Oliver Ding: My Twelve Creative Moments of 2023
12 Visuals
This short post is part of my 2023 annual review which is also considered as a tiny “Creative Life Curation” project.
In Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements (2022), I introduced five units of analysis for the Creative Life Curation framework.
Today I will focus on the “Action” level and select 12 creative moments from my creative journey of 2023.
1. Replay Creative Life
- Feb 1, 2023
When I was designing the above picture, I recalled my experience as a Creative Life Curator with the following two projects:
- A project about Ping-keung Lui’s creative life and his Theoretical Sociology (20 years)
- A project about Stephen Beller’s creative life of exploring Wellbeing Wisdom (40 years)
These two projects are real “Slow Cognition” projects because the period of the first one is about 20 years and the other one is about 40 years.
I read many documents about these two projects from Oct 2022 to Feb 2023. I had to rebuild their journey in my mind. It’s a challenge for me.
This is what “Replay Creative Life” means.
2. The Spiral of Creative Work
- Feb 23, 2023
From Jan 2023 to April 2023, I read Ping-keung Lui’s 2017 book Gaze, Actions, and the Social World and wrote 228-page notes. I reflected on the following three projects while replaying Lui’s journey of theory development.
- The Knowledge Engagement Project
- The Creative Life Framework
- The Theme of “Value Circle”
On Feb 23, 2023, I wrote a note titled The Hermeneutics of Creative Life and made a diagram. The above Spiral of Creative Work is the center of the diagram.
The goal of creative work is to turn Experience (“Fluid-Pieces”) into Text (“Solid-Whole”).
The source of Experience is Action (“Fluid-Whole”) because if we don’t take any action, we can’t have action-based Experience.
The outcome of Objectification of Experience is Copy (“Solid-Pieces”).
This is the secret of the World of Works and Creative Life.
3. The “Dance” meta-diagram and Mental Tendency
- Feb 25, 2023
On Feb 25, I used the “Dance” meta-diagram to make a model about “Mental Tendency”. See the diagram below.
The above diagram represents a simple model of external environmental events and internal mental activities.
After finishing the design, I realized that this was a card with two sides. The Green part refers to the Front side of “Mental Tendency” while the Pink part refers to the Back side of “Mental Tendency”.
I also noticed the two sides use the same “Dance” spatial structure.
I realized that I could make a real card with two sides.
Immediately, I printed the diagram and made a demo.
4. Spontaneous Concept System
- May 9, 2023
From April 2023 to May 2023, I worked on a strategic design research project about a Web 3 platform.
The web3 platform recently launched a new product that aims to enable non-technical users to create, launch, and host their decentralized applications (DApps). We may use the “No-code DApps platform” to frame the new product.
I have 0 knowledge of web3 and DApps. The first step of the Strategic Design Research project is to directly use the platform to create a simple DApp without formal training. I also didn’t read their HELP documents and DEVELOPER documentation.
I just learned some new knowledge about web3 and DID (Decentralized Identify) by using their platform to create a simple website with several pages. Sometimes I searched some keywords on the web to learn some new terms. Sometimes I just use the Try-and-Fail approach to figure out the real meanings of some new terms.
After successfully launching the simple website, I took the above screenshot.
At that moment, I realized that there was a gap between the platform owner’s Concept System and my Concept System.
I considered it an example of “Spontaneous Concept System”.
5. The “Guest and Guess” Game
- June 24, 2023
I had a wonderful 10-day road trip with my wife and two little sons from June 24 to July 3.
On June 24, we visited New Orleans and had dinner at a restaurant called the Lost Cajun. While we were waiting for the meals, I took photos at the restaurant. It was my normal habit. However, I made a small change to the habit and turned it into a new game.
I showed these photos to my two litter sons and asked them to find items in the photos in the restaurant. This was a fun game. During the trip, I played this game with my sons three times.
On that night, I realized that there should be many creative actions in history, but most creative actions are not known by many people.
6. The Concept of “Cultural Center”
- July 2, 2023
On July 2, 2023, We visited Hot Springs National Park. I took the above picture.
In April 2023, I finished a possible book titled Knowledge Engagement: Knowledge Center and Creative Life Theory. The book introduced the Creative Course Framework which is the core of Creative Life Theory (v2.0).
I used “Knowledge Center” as a primary concept for the theory because I considered knowledge creators as my target audience.
At that moment, I realized that I could use the concept of “Cultural Center” to replace “Knowledge Center”. In this way, I could expand the Creative Life Theory into a general theory.
7. The “Mapping Multiple Moves” Map
- June 11, 2023
The above diagram is a map that was developed for Mapping Multiple Moves.
On June 10, 2023, I made the diagram below for the Mental Moves project.
In order to use it as an example to discuss creative cognition, I developed the above large map.
I was very surprised when I saw the finished diagram. Creative Intuition is beautiful! I was so proud. It offered us a new method to visualize the process of creative intuition.
8. Situational Note-taking
- June 15, 2023
From June 15 to June 21, I engaged in a thematic conversation with a friend via email discussions, exploring various topics around the theme of Note-taking and Knowledge Engagement.
