement. If we put them together, we can see a large toolkit for achieving a creative life.

4. Early Discovery: Thematic Exploration

I considered Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration as two phases of EARLY DISCOVERY of the journey of knowledge Engagement.

On Jan 1, 2023, TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement) was launched as a new knowledge center for hosting the Thematic Engagement project.

Thematic Engagement refers to the “Person — Theme” relationship and interaction. As a knowledge center, TALE considers the “Person — Theme” relationship and interaction as its primary object.

There are two types of themes. While Established Themes refer to normal practices, Emerging Themes refer to possible practices. TALE aims to tell the story of innovation thematically. We will pay attention to Exploration and Imagination.

From Jan 2023 to June 2023, I worked on a series of sub-projects. Eventually, I found an emerging theme from TALE’s projects:

Thematic Creativity and Thematic Curativity of Early Discovery

On June 23, 2023, I edited a book (draft) titled Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement.

I consider Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration as two phases of EARLY DISCOVERY of the journey of knowledge Engagement. See the diagram below.

The further phase is Continuous Objectification which aims to turn a concept system into real things.

I use “Strategic Thematic Exploration” to frame a creative space for exploring the strategic intent with the thematic analysis methods, especially for knowledge engagement.

I consider “From Theme to Framework” as a significant early phase for the journey of knowledge engagement. There are six stages in the phase.

A Possible Theme without Clue
A Possible Theme with Clue
A Primary Theme without related themes
A Primary Theme with its network
A Knowledge Concept with a working definition
A Knowledge Framework with a set of concepts

Since a knowledge framework is formed by a set of concepts, I also use Spontaneous Concept System to refer to the early version of a knowledge framework.

For the Strategic Thematic Exploration framework, I made a distinction between “Theme” and “Concept”. While “Theme” emphasizes subjective experience and understanding, “Concept” is more about objective meaning and definition.

You can find more details in Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement (book, v1).

5. Late Bloom: Creative Life Curation

The “Late Bloom” thematic space refers to the late stage of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the end of a particular knowledge project.

In Part 1, I have mentioned a book (draft) titled Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements.

The Creative Life Curation project is about turning Individual Life Experiences into Collective Culture. It refers to both personal innovation and cultural innovation.

The Creative Life Curation project produces two results.

A Semiotic System Diagram as a theoretical framework
A Model of Creative Life Curation

The first one is about the art of knowledge curation while the second one is about the art of experience curation.

The notion of “Creative Life Curation” refers to turning Life Experiences into Developmental Resources, and Meaningful Achievement.

I consider “Creative Life Curation” as a specific life strategy for knowledge creators.

Why did I choose this picture?

It refers to a metaphor:

First-order Experience and Second-order Experience

First-order Experience refers to normal life experiences. The girl sees the ocean.

Second-order Experience refers to Creative Life Curation. We need to curate pieces of normal life experiences into a meaningful whole.

How can we do it?

According to Curativity Theory, we need a container to turn pieces into a meaningful whole.

We need a frame to frame life experiences.

The frame brings us the Second-order Experience.

I also developed five units of analysis for the Creative Life Curation project:

Action > Project > Journey > Landscape > Lifescape

I have developed a Creative Life Curation framework containing five analysis units.

1. Creative Actions
2. Creative Projects
3. Creative Journey
4. Creative Landscape
5. Creative Lifescope

The framework also highlights the following three types of “Curativity”:

Curativity 1: Turning pieces of Projects into a Journey as a meaningful whole
Curativity 2: Turning pieces of Projects into a Landscape as a meaningful whole
Curativity 3: Turning pieces of Actions and Projects into a Lifescope as a meaningful whole

It’s an open framework!

If we can discover a new significant aspect of Creative Life and develop a corresponding method, we can add Curativity 4 and related keywords to the diagram.

6. Project Engagement: Mental Moves

The “Project Engagement” thematic space refers to the chain of projects of a journey of knowledge engagement. It also can be used to describe the activity of a particular knowledge project.

The name of the thematic space is inspired by the Developmental Project model, the Project Engagement approach, and the Life-as-Project approach.

On July 31, 2023, I edited a book (draft) titled Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition. I adopted Dean Keith Simonton’s Chance-configuration theory (Scientific Genius,1988), especially the concept of Mental Elements, for my case studies.

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.

