CALL: Annual Review (2021–2022)
CALL stands for Creative Action Learning Lab
CALL stands for Creative Action Learning Lab. I started it as a digital garage on Medium in Oct 2019. Each year, I wrote an annual review of CALL in October.
- CALL: 2019–2020 (The House of Boundary Innovation)
- CALL: 2020–2021 (The Knowledge Curation Studio)
In 2019, I started this publication on Medium as a personal journey: building a learning community about action design, action study, and action theory. The primary theme of CALL was Action-based Creativity in its early stage. Later, I changed it to the house of boundary innovation.
In 2020, CALL became a knowledge curation studio. which produces a set of knowledge frameworks and builds an ecology of ideas. I also wrote seven books which are drafts. In addition, I worked on four independent research projects in order to test concepts and frameworks.
Inspired by Howard E. Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach to the study of Creative Work (1974,1989), I used his idea “Network of Enterprise” to manage my creative work in 2020. The above diagram is an example of using Knowledge Enterprise to curate CALL’s various knowledge frameworks and other ideas.
I sort my frameworks into seven enterprises. Each enterprise has a short nickname.
- CALL for ECHO → Boundary Innovation
- CALL for LIFE → Creative Life
- CALL for NICE → Creative Action
- CALL for NEST → Part — Whole
- CALL for DEEP → Supportive Development
- CALL for NEXT → Present — Future
- CALL for META → Meta-knowledge
Each enterprise has its primary theme. Each theme refers to a core framework and a set of related concepts, diagrams, and sub-frameworks.
In 2022, I used a new approach to manage my knowledge enterprise. See the diagram below.
The model is inspired by Project-oriented Activity Theory. Each phase refers to a focus. The model also mentions three knowledge frameworks I am working on:
Each knowledge framework could be adapted to support one phase of the Building Knowledge Enterprise (BKE) Activity.
CALL has passed phase I of the model in the past three years. It produced 12 possible books. See the link below.
The next challenge is building knowledge centers which refer to running collaborative projects.
In CALL: The Launch Day of Curativity Center, I introduced five Knowledge Centers:
- Creative Action Learning Lab (CALL)
- Activity Analysis Center
- Platform Ecology Center
- Life Strategy Center
- Curativity Center
As a meta Knowledge Center, Curativity Center will support the other four knowledge centers. All five knowledge centers will be hosted with a set of non-code collaborative digital platforms. In this way, they will be run as collaborative projects.
On July 12, 2022, CALL returned to its original vision: Creative Action.
On Oct 31, 2021, I used the following diagram to describe the future of CALL.
The above diagram represents the new annual theme of CALL for the years 2021 to 2022. The core concepts of the Ecological Practice approach are Affordance, Attachance, Supportance, and Curativity. Since I have written several books about these concepts, the next step is applying these concepts to develop more knowledge frameworks, guide case studies, and curate theory-practice dialogues.
I consider my frameworks as opportunities for other knowledge creators. Thus, the challenge for CALl is searching and finding an approach of organization in order to actualize the above opportunities of knowledge creation for a group of talents.
I will use the above diagram to reflect on the past 12 months of CALL.
There are four major changes in CALL from Oct 2021 to Oct 2022.
#1: The “Opportunity Theory” and the Ecological Practice approach
#2: Two Possible Books: Ecological Practice Design and Creative Journey
#3: The Creative Life Project
#4: Managing Thematic Landscape and Creative Dialogue
The rest of the article will offer more details.
#1: The “Opportunity Theory” and the Ecological Practice approach
I used three keywords to describe the new CALL: Creativity, Opportunity, and Possible Practice.
As mentioned above, the theme of “Opportunity” is defined as the annual theme from 2021 to 2022 for CALL. The term “Possible Practice” refers to the mission of the Ecological Practice approach. See the diagram below.
The notion of Everyday Life Innovation is understood as the notion of “Possible Practice (Creative Actions)” from the perspective of the Ecological Practice approach.
