[Creative Diagramming] Graphic Space Affordances, Thematic Space, and Possible Paths

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CALL4

24 min readNov 1, 2023

A new view on diagrams and diagramming

In Oct 2023, I worked on discovering thematic spaces of knowledge models via creative diagramming. The above diagram is an example.

This post aims to collect some examples of the Creative Diagramming project.

1. Creative Diagramming and Mental Moves
2. Explore Graphic Space Affordances
3. Explore Potential Thematic Spaces of the Developmental Project Model
4. Utilize Potential Thematic Spaces of the Knowledge Discovery Canvas
5. Explore Possible Connections of Diagram Networks
6. Explore the Spatial Structure of Life Discovery Canvas
7. Explore Possible Paths of moving between thematic spaces

1. Creative Diagramming and Mental Moves

I don’t work in the field of visualization but in the field of knowledge engagement, especially turning tacit knowledge into knowledge frameworks.

What’s a knowledge framework? See the answer below.

A Knowledge Framework = Concepts + Diagrams + Methods = Curated Mental Elements

This is my rough definition of knowledge frameworks. I use it to guide my journey of knowledge engagement.

This is why I wrote two books (draft) about diagrams and diagramming in 2021 (1, 2). This is why I am working on the “Territory of Concepts” project.

This was why I developed the HITED framework and suggested the theme of “Methodological Empathy” in 2022.

This was why I developed the Knowledge Discovery Canvas in 2022.

From March 2023 to July 2023, I worked on the Mental Moves project about the Attachances of Moving between Thematic Spaces.

The concept of Attachance belongs to the Ecological Practice approach which is inspired by Ecological Psychology, Activity Theory, and social practice theories. In a broad sense, the Ecological Practice approach has its philosophical roots in traditional Pragmatism and contemporary embodied cognitive science.

On Dec 8, 2022, I introduced a new concept called “Ecological Strategic Cognition”. The Mental Moves project aims to explore a similar idea: Ecological Creative Cognition.

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

In the book, I discussed several examples of moving between thematic spaces. I used knowledge frameworks as concrete examples of thematic spaces. For example, the diagram below shows the night moves of the journey of developing the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework.

The above diagram was based on the Theme U diagram/framework.

What’s the significant insight behind the Mental Moves project?

It offers us a new view of diagrams and diagramming and knowledge frameworks in general.

In this view, a diagram and a knowledge framework are no longer a static knowledge representation, but a dynamic creative territory for exploring, reflecting, and curating.

From my research and real-life experiences, this view can guide us in the following actions:

Explore Graphic Space Affordances
Explore Potential Thematic Spaces of a diagram or a knowledge framework
Explore Possible Connections of Diagram Networks
Explore the Spatial Structure of a diagram or a knowledge framework
Explore Possible Paths of moving between thematic spaces

I’d like to call these actions Creative Diagramming.

2. Explore Graphic Space Affordances

Initially coined by Gibson, the term Affordance has been adopted by scholars from various domains such as psychology, human factors, design, communication, sociology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, etc. The renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett (2017) even suggested that “Affordances” should be more widely known by the general public.

For readers who are not familiar with the term Affordance and Gibson’s Affordance Theory, I’d like to share the following picture as a starting point. You can find more details here: Hammer, Hammering, and Affordance.

Traditionally, psychologists assumed that objects are composed of their qualities. Gibson rejected this view, “…But I now suggest that what we perceive when we look at objects are their affordances, not their qualities…The fact that a stone is a missile does not imply that it cannot be other things as well. It can be a paperweight, a bookend, a hammer, or a pendulum bob. It can be piled on another rock to make a cairn or a stone wall. These affordances are all consistent with one another. The differences between them are not clear-cut, and the arbitrary names by which they are called do not count for perception. If you know what can be done with a graspable detached object, what it can be used for, you can call it whatever you please.”(p.126)

The radical aspect of affordance theory is that it challenges the traditional view on the meaning of objects “concept first” and turns it to “percept first”. Concepts are about linguistic meaning and ordinary classes of objects. Gibson argued, “To perceive an affordance is not to classify an object…The theory of affordances rescues us from the philosophical muddle of assuming fixed classes of objects, each defined by its common features and then given a name. As Ludwig Wittgenstein knew, you cannot specify the necessary and sufficient features of the class of things to which a name is given. They have only a ‘family resemblance.’ But this does not mean you cannot learn how to use things and perceive their uses. You do not have to classify and label things in order to perceive what they afford.” (p.126)

In fact, affordance theory doesn’t only consider objects but considers objects as our environment. For Gibson, “objects, other persons and animals, places and hiding places” are our surrounding environment.

