Creative exploration – the search for new and valuable patterns in a space of solutions - is central in the development of art, science and technology. The talk will present two paradigms for studying creative exploration using a computational approach. These paradigms distill complex human behaviors into simple experimental setting, allowing for detailed analysis and modelling, aimed at revealing basic principles underlying creative exploration.
The creative foraging game is a high-resolution experimental paradigm that quantifies creative exploration in a well-defined space of geometric shapes. Individuals explore the space of 10-connected squares (~36k possible shapes), searching for patterns they find beautiful and interesting. Participants alternate between exploration along meandering paths and exploitation of categories of similar shapes. Within a category, but not in exploration, people move along optimal paths. Participants discover new categories through ambiguous shapes that belong to two categories, an experimental proxy for creative leaps. Furthermore, in creative foraging people leave a category of similar shapes far before depleting it, showing that people in creative foraging do not follow predictions of Optimal Foraging Theory.
The second experimental paradigm, the mirror game, is a simplified setup for studying joint improvisation. In joint improvisation, such as Jazz or contact dance, a group of experienced performers explore a space of possibilities through interaction. The setup is based on a common practice from theatre and dance in which two actors create synchronized and dance-like motion together. In the simplified setup two participants mirror each other (with or without a designated leader) by moving handles on two parallel tracks. The mirror game enabled the discovery of a basic mechanism of joint improvisation: the ability of expert pairs to share leadership by mutually predicting each other’s actions (Noy et al., PNAS 2011).
I will end the talk with some possible follow-up projects which might be of interest to computer science students looking for research projects.
Dr. Lior Noy is a creativity researcher, teacher and trainer. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the Weizmann Institute of Science and has background in psychology, computer science and neuroscience. He is also a performer and teacher in Playback Theatre, an improvisation form based on real-life stories. His current research focuses on finding the basic principles of creative exploration. Following post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, he co-founded of the Theatre Lab at Weizmann Institute of Science, a hub of research at the meeting point of physics, behavioral science and the performing arts. He is currently a lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, where he teaches courses on creativity and digital innovation.