Syllabus for Iba Lab B2 (Fall 2012) - Exploring Theories, Methods, and Practices for the Creative Society

We welcome GIGA students who don't speak Japanese!

Syllabus for Iba Lab B2 (Fall 2012)

Exploring Theories, Methods, and Practices for the Creative Society

Takashi Iba (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)

Important Dates

July 3, 2012: Iba Lab information session (5th hour @ K11)
July 21, 2012: Entry submission deadline
July 26-27, 2012: Interview sessions (dates subject to change)
July 28, 2012: Lab spring presentations

Course Goals and Overview

Our society today is becoming more complex and diverse day by day. Finding a way to design the future with our own hands has become the fundamental problem for us today. To be creative in such a society, we must create our own visions, and design tools and methods to make the vision become a reality.

In our lab, we define a Creative Society as a society where various people design and create new perceptions, new products, new methods, and ultimately the future for ourselves, by ourselves. The lab aims to seize the sprouts of the creative society, imagine its growth, and nurture it through actual practice.

Members of the lab would either work on Personal Projects based on their interest in a certain field, or they can work in one of the Frontier Projects formed by members of the lab.

Examples of Personal Projects include analysis of open collaborations, research on social media, putting creative workshops to practice, analysis of the creative process, creation of tools to support creative processes, building new forms of communication media, or the creation of a pattern language in a new field. Of course, any other topic that you are interested in is welcome.

We are planning on starting the following Frontier Projects.

• Documentary Filming - Filming, production, and streaming of the world's first documentary film about pattern languages. Those with skills in film editing are welcome.
• Web Application Development - Launch a new kind of social networking service based on pattern languages. We welcome those with high programming and software development skills. 
• Global Expansions - Introduce pattern languages and workshops based on them overseas. For all of you out there with high English skills, this is the place for you.
• Workshop Design - Develop and carry out new forms of workshops using pattern languages. For those interested in creating environments for effective study or creation.
• Education to Nurture Creativity - Study methods of education that would nurture the creativity of children, and put it into practice. Future teachers and anyone interested in education is welcome.

Upon conducting your project, you must first let go of the knowledge and methods fixed to existing sciences, and commit to the project by reconstructing a new method for a new era of study. To help the process, we will take time to read and discuss books about related topics.

The theme for our lab is Creativity. We are looking for prospective lab members who are willing to commit creatively to the future!

To find out more about our works, visit our lab blog:
The Creative Systems Lab
http://creativesystemslab.blogspot.jp/

Course Schedule

• Progress on each member's project will be shared at lab meetings. In addition, we will read and discuss books, and exercises to polish up skills will be given. 
• Members are required to work on their projects outside of class time.
• Sessions are planned on 5th hour Tuesdays.

Course Language

English, Japanese
We welcome GIGA students who don't speak Japanese!

Course Requirements

• Members are required to take classes held by Professor Iba besides the lab sessions, since skills and knowledge necessary for the lab will be taught there also. Professor Iba will be teaching "Pattern Language" and "Complex Systems Theory" in the Fall semester of 2012. 
• We are looking for members who are willing to study together with us in a long perspective. Breakthrough in knowledge and skills can be expected through long-term commitment.

Available Seats

Approximately 20

Misc. Information

• Since members of the lab each have a different field of expertise, knowledge necessary for each member's project must be acquired outside of class.
• Classes will most likely be extended without notice. We also go for dinner after lab sessions, so please keep your schedule open for the night on days with lab sessions. 
• You are welcome to take both Iba Lab B1 and B2 in the same semester, or belong to another lab besides the Iba lab at the same time. 
• Prospective members are asked to attend the Iba Lab Spring Presentation on 7/28/2012 (Sat).
• Join us on opportunities to go on overseas trips to attend workshops and academic conferences. This year we will be visiting Germany in July and the US in October. 
• Iba Lab members are required to write their graduation thesis in English.

Entry Assignment

After reading through this syllabus thoroughly, please submit the entry assignment described below via email by Saturday, July 21.

Email to: ilab-entry2012 [at] sfc.keio.ac.jp
Subject: Iba Lab B2 Entry
Please attach your entry assignment in a Word or PDF file.

Iba Lab B2 Entry Assignment

1. Name, Faculty, Grade, Student ID, login ID
2. Topic of study you wish to work on in the lab, or the Frontier Project you wish to participate in. Reason for your entry. Your Enthusiasm towards the project.
3. Other Labs you are planning on belonging to next semester (If any)
4. Labs you have been a part of (If any)
5. Favorite classes you've taken so far - Multiple answers are welcome
6. Courses by Prof. Iba which you have taken before
7. Any other introduction of yourself. (clubs, activities, interests, future visions, any other points to sell)

* Question 2 should be about 1 page in length.
** You are welcome to use any pictures or diagrams for questions 2 and 7.

The selection interview will be held based on the information given in the entry assignment.

References

• Takashi Iba, "An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity", Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol.2, Issue 4, 2010, pp.6610-6625
• Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Riverhead Trade, 2006
• Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio Trade, Expanded ed., 2010
• Peter Gloor, Coolfarming: Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing, AMACOM, 2010
• Keith Sawyer, Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, Basic Books, 2008 
• Thomas Kelley, Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation: Success Through Innovation the IDEO Way, Profile Business, 2002

• Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World, Cornell University Press, 1984
• Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, The University of Chicago Press, 2000
• N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996
• Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution, The University of Chicago Press, 1962
• Freeman Dyson, Imagined Worlds, Harvard University Press, 1997
• Peter M. Senge, et. al., Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, Crown Business, Reprint ed., 2008
• C. Otto Scharmer, Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges: The Social Technology of Presencing, Berrett-Koehler Pub, 2009

