'Explorances' or why (some) physical entities help us be more creative

Abstract

We believe that every physical entity has a set of attributes that defines the degree of how creatively it can be used. For example, the affordances, abstractness and modular nature of Lego™ blocks allows them to take on different forms of expression that showcases varying levels of human creativity (e.g. building alphabets, creating homes etc.). Similarly, when a DIY designer uses bottles to build houses, it projects his creative skills, but at the same time it speaks about the materiality, affordances and embodiment of the bottle which lends itself readily to creative and novel interaction design efforts. This theory, that every entity has a set of attributes that allows them to lend themselves more or less readily to creative and novel interactive design explorations is what we call explorances and is the focus of our proposed work.