Inspired by our thought-provoking thematic conversation, I decided to bring Sonke Ahrens’ 2017 book How to Take Smart Notes with me to the Natatorium.
Although I had read this book before, that night I wanted to explore it again. Immediately, I found myself pausing at Page 2.
I noticed that there are two terms: note-taking and draft-making.
Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work. And maybe that is the reason why we rarely think about this writing, the everyday writing, the note-taking and draft-making. Like breathing, it is vital to what we do, but because we do it constantly, it escapes our attention.
Upon reflection, I recognized a contrast between Sonke Ahrens’ perspective and my own. While his primary theme revolves around academic production, my primary theme is about tacit knowledge and creative cognition in general.
To highlight this difference, I started making a visual note by using the “Dot and Circle” meta-diagram in my notebook.
9. The Idea of “Meaning Matrix”
- Sept 16, 2023
On Sept 16, 2023, I made a note about a rough idea for a brand new Theoretical Psychology. See the diagram in the upper right corner of the about picture.
A friend of mine in China developed a brand new psychological theory about human nature. In July 2023, he sent me a summary of his new book (draft) about the theory.
In the left side of the above picture, I used the “Ontology — Realism — Hermeneutics” schema to analyze his theory. The diagram was made on July 16, 2023.
The diagram in the top right corner of the above picture is about the concept of “Mindset”. I made the diagram on Sept 1, 2023, and wrote a long article titled The Concept of Mindset and Theoretical Integration on Sept 10, 2023.
On Sept 16, 2023, I reflected on these diagrams and used the “Ontology — Realism — Hermeneutics” schema to generate a new idea:
- Ontology: Human — Meaning Matrix
- Realism: Actor — World of Activity
- Hermeneutics: Mindset — Life Domains
This is a fantastic theoretical insight because it could offer me a solution to curate my work on Curativity Theory, Activity Theory, and Mindset together!
We are entering a new creative space for building a new theoretical psychology!
10. The “Creative Diagramming” Technique
- Oct 31, 2023
In Oct 2023, I tried a new technique called “Creative Diagramming”. The above picture is an example of using the method.
That month, I worked on the Activity Analysis & Intervention (AAI) program and ran an AAI project to help a knowledge creator reflect on his journey of knowledge engagement and discover potential creative themes for the future. I used the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to discover several thematic spaces and placed his creative thematic network around the canvas. I didn’t use the canvas in its official way but used its white space for exploring potential thematic spaces.
To keep the client’s privacy, I applied the diagram to my own Creative Life.
Later, the method led to the Ontology of Knowledge Frameworks and Ecological Actualism.
11. The Idea of “Thematic Matrix+”
- Nov 18, 2023
On Nov 18, 2023, I made the above visual note which is about a diagram blending:
Knowledge Discovery Canvas + The “Flow — Story — Model” schema
The double-square diagram represents the Knowledge Discovery Canvas.
“A” stands for “Analysis” while “S” stands for “Synthesis”. “A” and “S” come from the “Flow — Story — Model” schema.
After dinner, I reflected on the series of articles about the concept of Mindset and made the diagram below.
This diagram led to a new possible book titled Grasping the Concept!
- Link: Situational Note-taking: The idea of “Thematic Matrix +”, Grasping the Concept (book, v1, Introduction)
12. Spatial Serendipity
- Dec 11, 2023
On the morning of Dec 11, 2023, I opened the file “Project Engagement (Creative Life Curation)” on Miro and wanted to work on ideas about two types of projects.
However, I found a new idea. See the above diagram.
I captured a significant insight!
There is a Spatial Mapping between the Developmental Project Model (Right) and the Creative Life Curation Framework (Left).
Wow! This is an interesting idea.
The idea inspired me to think about the following question:
Can I use the other part of the Developmental Project Model to generate a New Knowledge Framework?
I just quickly validated it. I just copied the Creative Life Curation Framework and placed it on the right side. See the diagram below.
To create a brand-new creative space, I used new colors to replace old colors.
What are your creative moments of 2023?
My 2023 annual review:
- 2023: Aspects of Early Discovery (Series) and Beyond
- Situational Note-taking: “Frame for work” and “Framework”
- Situational Note-taking: The Art of Knowledge Engagement (15 Possible Books)
- Situational Note-taking: The Ecological Practice Approach (Oliver Ding, 2019–2023)
- Situational Note-taking: The Developmental Project Model + (2023)
- Situational Note-taking: A Tree of Thoughts (Oliver Ding, 2023)
- Situational Note-taking: The Continuous Curation of Second-order Experience
Related articles:
- Meaning Discovery: The “Moment — Present — Future” Thematic Space
- Life Discovery: “Points of Observation” and “Significant Insights”
- Life Discovery: Significant Insights Analysis
- Life Discovery: Twelve Significant Insights from Four Months
- Slow Cognition: It takes a village to raise a creative mind
- The Curated Mind Toolkit (v1.0)
- The Knowledge Creation Toolkit (v1.0)
- The Knowledge Curation Toolkit (v1.0)
- The Thematic Engagement Toolkit (v1.0)
