Abstract
Current literature on creative cognition has developed rich conceptual landscapes dedicated to the analysis of both individual and collective forms of creativity. This work has favored the emergence of unifying theories on domain-general creative abilities in which the main experiential, behavioral, computational, and neural aspects involved in everyday creativity are examined and discussed. But while such accounts have gained important analytical leverage for describing the overall conditions and mechanisms through which creativity emerges and operates, they necessarily leave contextual forms of creativity less explored. Among the latter, musical practices have recently drawn the attention of scholars interested in its creative properties as well as in the creative potential of those who engage with them. In the present article, we compare previously posed theories of creativity in musical and non-musical domains to lay the basis of a conceptual framework that mitigates the tension between (i) individual and collective and (ii) domain-general and domain-specific perspectives on creativity. In doing so, we draw from a range of scholarship in music and enactive cognitive science, and propose that creative cognition may be best understood as a process of skillful organism–environment adaptation that one cultivates endlessly. With its focus on embodiment, plurality, and adaptiveness, our account points to a structured unity between living systems and their world, disclosing a variety of novel analytical resources for research and theory across different dimensions of (musical) creativity.
Highlights
Reviewed by: Tatsuya Daikoku, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany Geraint A
Similar views of music and musical practices have been explored in various ways by scholars working in the context of ethnomusicology and social sciences (e.g., Turino, 2008), music education, and evolutionary musicology (e.g., Cross, 2001)
Moving from these insights, in this paper, we have argued that creative cognition may be understood as an adaptive phenomenon that originates in a primordial, and necessary, sense-making activity—a bio-cognitive inclination to create, transform, and maintain viable relationships with the world
Summary
This work has favored the emergence of unifying theories on domain-general creative abilities in which the main experiential, behavioral, computational, and neural aspects involved in everyday creativity are examined and discussed. While such accounts have gained important analytical leverage for describing the overall conditions and mechanisms through which creativity emerges and operates, they necessarily leave contextual forms of creativity less explored. Among the latter, musical practices have recently drawn the attention of scholars interested in its creative properties as well as in the creative potential of those who engage with them. Whether the process of systematization will give rise to a unified “grand” theory or not, heterogeneity of ideas can be generally considered as a sign of good health for scientific enterprise
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