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(change viewpoints) or restructure the environment (take action) in order to explore
further possibilities for interaction that will in turn help evaluate emerging theories
and also reveal additional actions. It is the dynamics of this feedback loop that need
to be understood and modeled in order to understand the improvisation that inher-
ently undergirds creativity.
7.3.5
Enactive Creativity Examples
The literature on creativity provides evidence supporting the enactive perspective
with research on “thinking by doing.” There is a multitude of evidence demonstrat-
ing how both representational and nonrepresentational artists plan their artworks
using sketches, studies, and other ways to simulate artistic alternatives (Mace and
Ward
2002
). Sketching reduces cognitive load and facilitates perceptually based
reasoning (Schön
1992
). In many creative domains, individuals generate vague
ideas and then use some form of sketch or prototyping activities to creatively
explore, evaluate, and refi ne artistic intentions (Davis et al.
2011
). Sketching allows
creative individuals to think by doing. When an action or idea is materialized in
some way, the perceptual system is rewarded with richer data than pure mental
simulations and abstract reasoning. Additionally, cognitive resources that would
have been used to simulate the action (i.e., consciously visualizing the situation) are
now freed for other tasks such as interpretation and analysis (Shneiderman
2007
).
7.3.5.1
Architectural Design
One obvious example of using sketch to “think by doing” can be found in the task
of planning the spatial confi gurations in the architectural design process. As
addressed above, generating an entire artifact with all of its details directly from the
mind is virtually impossible for a designer (Schön
1992
). Instead, designers experi-
ence these improvised real-time adjustments in the design procedures with the tools
and materials they are using. When starting the design process, designers choose
different materials, tools, and media to present the initial ideas from their minds to
explore the constraints of their problem (Schön
1992
). When they interact with
these tools, they might need to adjust their actions in order to achieve their needs.
For instance, when drawing a sketch to study the forms, they may need to constantly
adjust the “next steps” in order to solve the design constraints, such as not enough
space, too long, too much curvature, etc.
Figure
7.4
illustrates a typical spatial plan of a student center in a bubble dia-
gram. Since the plan entails many spaces, the designers would have to write down
all the space names so that related spaces are located next to each other. They would
also use arrows to represent the main circulation paths between two spaces. Each
time a new space is added or an arrow is inserted, the designer's fl ow of sensory
information changes and they might discover new problems or opportunities that
