Insight Out: Making Creativity Visible

Abstract

Models of creative problem solving are predicated upon mental states to explain everything from the outcome of problem-solving experiments to the emergence of artistic creativity. We present two converging perspectives that describe a profoundly different ontological description of creativity. Our analysis proceeds from a distinction between first-order problem solving, where the agent interacts with a physical model of the problem and second-order problem solving, where the agent must cogitate a solution to a problem that is presented as a verbal description of a state of the world but where the agent does not or cannot transform physical elements of a problem. We acknowledge the recent evidence that foregrounds the importance of working memory in problem solving, including insight problem solving. However, we stress that the impressive psychometric success is obtained with a methodology that only measures second-order problem solving; we question whether first-order problem solving is equally well predicted by measures of cognitive or dispositional capacities. We propose that if mental simulation is replaced by the opportunity to engage with a physical model of a problem then the environment can provide affordances that help the participant to solve problems. In the second part of the paper, we present the subjective experience of an artist as he monitors the microdecisions that occur during the morphogenesis of a large, clay, sculptural installation. The testimony is a vivid demonstration that creative action occurs, not in the brain, but in the movement between the hand and the clay. Insight becomes outsight.

A Sociocultural Theory of Creativity: Bridging the Social, the Material, and the Psychological

“…Without postulating the notion of “object agency” as some anthropologists or archeologists would (Feldman, 2010), we must consider how creative agency is actively distributed between person and environment through the means of action and interaction. The well-established metaphor of the dialogue between artist and his or her tools needs to be theorized further and there have been, in recent years, decisive steps taken toward developing a much more material account of creative action (see, for example, the notion of outsight in Vallée-Tourangeau & March, 2019). For the sociocultural theory of creativity outlined here, it is central to recognize that creative action does not follow a linear path that starts from the creator’s vision (or perspective), makes use of those affordances that align with the vision, and ends in a product that reflects the initial vision, more or less; on the contrary, a better description of it would be the back and forth movement between creator and object, intentions and accidents, perspectives that reveal new affordances and discovered affordances that guide new perspectives.…”

Technology as Social-Material Mediator: From Primary to Secondary Creativity and Beyond

“…It has been widely asserted and empirically demonstrated that the socio-materiality of environments plays a central role in creative sensemaking and creative production (Glăveanu, 2020;Tanggaard, 2013;Tanggaard & Beghetto, 2015;Vallée-Tourangeau & March, 2019). In the context of painting for instance, the paints, the brushes and the canvas shape the final painting as much as the artist's 1…”

Project Holocene: The Clayful Phenomenology of Jōmon Flame Pots

“…In a recent critique of insight as an explanatory model of problem solving, Vallée-Tourangeau and March (2019) introduce the term ‘outsight’ to describe how problem solving may take place by observing and manipulating the environment. Outsight provides a more parsimonious explanation for the emergence of Jōmon pottery.…”