How to adopt Affordance Theory to discuss Diagrams and Diagramming?

The answer is we need to consider both diagrams and their environments. Thus, the perspective of the “Ecological Situation” encourages us to pay attention to the real-world environments of diagram-in-use. The primary question is not what a diagram is about, but where the diagram is.

Where is the diagram?

The diagram is in mind! Our first perspective Cognitive Representation is about this answer. The present discussion doesn’t want to repeat it.

The diagram is in books, papers, walls, whiteboards, floors, napkins, slides, canvases, tweets, blog posts, digital boards, etc. The “Ecological Situation” perspective aims to study opportunities behind these situations.

Though the term Affordance was coined by Gibson for his theory of ecological perception, the term is often misused in the literature in diffuse and imprecise ways. Outside ecological psychology, some authors expand the original meaning of Affordance from perception-based relative aspects to non-perception analysis. I personally don’t like this approach because the perception level analysis and the non-perception analysis have different conditions and require different analysis frameworks. It’s hard to maintain a consistent theoretical meaning for the concept of Affordance.

Some authors’ re-conceptualization of Affordance may have a special contribution to their domains, however, their new definitions of Affordance may add misunderstanding to Gibson’s original meaning. Eventually, the term Affordance became a normal word. I want to keep Gibson’s original meaning for the concept of Affordance and remain at the analysis level of the natural/material/technological environment.

Since Gibson’s Affordance theory is all about body-scale physical environments, It’s hard to apply it to digital environments because there are obvious differences between the physical environment and the digital environment. Thus, one-to-one accurate mapping is impossible and unnecessary.

Information Systems researchers and Social Media researchers tend to use the concept of Affordances at an abstract high-level or concrete feature-oriented low level. Tina Bucher and Anne Helmond made a great review of these situations in their paper The Affordances of Social Media Platform (2018). For example, danah boyd suggested four affordances: persistence, replicability, scalability, and searchability at the high level for social network sites (2011). On the other side, HCI researchers and designers focus on the affordances of buttons, screens, and special features at the low level for interface design. For example, William W. Gaver published a paper titled Technology Affordances (1991) and separated Affordances from the information available about them allowing the distinction between correct rejections and perceived hidden and false affordances.

My own approach is 1) adopting the Ecological Physical method to discuss digital environments, and 2) Using a metaphor called “Information as Light” to translate Gibson’s terms for discussing digital environments. You can find more details here: #SocialPxD — ReEngagement with Twitterville: An Introduction to Ecological Physics Method.

For the present discussion about diagrams and affordances, I designed a simple diagram below to develop a rough typology of Space Affordances.

Gibson actually didn’t use “Space Affordances” as a term in his books. He talked about various types of environments such as Surfaces, Objects, Other Persons and Animals, Places, and Hiding Places. I use the term Physical Space Affordances to refer to Surfaces, Containers, Places, etc. On the other hand, Non-space Affordances refer to Non-container Objects, Other Persons, and Animals.

The typology of Space Affordances highlights Graphic Space Affordance which is coined for discussing Diagrams in particular. It considers the affordances of white space in a graphic. In graphic design, white space means the space that surrounds the elements. Graphic Space Affordance asks a simple question:

What can I do with the white space of a diagram?

Digital Space Affordance considers the affordances offered by digital screens and virtual spaces. It’s a huge challenge to develop a general framework for the concept of Digital Space Affordance. I’d like to directly discuss some case studies about diagrams and digital spaces such as Miro which is a digital whiteboard platform.

Gibson’s 1979 book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception has 16 chapters. Gibson used the last two chapters to talk about pictures, videos, and visual awareness. The title of Chapter 15 is Pictures and Visual Awareness and Chapter 16 is Motion Pictures and Visual Awareness.

Gibson became interested in pictures and films during the war as a psychologist concerned with training young men to fly airplanes.

