The Embodied Dimensions of Creativity

• In Event: 3151 - Theory Section Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Building Theory: Innovations and Applications – B

Abstract

This article aims to re-imagine creativity as a bodily phenomenon. First, I synthesize the disparate literature on creativity towards an empirical foundation which I call ‘the social layers of creativity’. Subsequently, I argue that the sociology of creativity has largely relegated the body in our empirical and theoretical efforts. As a corrective, by drawing on a diversity of empirical literature and theoretical traditions, I outline three pathways towards embodying creativity. The first, ‘embodied cognitive’, treats creativity as the mobilization of sensory-motor information in new domains or in novel ways. The second ‘material and relational’, treats creativity as emerging from unpredictable matter, the action-horizons of bodies, and how their interrelations shape the intentions and aspirations of actors. Lastly, the ‘bio-psycho-social self’ treats creativity as produced by the tension between self-regulation and socially altered impulses and drives. This has major implications for our understanding of creative action, ideation, and production.

Author

• Gordon Brett, University of Toronto