Observable Creative Sense-Making (OCSM): A Method For Quantifying Improvisational Co-Creative Interaction

Abstract

This paper introduces a new method for quantifying open-ended collaborative embodied improvisation: Observable Creative Sense-Making (OCSM). This technique builds on previous work on Creative Sense-Making (CSM), examines its shortcomings, and addresses it by reformalizing and grounding CSM in current literature from embodied social cognition and an intersubjective perspective of creativity. We apply this method to empirical studies of human collaboration in dance improvisation with 16 advanced college dancers and establish the method's validity. The OCSM method described in this paper includes a qualitative coding technique, a web-based tool for coding the interaction, and the cognitive theory behind its application.