Based on the notion of Ecological Invariant, Gibson suggested that the picture is an array of persisting invariants of structure that are nameless and formless. This definition assumes that some of the invariants of an array can be separated from its perspective structure, not only when the perspective keeps changing, as in life. Thus, we can see formless invariants in a picture that seems to consist entirely of forms. Gibson gave us an example of a child and a cat:

This says that when the young child sees the family cat at play the front view, side view, rear view, top view, and so on are not seen, and what gets perceived is the invariant cat. The child does not notice the aspects of perspectives of the cat until he is much older; he just sees the cat rolling over. Hence, when the child first sees a picture of a cat he is prepared to pick up the invariants, and he pays no attention to the frozen perspective of the picture, drawing, photograph, or cartoon. It is not that he sees an abstract cat, or a conceptual cat, or the common features of the class of cats, as some philosophers would have us believe; what he gets is the information for the persistence of that peculiar, furry, mobile layout of surfaces…The child never sees a man as a silhouette, or as a cutout like a paper doll, but probably sees a sort of head-body-arms-legs invariant. Consequences, any outline drawing with this invariant is recognized as a man, and the outlines tend to be seen as the occluding edges of a man with interchangeable near and far sides. (p.259)

Gibson also argued that a picture is also a record that enables the invariants that have been extracted by an observer — at least, some of them — to be stored, saved, put away retrieved, or exchanged.

The notion of Ecological Invariants is part of Gibson’s Ecological Physical Method. You can find more details in a previous article #SocialPxD — ReEngagement with Twitterville: An introduction to Ecological Physics Method.

The above discussion tells us that Gibson didn’t pay attention to the white space of graphics. As mentioned above, I am quite conservative on repurposing the concept of Affordance. However, I’d like to coin the term Graphic Space Affordance (GSA) for discussing Diagrams in particular. The value of the concept of GAS refers to the affordances of white space of a graphic for people. It starts with a simple question: What can I do with the white space of a diagram?

In graphic design, white space means the space that surrounds the elements. By focusing on the affordances of white space of diagrams, we can find some constraints for design and some opportunities for innovation.

2.1 Peiphen’s Stickman and their Playground

My son Peiphen is a big fan of Alan Becker who is a famous Youtuber for his creative “Animator v.s. Animation” video and other stick figure animations. Peiphen likes watching Alan Becker’s videos and drawing stickman pictures too.

One day in the summer of 2019, Peiphen went to my office. Most times, he read books. He also played something in his creative ways. For example, he turned IKEA Bevisa memory cards into a “truck.” You can find this story here. He also drew something on my whiteboard and turned it into a playground for his stickman.

At that time, the whiteboard was not blank. I drew a diagram of “Platform Ecology” from the perspective of ecological ecology in the spring of 2019. I kept the diagram on the whiteboard for the long-term thinking of the Platform Ecology project. In fact, the project is for testing my new ideas about expanding ecological psychology from the traditional physical environment into the digital environment. The term Infoniche was coined at that time. Later, I wrote some ideas in the book After Affordance in 2020. I also applied the Infoniche framework to discuss the structure of the developmental platform and wrote the book Platform for Development at the end of 2021.

The above picture is my whiteboard. How to read this whiteboard?

I used Green and Red pens to draw my diagram and Peiphen used Blue and Black pens to draw his stickman.

The secret of Peiphen’s creative ways is Graphic Space Affordance.

He just ignored my diagram and saw them as lines.

He took these lines and the white space for his drawing.

An oblique line was perceived as a zipline by Peiphen. He didn’t know Gibson’s Affordance theory and his slogan “To perceive an affordance is not to classify an object.” For Peiphen, there was no diagram that represented a framework for Platform Ecology. He didn’t perceive the diagram as a whole because I didn’t explain the diagram to him.

2.2 From Value Proposition to Impact Canvas

What about if we have learned the meaning of a diagram? Can we perceive the Graphic Space Affordances of a diagram?

Let’s see an example of the affordance of white space.

The Value Proposition Canvas was introduced in a 2014 book titled Value Proposition Design. This is a popular canvas for startup product design and business model development. However, Craig Walmsley argued that business model design should consider ethics as an important perspective for valuing value. Walmsley said, “In part, that’s because the core design tools we use tend to omit the relations between people that would give them meaningful ethical content. That is to say, they pay little attention to the customer’s friends and family, the company’s employees, competitors, or society at large. Or to the consequences of a proposition in the wider world — the carbon footprint, or the length of time it would take for a product to biodegrade, for example. Paying attention to just the business and customer means not paying attention to the ethical implications of design choices.”

In order to develop a new tool that replaces the traditional “business—customer” mindset, Walmsley developed a new canvas: Impact Canvas.

How did he make the alternative?

