Proposing the Creative Systems Diagram at COINs2010

Today, I gave a presentation about a new diagram for describing creative process at the Second International Conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs2010).

"Autopoietic Systems Diagram for Describing Creative Processes"
Takashi Iba, The 2nd International Conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs2010), Oct, 2010.

Presentation Slides (PDF)


How creative processes are possible? In order to answer the question, our previous study (Iba 2009) proposed a new theory for creativity based on the autopoietic systems theory (Maturana & Varela 1980; Luhmann 1984). In the theory, a creative process is defined as an autopoietic system whose elements are “discoveries.” In other words, creative process is a re-production network of discoveries. Each discovery is emerged only when a synthesis of the following three selection occurs: “idea,” “association,” and “finding”. While we cannot predict the direction of any creative processes due to the nature of contingency, we can retrodict the process with the terms of the theory. However, the way to comprehend the creative process remains unclear, since our previous study only suggested a framework. Here we propose a method to describe creative processes in a diagram, which we call “autopoietic systems diagram.” Furthermore, we also show some examples from our own experiences of creative processes. We anticipate that the proposed method and diagram will be useful toolkits like the ones of System Dynamics (Forrester, 1961; Sterman 2000) and Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland 1981; Wilson 1984).

Checkland, P.B. (1981) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons.
Forrester, J.W. (1961) Industrial Dynamics. Pegasus Communications.
Iba, T. (2009) “An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity”, 1st Collaborative Innovation Network Conference.
Luhmann, N. (1984) Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie, Suhrkamp. (English translation: Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1995)
Maturana, H.R. & Varela, F.J. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition: The realization of The Living, Springer.
Sterman, J.D. (2000) Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. McGraw Hill.
Wilson, B. (1984) Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications, John Wiley & Sons.

My Talk at COINs2009 Conference

Last week, I gave a talk about the Creative Systems Theory at the first conference on Collaborative Innovation Networks 2009 (COINs 2009), which was held in Savannah, GA.

The conference was so exciting that I enjoyed learning from lots of interdisciplinary studies about creative collaboration and also several practical workshops. The venue of the conference , Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), was great and adequate for the theme of COINs conference. I would like to thank organizers, Chris Miller, Ken Riopelle, Julia Gluesing, and Peter Gloor; keynote speakers; workshop leaders; presenters; and all participants.

It was first time of talk about the Creative Systems Theory. I have no idea whether I could explain it well, but it seems be a good start since some audiences told me they were interested in the theory :-)

Summary: "An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity"

In this talk, an alternative approach to understanding creativity rather than psychological and sociological ones is proposed. The approach is based on autopoietic system theory, where an autopoietic system is defined as a unity whose organization is defined by a particular network of production processes of elements. While the theory was originally proposed in biology and then applied to sociology, I apply it to understand the nature of creation, and call it "Creative Systems Theory".

Creative system is an autopoietic system whose element is "discovery", which is emerged only when a synthesis of three selections is occurred: "idea", "association", and "consequence". Creative system is historical system, because its element, that is discovery, is produced based on the ongoing system itself in a circular fashion. Intrinsically, nexus of discovery is hardly to happen, hence any kinds of "media", namely "discovery media", are necessary to emerge discoveries over time. Thus, with using these concepts, we open the way to understand creation itself separated from psychic and social aspect of creativity. On the basis, the coupling between creative, psychic, and social systems is discussed.

I suggest, in this talk, the future of creativity studies. I re-define a discipline "Creatology" that is a discipline for studying creativity which focuses on creative systems. I propose a new name of interdisciplinary field as "Creative Sciences", which provide an interdisciplinary connections among creatology, psychology, and so on.

Here is the presentation slides for my talk. It may give you a brief overview of the theory, although there are only figures rather than sentences for explanation. In this blog, I will write all topics introduced in this slides.

• Presentation Slides "An Autopoietic Systems Theory for Creativity" (PDF, 1MB)