11 th Conference on Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language University of British Columbia, 17-20 May 2012 Theme: Language and the Creative Mind Constructing a Novel Blend Through Gesture Robert F. Williams Appleton, Wisconsin
Introduction Creativity & Conceptual Blending
Creativity • Mechanism: Combining mental representations – bisociation of conceptual matrices (Koestler 1964) – conceptual blending (Fauconnier & Turner 1998, 2002) – neural convolution (Thagard & Stewart 2011) • Criteria: Combinations are creative if they are … – new, surprising, & valuable (Boden 2004)
A Novel Blend (Fauconnier & Turner 1998: 146-9; 2002: 270-4) Commutative Ring Geometric Real Space Numbers Question How do novel blends emerge in human activity? Complex Numbers
Constructing Blends in situ Conventional blend: Novel blend: Reading 9:30 Reading o’clock times by angles
First Example Conventional Blend for Reading 9:30
Conventional Blend for 9:30: Video Clip
Conventional Blend: Hour Hand days ... ... 12 11 1 G x 2 10 hours TR ... ... x S 9 3 minutes 8 4 ... ... 7 5 6 12 1 1 11 2 10 Emergent property Consequence ½ Tip of hour hand is Can read time from 9 3 0 trajector moving along portion of path traveled 8 4 path from source to goal (halfway to next number) 7 5 6 One Hour ( 9 to 10 )
Conventional Blend: Minute Hand G S days ... ... 12 11 1 2 10 hours ... ... 9 3 minutes 8 4 ... ... TR 7 5 6 60 0 12 1 11 2 10 Emergent property Consequence Tip of minute hand is Can read time from 9 3 trajector moving along portion of path traveled 8 4 path from source to goal (= # of minutes) 7 5 6 30 Minute Hand Cycle
Constructing the Blend a series of mapping gestures L x 12 12 11 1 11 1 (2x) 2 2 10 10 9 9 3 3 8 8 4 4 R 7 5 7 5 6 6 the top back to itself … The minute hand is down … Down is halfway from … L L x x 12 12 11 1 11 1 2 2 10 10 9 9 3 3 R 8 8 4 4 R 7 5 7 5 6 6 So it’s half an hour … 30 minutes
Minute Hand Cycle G S days ... ... 12 11 1 2 10 hours ... ... 9 3 minutes 8 4 ... ... TR 7 5 6 60 0 12 1 11 2 10 9 3 8 4 7 5 6 30
Second Example Novel Blend for Reading O’Clock Times
Novel Blend for O’Clock Times: Video Clip “How would you read the time without seeing the numbers?”
Novel Blend 0º 12 11 1 2 10 9 3 θ 8 4 7 5 6 0º 12 11 1 2 10 Emergent property Consequence θ Hour hand defines angle Can read “o’clock” times 270º 90º 9 3 relative to minute hand from angle: 8 4 • 90º is three o’clock 7 5 6 • 180º is six o’clock • 270º is nine o’clock 180º Clock Angles
Phase 1: Constructing the Blend a series of mapping gestures O 12 12 12 11 1 11 1 11 1 2 2 2 10 10 10 1 2 9 3 9 9 3 3 8 4 8 4 8 4 (it’s a … ) 7 5 7 5 7 5 6 6 6 straight up … we’ll put our … ninety degrees straight-up-and-down our zero angle up here is three (straight-up-and-down) 12 12 11 1 11 1 2 2 2 10 10 4 x 9 9 3 3 1 3 8 8 4 4 7 5 7 5 6 6 a hundred ’n eighty degrees two hundred and seventy is six (or ninety-degrees-the-other-way) two seventy … is nine
Clock Angles Blend 0º 12 11 1 2 10 9 3 θ 8 4 7 5 6 0º 12 11 1 2 10 θ 270º 90º 9 3 8 4 7 5 6 180º
Phase 2: Running the Blend manipulations (to run) & gestures (to profile) So you can see it … 12 12 11 1 11 1 2 2 10 10 3 turns of 3 turns of 9 9 3 3 minute hand minute hand 8 8 4 4 7 5 7 5 6 6 that’s obviously three that’s six … (now-we-know-it-without-the-numbers) 12 12 11 1 11 1 L 2 2 10 10 3 turns of 9 9 3 3 minute hand 8 8 4 4 R 7 5 7 5 6 6 It’s … pointing up and down that’s … nine
Discussion
Enaction , Imagination, and Insight (Hutchins 2010) • Two key ideas: – Embodiment = “the premise that the particular bodies we have influence how we think” (428) – Enaction = “the idea that organisms create their own experience through their actions” (428) • Enactments make material patterns into representations – “Humans make material patterns into representations by enacting their meanings” (434). – “To apprehend a material pattern as a representation of something is to engage in specific culturally shaped perceptual processes” (429-30). – ‘ Seeing-as ’ is enacted representation (434).
Gestural Enactment vs. Actual Manipulation • Gesturing over objects to: – explore possibilities (act in “hypothetical mode” [Murphy 2004]) – construct an anchored blend for others or interpret its state (“guided conceptualization” [Williams 2008b]) • Manipulating objects to: – prepare a material anchor for a blend (to make a representation) – run a blend to generate an inference
How Creative is the Clock Angles Blend? • Using Boden’s (2004) criteria: – New? Yes – Surprising? Yes – Valuable? Not very For time-telling, the hand configurations are useful, but the angle measures are not (esp. for children). The clock angles may have other uses: q relating clock hands, the sun, and compass direction? q estimating angles by relating them to clock hand configurations?
Conclusion • Continuity between conventional and novel blends – Common conceptual mechanisms – Inherent in everyday activity but not noted unless novel (new, surprising) and useful (valuable) • Emergence through embodied interaction with world – Perception: ‘situated seeing’ or seeing-as – Action: manipulation of objects (incl. adventitiously) – Enaction: gesturing in hypothetical mode • Propagation through multimodal discourse – Gestures map conceptual entities and relations onto material structures, building anchored blends – Manipulation of the material structures ‘runs’ the blend to generate inferences
References Boden, M. A. (2004), The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms, 2 nd Ed. London: Routledge. Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (1998). Conceptual integration networks. Cognitive Science, 22(2): 133-187. Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (2002). The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities . New York: Basic Books. Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hutchins, E. (2005). Material anchors for conceptual blends. Journal of Pragmatics , 37(10): 1555-1577. Hutchins, E. (2010). Enaction, imagination, and insight. In J. Stewart, O. Gapenne, & E. A. Di Paolo (eds.), Enaction: Towards a New Paradigm for Cognitive Science (pp. 425-450). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation . New York: Macmillan. Murphy, K. (2004). Imagination as joint activity: The case of architectural interaction. Mind, Culture, and Activity , 11(4): 267-278. Thagard, P., & Stewart, T.C. The AHA! experience: Creativity through emergent binding in neural networks. Cognitive Science , 35: 1-33 Williams, R. F. (2008a). Gesture as a conceptual mapping tool. In A. Cienki & C. Müller (eds.), Metaphor and Gesture [Gesture Studies 3] (pp. 55-92). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Williams, R. F. (2008b). Guided conceptualization: Mental spaces in instructional discourse. In T. Oakley & A. Hougaard (eds.), Mental Spaces in Discourse and Interaction (pp. 209-234). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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