Walmsley perceived the white space of the Value Proposition Canvas and defined it as Consequence Space. Then, he divided the Consequence Space into different areas of impact. The final canvas is called the Impact Canvas. See the picture below.

This is definitely a great example of taking Graphic Space Affordances for innovation.

Graphic Space Affordances also connect to both Physical Space Affordances and Digital Space Affordances. Physical Space Affordances are considered a physical container of a diagram. The size of the physical container also impacts Graphic Space Affordances.

You can find more details in D as Diagramming: An Integrated Framework for Studying Knowledge Diagrams (Part 4A).

3. Explore Potential Thematic Spaces of the Developmental Project Model

In Oct 2023, I worked on discovering the thematic spaces of the Developmental Project Model.

The diagram below is the standard model of the Developmental Project Model.

It was designed by combining two triangles together. See the diagrams below.

The first triangle is called “Developmental Resources”. I selected three dimensions for the diagram:

Content
Social
Action

“Content” refers to information that is to be expressed through some medium, such as speech, writing, or any of various art. “Social” refers to opportunities for connecting to other people. “Action” refers to operational opportunities offered by social environments such as digital platforms. The center of the triangle is “Theme” which refers to “Themes of Practice”.

The three dimensions of developmental resources are inspired by Knud Illeris’ How We Learn: Learning and Non-Learning in School and Beyond (2007).

The second triangle is called “Situational Context”. From the perspective of adult development, a Project is a type of situational context. This notion is inspired by two theoretical resources:

Andy Blunden’s idea “project as a unit of activity”
Derek Layder’s Social Domains Theory

The second triangle uses “Purpose, Program, and Position” to describe three important aspects of “Project”.

You can find more details in Developmental Project Model.

How many thematic spaces can we discover from the Developmental Project Model?

The model uses eight elements, so it has eight thematic spaces! See the Developmental Project Canvas. Now we see eight white spaces around the model. Each element has its own white space for creative diagramming.

Can we find more thematic spaces from the model?

On Oct 20, 2023, I made the above diagram and developed a sub-framework for the model.

The Developmental Project Model is a general framework. If we want to apply it to a specific type of project, we can develop sub-frameworks to expand it.

The CALL for DIVE program is designed for running knowledge projects.

I developed a sub-framework called D.I.V.E. for guiding knowledge projects.

Knowledge Discovery
Knowledge Integration
Knowledge Validation
Knowledge Evaluation

I placed it in the “Theme — Content — Program” thematic space.

Now, we can also use other thematic spaces to imagine new types of projects.

For example, what kind of projects should be placed in the “Social — Position — Identity” thematic space?

On Oct 22, 2023, I made the above diagram and used two examples to define a new type of project: the “META” projects.

I used this diagram to understand two real cases of belief change. Two friends of mine changed their beliefs about their mother country’s culture. They were both born in China. Now they built two different beliefs. One became a Christian, while the other person believed the ancient Western philosophy was fake.

They went through the process during the past several months. I see their journey as two “META” projects which are located in the “Purpose — Social — Theme” thematic space.

I use “META” to refer to the epistemological level change, such as religious beliefs, philosophical thinking, world views, life values, etc. The “Purpose — Social — Theme” thematic space is perfect for the “META” projects.

These examples mean that I can use three-word thematic spaces to develop a new typology of Developmental Projects. Also, this insight can be used to imagine new types of Developmental Projects.

On Oct 23, 2023, I made the above diagram and used it to reflect on two thematic conversation projects. I realized that the thematic conversation project should be placed in the “Social — Position —Identity” thematic space.

I also used “ECHO” to name the new type of projects. The term “ECHO” also connects to the ECHO Way which is a model for understanding cross-boundary collaboration.

Now we see 6 new thematic spaces in the model!

If we put these thematic spaces together, we see 16 thematic spaces.

If we connect it with other models, we can find more thematic spaces. See the example below.

On Oct 27, 2023, I added a circle to the Developmental Project model. This new diagram brings two new thematic spaces to the Developmental Project Model.

Enter with Opportunities
Exit with Achievements

Now we can use these two thematic spaces to curate more related ideas into the Project Engagement approach.

Enter with Opportunities

- Explore the conceptual space “Opportunity”

Link 1: An Integrated Framework for Studying Knowledge Diagrams (Part 4A)
Link 2: An Integrated Framework for Studying Knowledge Diagrams (Part 4B)

Exit with Achievements

The Achievement Chain

Link 1: Product, By-product, and Meta-product
Link 2: The “Result — Reward” Gap and Achievement

This diagram also is used to discuss an important issue: the concept of Projectivity and the concept of Attachance. See more details in Projectivity as Cultural Attachance.

