Mapping Creative Dialogue (book, v1, 2024)

A New Unit of Analysis of Creative Life Theory

From 2022 to 2023, I worked on developing the Creative Life Curation project and the Knowledge Engagement project. The outcome is a new theoretical approach to knowledge creators’ life course: Creative Life Theory.

In the past several years, I developed a set of concepts, diagrams, knowledge frameworks, and metaphors to discuss a family of topics such as boundary innovation, opposite themes, thematic conversation, creative dialogue, etc.

In the past several weeks, I realized that “Creative Dialogue” is a significant aspect of Creative Life. So I decided to add “Creative Dialogue” as a new unit of analysis to Creative Life Theory and edit a new possible book.

1. A New Unit of Analysis

2. The Ecological Formism Framework

3. The Basic Form of Creative Dialogue

4. The ECHO Way

5. The ARCH Model

6. The Activity Circle

7. Others

8. Variant: Kinds of Frameworks

9. A Possible Book

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The ECHO Way
Part 3: The ARCH Model
Part 4: The Activity Circle
Part 5: Others

1. A New Unit of Analysis

In the book (draft) titled Creative Life Curation, I developed Creative Life Theory (v1.0) which considers the following five units of analysis.

1. Creative Actions 2. Creative Projects 3. Creative Journey 4. Creative Landscape 5. Creative Lifescope

The framework also highlights the following three types of “Curativity”:

Curativity 1: Turning pieces of Projects into a Journey as a meaningful whole
Curativity 2: Turning pieces of Projects into a Landscape as a meaningful whole
Curativity 3: Turning pieces of Actions and Projects into a Lifescope as a meaningful whole

It’s an open framework!

If we can discover a new significant aspect of Creative Life and develop a corresponding method, we can add Curativity 4 and related keywords to the diagram.

Or, we can add Curativity 1.5 or Curativity 2.5 to the diagram.

In the past several weeks, I realized that “Creative Dialogue” is a significant aspect of Creative Life. For example, I developed the Mapping Thematic Dialogue method in Sept 2022. From 2020 to 2022, I worked on Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology. I faced the challenge of maintaining a boundary between these two theoretical approaches. However, I found the zone of boundary is a great creative space for developing new ideas. Eventually, I used the WXMY model to develop a thematic dialogue between two theories.

So I decided to add “Creative Dialogue” as a new unit of analysis to Creative Life Theory.

2. The Ecological Formism Framework

The Creative Dialogue project adopts the Ecological Formism Framework as a meta-framework to curate these tools and topics into a meaningful whole.

The Ecological Formism Framework is an epistemological framework that frames six units of analysis from four types of knowing.

The “Concept” level is about the transformation between themes and concepts.

The “Framework” level is about the emergence of knowledge frameworks.

The “Diagram” level is about the External Visual Representations of knowledge frameworks.

The TST level (the “Thematic Space” level) is a middle level that connects “Activity” and “Framework”.

The “Activity” level is about different patterns of actions.

The “Affordance” level is related to the Operation level of Activity.

The Ecological Formism Framework uses “Variant > Quasi-invariant > Invariant > Invariant Set” as the foundation to define four types of entities for knowing:

Invariant: Basic Forms
Invariant Set: Frames
Quasi-invariant: Derived Forms
Variant: Frameworks

For example, the idea of “Container(Containee)” was claimed as a basic form of “Container Thinking”.

The above diagram uses “Container Thinking” as an example to showcase the differences between “Basic Forms”, “Derived Forms”, and “Frameworks”.

The Basic Form of “Container(Containee)” is the foundation of my theoretical account: the Ecological Practice approach.

In the past several years, I used the Basic Form of “Container(Containee)” to generate many knowledge frameworks for different projects. See the diagram below.

You can find more details in Frame for Work: The Hermeneutics of Knowledge Frameworks and Ecological Formism.

3. The Basic Form of Creative Dialogue

From the perspective of the Ecological Formism Framework, what’s the Basic Form of Creative Dialogue?

It’s very simple. See the sign below.

X____Y

What does it mean?

It means 1) there are two objects or entities, and 2) there is a gap or distance between them.

That’s all!

How do we get several derived forms from a basic form? There are many ways to expand a basic form to a derived form.

We can start with the basic form of “Creative Dialogue”, discover several ecological metaphors that represent the basic form, and develop abstract models from these ecological metaphors.

The reverse process is also acceptable. In fact, I just started from a set of knowledge frameworks and used ecological metaphors to discover the basic form.

After sorting my tools and articles about the “Creative Dialogue” unit of analysis, I realized there are three categories behind these works:

Subjects are Objects such as knowledge themes, career themes, etc.
Subjects are People
Subjects are Social Entities or People inside a Social Entity

I also found that the three models I developed match these three categories.

The Echozone model: Subjects are Objects
The ARCH Model: Subjects are People
The Activity Circle Model: Subjects are Social Entities

It’s also easy to find three metaphors that represent these models.

“Bridge”
“Arch”
“Talk”

This is not an ideal classification. Some tools and articles are about knowledge themes, but the ECHO Way model does not represent them.

We can also use a meta-diagram to turn a Basic Form into a Derived Form. See the diagram below.

You can find more details in TALK: Two Cups of Coffee and Activity Circle.

4. The ECHO Way

The metaphor of Bridge refers to two objects or entities and a gap or distance between them.

