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Ubiquitous Serendipity: Potential Visual Design Stimuli are Everywhere

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Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity

Abstract

This paper is a first attempt to explain design creativity on the basis of a cognitive theory of memory patterns when processing visual stimuli, proposed by Liane Gabora, (Creativity Research Journal 22(1):1–13, 2010). The claim is that the structure and activity of neural network patterns in memory activation while attending to stimuli, and the designer’s sensitivity, expertise, visual literacy and flexibility to focus and defocus attention, are combined to enable creative design idea generation. The sensitive designer possesses a ‘prepared eye’ which is able to take advantage of stimuli it encounters, randomly or intentionally, in any environment. We therefore assert that stimuli are ubiquitous and their exploitation is serendipitous.

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Notes

  1. 1.

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Acknowledgement

The writing of this paper was partially supported by a grant to the author from the fund for the promotion of research at the Technion, hereby gratefully acknowledged. The author would also like to thank Stanford University’s CDR for hosting her while on sabbatical and providing a stimulating intellectual environment at the time this paper was written.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Gabriela Goldschmidt

  2. Center for Design Research, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

    Gabriela Goldschmidt

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  1. Gabriela Goldschmidt
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Correspondence to Gabriela Goldschmidt .

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  1. Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    John S. Gero

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Goldschmidt, G. (2015). Ubiquitous Serendipity: Potential Visual Design Stimuli are Everywhere. In: Gero, J. (eds) Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9296-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9297-4

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