Since the Knowledge Curation project moved to Curativity Center, the new CALL is only about the Ecological Practice approach and its applications.
I started developing the Ecological Practice Approach in 2019. In the past four years, I wrote several books (in drafts) about the approach:
- Curativity: The Ecological Approach to General Curation Practice (2019)
- After Affordance: The Ecological Approach to Human Action (2020)
- Platform for Development: The Ecology of Adult Development in the 21st Century (2021)
- Ecological Practice Design: The Lifesystem Approach to Everyday Life Innovation (2022)
Each year I write a book and each book establishes an important theoretical concept for the Ecological Practice approach. Curativity introduces the concept of Curativity and develops the toolkit version of the approach. After Affordance introduces the concept of Attachance and develops the germ-cell version of the approach. Platform for Development introduces the concept of Supportance. Ecological Practice Design is about the Lifesystem framework which is a practical framework of the approach.
The diagram below is v3.0 of the Ecological Practice approach. You can find more details in The Development of Ecological Practice Approach.
In the past 12 months, the newest development of the approach is the following two concepts:
- Thematic Space
- Platform Genidentity
Originally, the concept of “Thematic Space” was developed as an operational concept for designing Knowledge Discovery Canvas in Jan 2022. Later, I turned it into a theoretical concept for connecting “Themes of Practice” and “Project Engagement”.
Why the concept of “Thematic Space” is a major development of the Ecological Practice approach?
I used it to connect the existing theoretical concept: Attachance. For example:
Creative Attachances as Moving between Thematic Spaces.
Also, I used it to highlight the spatial aspect of “Themes of Practice” since the “Practice” part is about activities that require environments.
Moreover, the concept of “Thematic Space” can be seen as an application of “Container” which is a core concept of the Ecological Practice approach.
You can find more details in [Slow Cognition] The Development of the concept of “Thematic Spaces”.
The Platform Genidentity Framework is an application of the Ecological Practice Approach. Why do I consider the concept of “Genidentity” as a member of the approach?
The diagram below is the basic model of the approach. The Ecological Practice Approach considers the world as a nested container system. Things move between different containers.
For a particular thing, its trajectory is called “Lifeflow”. There is a theoretical issue with Lifeflow:
How can a thing keep its uniqueness over time?
In order to answer this question, I adopted Kurt Lewin’s concept Genidentity as a solution. Though Genidentity was originally developed for discussing the difference between various branches of science and their dynamic development, it is about a “topology of identity” and temporal dynamics from my perspective.
I developed an operational definition for the concept of Genidentity: A thing’s Genidentity is defined by Essential Differences with Situated Dynamics. In this way, we turn a philosophical concept into a practical concept for empirical research.
In 2019, I worked on the early version of Platform Ecology and applied the concept of Genidentity to study digital platform design and development.
I used the above diagram to represent a rough idea of the “Platform Genidentity” framework.
You can find more details in Platform Genidentity: The Movements of Unfolding Uniqueness.
#2: Two Possible Books: Ecological Practice Design and Creative Journey
On May 17, 2022, I edited a TOC for a possible book: Ecological Practice Design: The Lifesystem Approach to Everyday Life Innovation.
Some readers may know that Creative Design is one of my career themes. My early career was designing newspaper ads and corporate identity. Later, I moved to digital interaction design. Now, I am working on activity analysis and service design.
Though the Ecological Practice Approach and the Lifesystem framework were not developed for discussing Design, they could apply to the field of Design, especially everyday life innovation.
You can find more details in Ecological Practice Design (Book).
On Oct 1, 2022, I wrote a short note about a possible book titled Creative Journey: The ECHO Way to Creative Work Study.
In the past several months, I worked on the Slow Cognition project (phase II) which is about Creative Work Study. The major outcome of the project is the following three things:
- The “Project — Journey” Structure for Creative Work Study
I developed the concept of “Creative Journey” as a new unit of analysis for studying creative life.