Why did I want to explore thematic spaces in the Developmental Project Model?

It means I added a new layer to the Developmental Project Model. This insight can be applied to all other diagrams/models I made.

From this experience, we can define the “Diagram/model — Thematic Spaces — Perceivers” structure and use it to develop a new view of diagrams and diagramming.

4. Utilize Potential Thematic Spaces of the Knowledge Discovery Canvas

I also applied the same method for the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) program.

Two weeks ago, I worked on an AAI project that aims to help a knowledge creator reflect on his journey of knowledge engagement and discover potential creative themes for the future.

I used the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to discover several thematic spaces and placed his creative thematic network around the canvas. I didn’t use the canvas in its official way but used its white space for exploring potential thematic spaces.

To keep the client’s privacy, I applied the diagram to my own Creative Life.

On Oct 5, 2023, I discovered 5 thematic spaces from my Creative Life. See the diagrams below. You can find more details in CALL: The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 7).

By using the Knowledge Discovery Canvas, I discovered more thematic spaces from my Creative Life. See the diagram below.

Let’s start with the following basic unit of a thematic space. I designed the basic unit for the AAI project.

The above basic unit represents a thematic space in a three-layer structure:

Creative Life Story
Creative Theme
Knowledge Model

Creative Life Story refers to an interesting real-life story from a person’s creative life.

Creative Theme refers to a theme behind a creative life story. Each story is associated with a theme that defines a thematic space.

Knowledge Model refers to a knowledge framework for understanding the thematic space.

This three-layer structure was designed for the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) program.

I discovered 8 thematic spaces from my recent creative life and placed them around the Knowledge Discovery Canvas.

Enter:

Situational Note-taking
Early Discovery
The Thematic Exploration Framework

Exit:

Life Reflection
Late Bloom
The Creative Life Curation Framework

THEORY:

Theoretical Integration
Spirit of Unification
The Knowledge Curation Framework

PRACTICE:

Value Circle
Knowledge Center
The Project Engagement Framework

END:

Frame for Work
Applied Psychological Science
The Meaning Matrix Framework

MEANS:

Diagram Blending
Thematic Spaces
The Ecological Creative Cognition Framework

Individual:

Mental Moves
Self-awareness
The Ecological Creative Cognition Framework

Collective:

Social Moves
Structured Social Support
The Platform-for-Development Framework

A knowledge model can be assigned to more than one thematic space. For example, the Ecological Creative Cognition Framework was assigned to “Thematic Spaces” and “Self-awareness”.

I also use the AAI program and the Life Discovery Canvas to frame these 8 thematic spaces.

The AAI program defines two types of analysis: First-order Analysis and Second-order Analysis.
The Life Discovery Canvas defines four areas of life discovery: THINK, LEARN, SAY, and DO.

The primary themes of my Creative Life are Creative Work and Meta-knowledge about life and work.

First-order Activity Analysis (DO and SAY) is about Creative Work. I placed four thematic spaces into this category because they are all about Creative Work (DO and SAY).

Value Circle
Theoretical Integration
Frame for Work
Life Reflection

Second-order Activity Analysis (THINK and LEARN) is about Meta-knowledge about life and work. I placed the other four thematic spaces into this category.

Mental Moves
Social Moves
Diagram Blending
Situational Note-taking

This is the first round of exploring potential thematic spaces with the Knowledge Discovery Canvas.

5. Explore Possible Connections of Diagram Networks

In 2021, I wrote a book (titled) Diagram Blending: Building Diagram Networks.

I used the Part — Whole Curativity as the foundation of the book. A simple diagram can be considered a part of a complex diagram. By adopting the simple idea of Part and Whole, we can blend diagrams and build a diagram network too.

In 2018, I wrote a 108-page thesis titled Diagram Explained. I developed a framework for understanding multiple layers of diagrams and wrote a list of topics about diagramming. You can find the framework (see the picture below) on a board.

The thesis considers two groups of ideas. The first group is “meta-diagram, diagram, and diagram system” and the second group is “diagramming as an activity of knowing, theorizing and reflecting”.