The X____Y Basic form could be represented by different diagrams such as Theme U and WXMY. The Theme U diagram is used to display six themes in a U shape. The WXMY diagram is used to frame a creative space by using three containers.

It could lead to Derived Forms such as the Echozone model which could lead to Frameworks such as the ECHO Way.

The Theme U diagram is a meta-diagram representing a unique spatial structure without touching domain-specific content. The unique spatial structure of Theme U is perfect for displaying opposite themes.

The WXMY diagram is an advanced way to use the Theme U diagram. It uses one container to connect two containers.

Theme U and WXMY are used to present Pairs of Opposite Themes that could lead to Structural Tensions such as boundary, distance, difference, heterogeneity, contradiction, and complementation. If we can turn one or more structural tensions into creative opportunities, then we could find a way of innovation.

The metaphor of Waterfall represents the Flow of Life Experiences.

The above diagram refers to the ECHO Way. See the diagram below.

While Theme U is used to represent Objective Conditions by using opposite themes, Project I is used to represent Subjective Experiences by running developmental projects.

You can find more details in The ECHO Way: Waterfall, Bridge, and Creative Life.

5. The ARCH Model

The ARCH diagram was born from my research project about social (interaction) design in 2017. Later, I realized that it can be used for discussing conflict, consensus, and intersubjectivity in general. See the diagram below.

From 2017 to 2023, I worked on different projects and used the ARCH diagram to develop different knowledge frameworks. I moved on to different levels of the hierarchy of Diagrams. See the diagram below.

For some projects, the ARCH diagram is a “Main Character”. For other projects, it is a “Side Character”.

You can find more details in Mental Moves #5: The Attachance of Rediscovery and Diagram Development.

The Creative Dialogue project uses “ARCH” to name a Derived Form that represents the “Subjects are People” category.

I selected three knowledge frameworks as examples for the present discussion.

The “AAI’s Synergy Effects” Framework
The “Slow Talk” Framework
The “Ecological Zone” Framework

You can find more details in ARCH: Interpersonal Interactions, Collaborative Projects, and Creative Life.

6. The Activity Circle

The Activity Circle focuses on “Self, Other, Thing, and Think”. It is perfect for discussing a special object with double properties: material property and mental property. This idea was inspired by cultural-historical psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s two types of mediating tools: technological tools and psychological tools.

The original idea of the Activity Circle is called the “Activity — Relationship” perspective which was developed in 2017.

In 2021, I used it to connect Activity Theory with Relevance Theory. The model was named The Relevance of Zone.

In 2022, I rediscovered it with several new triggers and decided to rename it Activity Circle.

The Creative Dialogue project uses “Activity Circle” to name a Derived Form representing the “Subjects are Social Entities or People inside a Social Entity” category.

The diagram below shows the structure of the Ecological Formism Framework.

You can find more details in TALK: Two Cups of Coffee and Activity Circle.

7. Others

The above three-metaphor classification is not ideal. Some tools and articles are about knowledge themes, but the ECHO Way model does not represent them.

I used the fourth diagram to introduce these examples.

The above diagram uses the “X____Y” model as a Derived Form.

Since “X____Y” is the Basic Form, the “X____Y” model is not an ideal Derived Form because there is no difference between the Basic Form and the Derived Form.

Where is the derived part?

To be honest, I use just it as a trick.

We don’t have to classify every framework into a category. For example, #8 The “Indirect Activity” Framework, and #9 The “Thematic Dialogue” Framework are not classified into the above three categories.

You can find more details in X____Y: The Basic Form of “Creative Dialogue” (4).

8. Variant: Kinds of Frameworks

In the past several years, I made many diagrams, canvases, and frameworks about the idea of “Creative Dialogue”.

It seems like the knowledge world is chaotic!

If we use the Ecological Formalism Framework to curate them into a meaningful whole, we see a clear picture and the richness of Variant.

In Diagram Explained: Concept System, Diagram Network, and Knowledge Framework, I used the above diagram to discuss the relationship between the “Concept” level, the “Framework” level, and the “Diagram” level.

What’s the relationship between the “Concept” level and the “Framework” level?

Some “Concept Systems” are developed for understanding some particular activities or social practices, these kinds of “Concept Systems” are called “Knowledge Frameworks”.

All knowledge frameworks are concept systems, but not all concept systems are knowledge frameworks. In other words, Knowledge Frameworks are a sub-set of Concept Systems.

What’s the relationship between the “Framework” level and the “Diagram” level?

Knowledge Diagrams are External Visual Representations of Knowledge Frameworks. There is no strict correspondence between Knowledge Diagrams and Knowledge Frameworks. Some knowledge frameworks can be represented by using tables, not diagrams. Some diagrams such as meta-diagrams are only about spatial structure, not about particular domain knowledge.

In the diagram “The Basic Form of ‘Creative Dialogue’ (2)”, I used three diagrams to represent three knowledge frameworks.

I also mentioned the following terms in ARCH: Interpersonal Interactions, Collaborative Projects, and Creative Life:

Situational Diagram vs. Standard Diagram
Advanced Model vs. Basic Model vs. Standard Model

I also introduced a typology of knowledge frameworks. I roughly list six purposes for discussion.

Explanation
Research
Intervention
Exploration
Reflection
Remember

You can also find a typology of knowledge diagrams as a reference.

Though these terms and typologies are not part of the Ecological Formalism Framework, we could use them to understand the richness of richness of Variant of the framework.