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. The Attachance approach to Ecological Creative Cognition considers the following unit as the basic model of creative thinking:

Container [Configuration (Mental Elements)]

Each project corresponds to a thematic space.
Each project is supported by a digital platform.
A mental element can move between two thematic spaces.

Moreover, we can use the concept of “Nested Containers” to define several containers for case studies. For example, we can find the following three types of containers from my case studies.

Projects: social containers
Thematic Spaces: cognitive containers
Digital Platforms: physical containers

In this way, Ecological Creative Cognition highlights a new perspective to creative thinking: moving from head to head-body-environment.

7. Social Support: Advanced Life Strategy

I used the concept of “Relevance” to discuss the “Self — Other” relationship. In 2021, I developed a typology of Relevance.

Intrapersonal Relevance
Interpersonal Relevance
Transactional Relevance
Collective Relevance

From August 2021 to Dec 2022, I worked on developing the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework.

The Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework is inspired by Activity Theory, Anticipatory System theory, Relevance theory, and other theoretical resources. The framework is about modeling a specific structure: “Self, Other, Present, Future”.

In Dec 2022, I edited a book (draft) titled Advanced Life Strategy: Anticipatory Activity System and Life Achievements.

According to the 4C model of creativity, there are many creative lives that are not “Big-C” such as famous figures.

Big-C: famous creative achievements such as music, paints, inventions, theories, etc.
little-c: creative behavior in everyday life. For example, making waffle art, using cardboard boxes for sliding, decorating a place for a birthday party, etc.
Mini-c: the novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experience, actions, and events.
Pro-c: “amateur” creators and professional creators who are successful, but have not reached a level of prominence as eminent creators achieved.

The book aims to build a bridge between Pro-c and Big-C.

8. Spirit of Unification: Knowledge Curation

In a 1993 paper, the theoretical sociologist Thomas J. Fararo and his student John Skvoretz mentioned a term called “the Spirit of Unification”.

“…proliferation and unification are both essential processes in science. If only proliferation were to occur, a field would spawn endlessly branching discrete ideas and give rise to a sense of intellectual chaos. If only unification were to occur, a field would eventually arrive at a non-growth condition in which integration would have gone as far as it could with the given intellectual materials.

In real theoretical sciences, both processes occur together. But fields differ in their relative weight. In some sciences, despite proliferation, a sense of movement toward more and more comprehensive theory exists even as new problems and theories continue to be generated. In other sciences, despite occasional episodes of integration, the predominant tendency is to ever-increasing proliferation with insufficient integration. In Sociology, the latter is the case.

… The spirit of unification in its most general sense is a value commitment to activities that, while not theory-integrating episodes as such, are important to the creation of an intellectual situation that produces such episodes. This means that not only direct theory integration is valued, but so are other sorts of unifying intellectual activities is valued, but so are other sorts of unifying intellectual activities. Thus, we think that the spirit of unification can be embodied in at least four distinct modes of inquiry.”

The “Proliferation v.s. Unification” theme echoes the “Creativity v.s. Curativity” theme.

In the academic world, a Concept is a foundational object of a knowledge enterprise such as Theories and Frameworks. Scholars have to deal with the Conceptual Reality of a Concept. In fact, a significant aspect of academic creativity is developing a brand-new concept in order to change a discipline’s objects, directions, methods, etc.

The tendency to Create Conceptual Reality leads to Conceptual Heterogeneity.

Conceptual Heterogeneity refers to different people using the same word to express different conceptual meanings. It leads to Knowledge Fragmentation inside one discipline. Also, it raises the cost of cross-boundary collaborative projects.

Though Thomas J. Fararo and John Skvoretz used “the Spirit of Unification” to discuss fields, we can use it to describe personal knowledge projects too.

On June 26, 2020, I started the Knowledge Curation project which aims to connect THEORY and PRACTICE. On Oct 18, 2022, I closed Phase I of the project.

The Theory-Practice Gap is an important issue in a wide range of disciplines including education, organization learning, and development, community building, academic development, enterprise R&D, professional service firms (PSFs), etc.

If we can find a good solution to close the Theory-Practice Gap, then we can improve existing social systems of knowledge production, knowledge application, and knowledge management at the individual level and the collective level.

From 2020 to 2022, I wrote several books (drafts) and developed a set of tools.