The notion of “meta-diagram” considers a special type of diagram as an independent thing that doesn’t have to be a representation of an existing theory or model. For example, the 2x2 matrix diagram is a meta-diagram that doesn’t refer to any concrete theory or model such as BCG’s Growth-share matrix. A diagram system is a series of diagrams that share an intrinsic spatial logic and a visual identity.

Diagram Blending collected my meta-diagrams and real-life experiences of using these meta-diagrams to build diagram networks. The picture below is my meta-diagrams.

You can find more details in Introduction and Table of Contents.

The ECHO Way (v2.0) is a typical example of diagram blending. The ECHO way is defined as a practical framework for guiding research, design, and development in the real-life world. As a knowledge framework, it has three components: diagrams, concepts, and methods. The diagram below is an application of the ECHO Way (v2.0).

The core of the ECHO way is the following diagram. This is a result of Diagram Blending which means a process of curating several diagrams together. The sources of the diagram are three primary diagrams:

Theme U
Project I
Container Z

You can find more details in The ECHO Way (v2.0) and Life Discovery: The “Present — Future” Fit and The ECHO Way.

In the above discussion, we found some examples of possible connections of diagram networks.

The above diagram shows a connection between the Developmental Project Model and the ECHO Way (v2.0).

The Daiana — Oliver Thematic Conversation (Jan 2023)
The Johan — Oliver Thematic Conversation (Oct 2023)

The above “Projectivity as Attachance” diagram connects the Developmental Project Model with the basic model of the Ecological Practice approach (see the diagram below).

You can find more details in Projectivity as Cultural Attachance.

The above diagram connects the AAI program with the Life Discovery Canvas.

6. Explore the Spatial Structure of Life Discovery Canvas

In Feb 2022, I worked on the Life Discovery Toolkit and the Life-as-Project approach.

I designed a canvas called Life Discovery Canvas.

The Life Discovery Canvas is not a simple 2x2 matrix for building a typology, but a multiple-dimension model for visualizing a holistic view to sense-make a dynamic meaningful whole.

There is a dimension behind the “Left — Right” direction: the Self — Other Relevance.

For the vertical direction, I consider the Practice — Theory Dialogue.

One of the theoretical resources behind the Life Discovery Activity is Activity Theory which is originally about “Production”.

The “Think — Do” connection refers to the Production Chain. The term “Chain” refers to “Think — Do — Think — Do — Think — DO” which is about a network of projects.

I also consider Relevance Theory as one of the theoretical resources for the Life Discovery Activity. The Relevance Theory is more about communication.

The “Learn — Say” connection refers to the Communication Chain. The term “Chain” refers to “Learn — Say — Learn — Say — Learn — Say” which is about communities, platforms, or other social contexts of projects.

The Life Discovery Activity also adopts the Anticipatory Activity System framework for its theoretical resources.

The last dimension is called the Experiment Chain which is defined by the “Anticipation — Performance” complexity.

To highlight four themes of the Life Discovery Activity, I also define four thematic fields. Each field contains four blocks with two pairs of concepts.

The Attachment Field contains the following concepts:

Skills — Knowledge
Supplies — Demands

You can also find more fields in the Life Discovery Canvas:

The Achievement Field
The Anticipation Field
The Performance Field

From the perspective of ecological psychology, a canvas is an environment. The spatial structure of a canvas refers to a piece of the spatial structure of our environments. Thus, we should consider spatial structure as ecological knowledge.

According to the ecological psychologist Harry Heft, “…some of the things we have come to understand about the effects of certain actions on the environment we have subsequently built into environmental structures themselves. These latter constructed embodiments of what is known — which include tools, artifacts, representations, social patterns of actions, and institutions — can be called ecological knowledge.” (2001, p.330)

Life Discovery Canvas offers an environment for discovering new potential life possible actions with a dynamic holistic view. As a model of the Life Discovery Activity, it is also a creative space, an environment for exploration.

You can find more details in The Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0) — Part 2: Spatial Structure.

7. Explore Possible Paths of moving between thematic spaces

A knowledge framework is a model of a reality. Moving between thematic spaces in a knowledge framework echoes moving in the real-life world.

While many knowledge frameworks are used to help thinking, we could use knowledge frameworks to reflect on our past real actions, and explore our future possible actions.

In this way, the path of moving between thematic spaces is not only about mental moves but also social moves.

In the past year, I worked on several creative life curation projects with creative diagramming. I used my knowledge frameworks to map my journey of knowledge engagement.

I also tried this method for planning new knowledge projects in the past several months.

You can find my paths in the following diagrams.