Spielraum: play, chance and creativity across disciplines

Creativity and technology share linguistic roots in "art, craft, making and method". But a more compelling substrate, increasingly evident in gaming culture, links the two. In the notion of Spielraum-- room-for-play-- a common ground of emergent possibility may be discerned. This interactive space of memory, thought, affect and sensory perception allows the mind to wander creatively, i.e. purposefully and at the same time playfully. Integrating non-methods of play and chance (two variants of spiel) with goal-directed activity, this paper proposes, is an important way to foster creative problem solving across disciplines.