- A new method of Mapping Creative Life with a set of tools
I designed a series of maps and developed a new method for mapping a creative person’s various creative projects from different units of analysis.
- The ECHO Way (v3.0) model for Creative Cognition
I also developed the ECHO Way (v3.0) model for understanding Creative Cognition. The v3.0 emphasizes the ecological approach to cognition and applies it to study Creative Thematic Dialogue.
This is a major development of the Creative Life project.
#3: The Creative Life Project
As mentioned above, the Slow Cognition project led to the Creative Life project in the past several months.
Originally, I developed the “Process as Product” approach to study creativity. You can find more details in The NICE Way and Creative Actions.
The “Process as Product” approach emphasizes the creative life experience of people. In 2021, it led to the Path of Creative life. See the diagram below.
I pointed out that there are three timescales for the “Process as Product” approach in the article about the Path of Creative Life.
- Moment: creative action
- Project: creative work
- Life: creative life
In Sept 2022, I added a new unit of analysis called “Creative Journey” to the “Process as Product” approach.
- Creative Actions
- Creative Work (Projects)
- Creative Journey
- Creative Life
In Oct 2022, I developed a new semiotic system diagram in order to curate three theoretical approaches and four frameworks together. The result is the diagram below.
Eventually, the Creative Life project became a collaborative project between the following four knowledge centers:
- CALL
- Life Strategy Center
- Curativity Center
- Activity Analysis Center
You can find more details in Three Paths of Creative Life and A Semiotic System and The Creative Life Curation Framework.
#4: Managing Thematic Landscape and Creative Dialogue
I made a distinction between Knowledge Discovery and Knowledge Production. While the outcome of Knowledge Discovery is Significant Insight, the outcome of Knowledge Production is Knowledge Products. Moreover, Significant Insight will lead to Knowledge Production.
In the past years, the primary focus of CALL is on Knowledge Discovery. However, I changed my focus to Knowledge Production in the past several months.
In order to discuss the outcome of knowledge production around a particular theme, I coined the term “Thematic Landscape” which refers to a landscape of personal explicit knowledge and related activities.
On Sept 2, 2022, I used my “Curativity” Knowledge Enterprise as an example to develop the “Thematic Landscape” method. The final result is a large diagram. See the screenshot below.
You can find more details in Mapping Thematic Landscape (Curativity, 2019–2022).
The Thematic Landscape Map can be used for managing the complexity of Project Network. The screenshot below is a part of my “Curaivity” thematic landscape. I can use it to manage the development of CALL.
Finally, I want to highlight a significant development of the Ecological Practice approach and CALL in the past year. There is a pattern behind my creative work: the cross-boundary creative dialogue.
For example, I worked on two theoretical approaches: the Ecological Practice approach and Activity Theory in the past years. I often found insights that connect to these two approaches. Eventually, I developed creative dialogues between these two approaches.
The above diagram shows an example of creative dialogue between “Project Engagement” (belongs to Activity Theory) and “Themes of Practice” (belongs to the Ecological Practice approach). The outcome is the Thematic Engagement Toolkit.
You can find more details in the following links:
2023: Second-wave Development
What’s the plan for the year ahead?
It’s clear that CALL should work on Second-wave Development since the Ecological Practice approach and the Creative Life project have developed various creative ideas.
Moreover, I’d like to see some connections between the Ecological Practice approach and the Creative Life project.
Maybe the Lifesystem framework is the bridge. Below is the basic model of the Lifesystem framework.
I consider Lifesystem as a basic unit of analysis of the World of Working. In order to understand the structure and dynamics of the World of Working, I developed a typology of the Lifesystem and the diagram below.
The typology of Lifesystem sets four types of lifesystems:
- Situated Lifesystem
- Skilled Lifesystem
- Stable Lifesystem
- Scalable Lifesystem
By using these four types of Lifesystems, we can apply the Lifesystem framework to discuss various types of social structures. You can find more details in Lifesystem: Modeling Ice Skating and Other Social Practices.
What if we apply this framework to the Creative Life project?
