A Critical Reflection on Creative Practice: The Evolution of My Embodied Creativity

In December 2016, I realized that six months of hard work would not be enough to get me to innovate a new cochlear hearing aid for my bachelor's project. This truth was a lesson and, to some extent, a tragic occurrence at the time. I needed a replanning of my ambitions. By October 2017, my part-time job as a designer at an advertising agency resulted in a promotion to art direction. Now I see it as a signifier of my multifaceted skills and the 'little-c' contributions I have made. (Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009)

This story shows the depth of knowledge required and the accessibility to resources essential for the productivity of creative projects (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). My journey, marked by a tolerance for ambiguity and a gentle acceptance of failure, proved my creative essence (Andriopoulos, 2009). The decline of my grand 'Big-C' vision was an important incident, provoked a deeper appreciation for 'little-c's' and reoriented my goals to harness my domain-specific skills. Later, I will elaborate on how an intrinsic need for achievement nurtured my 'mini-C's' in this journey. (Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009)(Andriopoulos, 2009).

In February 2020, a car accident shockingly impacted my mental health, leading to PTSD and anxiety. This period was at the same time as my BA final project. The accident drove me to explore the psychology of emotions to understand and cope with my trauma as well as choosing an open and prospective approach to design known as speculative design (Raby, 2013). My speculative design project on mental well-being formed my engagement with cognitive science and design. Understanding the complexities of these subjects inspired the synthesis of these two domains, thereby leading to multiple innovative ideas (mini-c’s). Now, my goal is to turn them into professional creative practices. (pro-c’s) (Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009).

During those six months, Norman’s insights on design and mental models inspired my research on cognitive sciences (Norman, 2013). Further, this led me to explore synesthesia and a multi-sensory design approach in my final project, speculating on the future of user experience in devices like screen tablets. About a year later, I applied for a job at a traditional jewellery studio to work with handcrafted pieces. One in the same field would notice how speculative design and cognitive sciences have directed my creative path away from the digital world as I discovered that my true expressions emerged from tangible, and direct interaction with my craft.

December 2020. As a bench jeweller and designer, I shifted from digital art to tangible craftsmanship. This career change planted the seed for my latest project “Museum of History of Emotions.” This platform, born from my exploration of embodied metaphors and image schemas, allows and assists users to create art that reflects their emotional journeys. It's a space where personal virtual galleries can turn into actual artworks through collaborations with professional artists. This concept will probably redefine our interaction with art and emotions while creating capacities for art business opportunities. 

This conceptual museum will transport us back and forth between virtuality and reality. However, it exists both as a physical service and a VR/AR experience. Here, users engage with deep emotional experiences through art created by their simple expressions and propositions. These creations can become a deal between patrons(users) and artists, making emotions last forever in art. In the next paragraphs, I will illustrate how integrating cognitive science with my design background resulted in the development of this innovative concept. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996)

By studying Damasio's theory of emotions, plus the concept of “image and force schemas”, I found a way to translate physical sensations into everyday metaphors. This was the foundation for the Museum of History of Emotions based on a theory that suggests an emotional event triggers its corresponding program in the brain, leading to physical sensations (Damasio, 1999). Concurrently, our cognitive processes interpret the events and feelings (physical sensations) of emotions, drawing metaphorical and abstract conclusions between them (Damasio, 2010). Embodied mind theory suggests that these metaphors and abstractions are grounded in our physical being (Johnson, 1999). 

While these fundamentals resonated deeply with my own recovery process after the accident, as I navigated the complex interaction of feelings and thoughts, I used them as my tool to intertwine emotions and their abstractive meanings within the realm of embodied primary metaphors. These primary metaphors themselves are made of “recurring patterns of sensory-motor experience” which are known as “image and force schemas.” in this way, Primarily through physical interaction with our surroundings, we master a vast array of experientially rooted primary metaphors, which their combination will turn into complex conceptual metaphors or abstractions (Johnson, 2017). This understanding allows for the probable conversion of emotions and semiotics just like I did. Bridging consciousness and emotions through physical meaning and schemas unravels ways to form connections between other complex realms like art and creativity in an abductive inference (Hedblom, 2020). 

This approach has similar connections with creativity methods like conceptual blending (Turner, 2002). In summary, it generates creativity by integrating different domains through linguistics and cognitive processes (Hedblom, 2020). I have this idea that such creative processes can lead to the development of new fields, innovative conceptual systems (Gauntlett's craft-digital metaphorical blend) (Gauntlett, 2011), and novel frameworks to resolve cognitive bias effects (such as De Bono’s metaphorical six-hat concept), and finally promoting new structures and values in any domain. 

In conclusion, my design signifies the resilience of creativity amidst adversity. it shows how with traits of creative personalities, one can turn obstacles into ideas. Recognising the scale of one's creativity and its fit within the domain's receptivity to new ideas is crucial, as is acknowledging the significance of professionals within the field (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). This recognition influenced my latest project, leading me to predict its progression from mini-c to Pro-c in the future, and possibly to Big-C's, under the right circumstances (Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009). This project was centred on creativity; Exploring it fundamentally reshaped my understanding of what creativity means. Creativity reminds me of the harmonious solidification of ideas, aesthetically resonant within their domain, and capable of reforming the domain's gestalt significantly or minimally (Johnson, 2018), just like the experience from my encounter with Norman's design principles to my tendency and attention to the multi-sensory experience of art and the cognitive exploration that came together as the Museum of History of Emotions. It's a dance of entropy, where the chaotic shower of force and image schemas tempo slows down to form metaphors that work together in a novel form, emerging a new abstraction. (Edelman, 2004).