• Stephen Grabow, Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture, Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1983 
• M. Lynn Manns, L. Rising, Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, Addison-Wesley, 2004
• Learning Patterns Project, Learning Patterns: A Pattern Language for Creative Learning, 2011
• Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, Book 1-4, Center for Environmental Structure, 2001-
• Jenny Quillien, Delight's Muse on Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order: A Summary and Personal Interpretation, Lulu.Com, 2008

• George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, The University of Chicago Press, 1980
• "Deduction, Induction, and Hypothesis" (Charles Sanders Peirce, The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings VOLUME 1 (1867-1893), Indiana University Press, 1992) p.186-199
• Hayao Miyazaki, Starting Point 1979-1996, VIZ media, 2009
• Haruki Murakami, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir, Vintage Books, 2009
• B. Minto, The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking, 3rd Revised ed, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2008

Toward the Advent of Creative Society

It appears that “creativity” is one of the most notable keywords today. While in some fields like business and policymaking the term "innovation" is preferred, what is intended to mean seems be quite similar. Especially the recent trend is to place emphasis on creativities of group, organization, community, and even society as well as creativity of individuals. To indicate the affair, the term “collaboration” and then its derivative terms like “Creative Collaboration” (Schrage 1995, John-Steiner, 2000), “Group Creativity” (Sawyer 2003), “Group Genius” (Sawyer 2008), “Organizational Creativity” (Zhou & Shalley 2007), “Collective Creativity”, “Open Collaboration”, “Swarm Creativity” (Gloor 2006), and “Mass Collaboration” (Tapscott & Williams 2008) are used.

Keywords associated with Creative Society (Illustrated by Takashi Iba)

There are several reasons why creativity is paid attention today. First, against the backdrop of the shift from labor-intensive work to knowledge-intensive work, many people involved in business need to make full use of intelligence and creativity for obtaining added-valued outcomes (Florida 2002). While introducing information technologies has been changing the style of work, the upcoming trend requires being more creative (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995, Malone 2004). As Daniel Pink (2006) pointed out, we are no longer simply in “Information Age”, but in an emerging age called “Conceptual Age”. Thus thinking with both of “left-brain” and “right-brain”, which is often called “design thinking”, is required today (Kelley & Littman 2001, Brown 2009).

Second, we have been realizing that enhancing creativity is necessary to shape the future in our complex, diverse, and "liquid" society. The problems today are quite complex and dynamic to solve, so we must gather the creative abilities beyond professions and disciplines. As Michael Gibbons et. al. (1994) pointed out, the emerging mode of scientific knowledge production, which is called “mode 2” against the mode of conventional sciences, is characterized by transdisciplinary, heterogeneity, heterarchical, and transient. The challenge to create new trends for the future is often carried out with a growing network including creators, communicators, and collaborators, which Peter Gloor (2006) called “Collaborative Innovation Networks” (COINs).

Third, people have been thinking that engaging in creative activities can meet the human desire in deep level. For a past decade, information technologies, especially the Internet, has provided the infrastructure for everyone to enjoy participate collaborations based on their interest (Torvalds & Diamond 2002, Friedman 2005, Tapscott & Williams 2008). According to psychological studies by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990; 1996), the “flow” experience when involved in creative activities is known to provide the feeling of happiness. Self-fulfillment in contemporary age is not based on material pleasures, but higher stage of motivation like creativity (Maslow1954).

Thus the advent of “creative society” demands enhancement of our creative ability and the environment (Resnick 2002). There is, however, the crucial problem that the essential nature of creative process is still unknown. In fact, we know little about what goes on in creative process and how we can support it, although psychologists have endeavor to understand the creativity. It is just because psychological approach can reveal only one aspect of creativity, that is to say psychological aspect, and other aspects remain to be studied.

Against such a background, this blog "Creative Systems Lab" carries out an explanation into the nature of creative process with our new theory named "Creative Systems Theory" (Iba 2009), which is based on the latest system theory, namely autopoietic systems theory. We will explain the theory and also re-consider several cases based on it. Furthermore, we will provide a wide variety of information about creativity.

Okay, it's a time to start. Enjoy!


References

Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, HarperBusiness.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990; 2008). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, Harper Perennial.

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Basic Books.

Friedman, T.L. (2005; 2007). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Further updated and expanded, resease 3.0, Picador.

Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P.& Trow, M. (1994). The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies, Sage Publications.

Gloor, P. (2006). Swarm Creativity: Competitive Advantage Through Collaborative Innovation Networks: Oxford University Press

Iba, T. (2009). An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity, This first conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs).

John-Steiner, V. (2000). Creative Collaboration, Oxford University Press.

Kelley, T. & Littman, J. (2001). The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm, Broadway Business.

Malone, T.W. (2004). The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style, and Your Life, Harvard Business School Press.

Maslow, A.H. (1954; 1987). Motivation and Personality, 3rd edition, HarperCollins Publishers.

Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995; 2008). The Knowledge-Creating Company, Harvard Business School Press.

Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System: Free Press.

Pink, D.H. (2006). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Update edition, Riverhead Trade.

Resnick, M. (2002). Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age, in The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World, G. Kirkman (ed.), Oxford University Press.

Sawyer, R.K. (2003). Group Creativity: Music, Theater, Collaboration, Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sawyer, R.K. (2007). Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration, Basic Books.

Schrage, M. (1990). Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration, Random House.

Schrage, M. (1995). No More Teams!: Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration, Currency Doubleday.

Tapscott, D. & Williams, A. D. (2008), Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Expanded edition, Portfolio.

Torvalds, L. & Diamond, D. (2002). Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary, Harper Paperbacks.

Zhou, J. & Shalley, C. (eds) (2007). Handbook of Organizational Creativity (Hardcover), Psychology Press.