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The influence of objects on creativity
Author(s) -
Chen Steven,
Chandler Jennifer,
Venkatesh Alladi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/caim.12379
Subject(s) - creativity , materiality (auditing) , agency (philosophy) , embeddedness , object (grammar) , process (computing) , psychology , sociology , personality , cognitive science , epistemology , computer science , knowledge management , social psychology , aesthetics , artificial intelligence , social science , philosophy , operating system
This study is an examination of how objects can influence creativity. Through a qualitative inquiry involving 22 consumers, the study sheds light on how objects can inform, inspire, and facilitate creativity. Specifically, the findings show that objects can physically inform and facilitate the creative process because of their material properties (i.e., colors, densities, masses, lengths, and shapes) and their embeddedness in object–human interaction networks. Although object agency is initially latent and located in the materiality of objects, it is unlocked during object–human interactions, ultimately enhancing creativity. The findings highlight an overlooked role of objects in creative processes. Further, this study contributes to the existing corpus of creativity research, which attributes creativity mostly to human agency, as rooted in human personality, human social systems, and human collaborations. The study also extends and supports object agency and service‐dominant logic discourses.