3.4. Experimenting and piloting

How do experimentation and piloting fuel radical creativity?

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Creativity sometimes requires making things that don’t turn out to be useful. What does that mean? The creative process involves experimentation, and at times the confidence to move forward in a direction only comes after exploring and rejecting alternatives. Finding new,  usable outcomes is often only possible by considering many options.

Experimenting can help to identify the essential questions or critical issues of a creative process. Piloting is often when people have to start thinking in concrete and material terms, so it can reveal which aspects won’t really work and also suggest new directions to move forward.

Before we go deeper into experimentation, let’s return to Wallas’ classic theory of the creative process, which we introduced in the Creative process sub-chapter. According to Wallas, the creative process consists of four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Experimentation and piloting are linked with the incubation, illumination and verification stages.

The incubation stage is the second step of the creative process, after you’ve prepared for the work. In the incubation stage, the focus shifts to actively thinking about and working on the case. It also involves a ‘letting it go’ phase (see Scharmer, 2016) in which you relax while focusing on something else. Walking away from your idea or creative work may appear counterproductive, but this is an important step that may allow you to see your work from another perspective or to develop your idea when you’re not pursuing it intentionally (Mäkikoskela, 2018). This should also be done after every analytically examined experiment.

After letting your idea or creative work incubate, it’s time to actively pursue creative solutions again. The illumination stage is for idea realization. It’s all about coming up with ideas or even the creative outcome. You might make new connections and find recent revelations in your idea, and this can also be done by experimenting. The stages of incubation and illumination can both be repeated several times during the creative process.

The last stage in Wallas’ theory is verification, which also involves prototyping, testing, and refining the ideas generated during the illumination stage. You sharpen, evaluate and refine your idea, and then you actualize it and present the outcome.

In the field of design, Carlgren, Rauth & Elmquist (2016) define experimentation as a bias towards testing and trying things out in an iterative way and moving between divergent and convergent ways of thinking. The authors present a list of principles/mindsets and practices for experimentation.

Experimentation
Principles / mindsets	Practices
Curious and creative Playful and humoristic Optimistic and energetic Learning-oriented Eager to share	Work iteratively (divergent, convergent) Converge based on a diverse set of ideas Prototype quickly and often to learn Testing solutions quickly and often: share prototypes with users and colleagues Fail often and early

 

These principles for experimentation recur throughout this course because they also apply to radical creativity. Curiosity and creativity are catalysts for generating innovative ideas and questions that can lead to new projects. Playfulness and humor foster open-mindedness and encourage risk-taking and exploration. Optimism and energy sustain the persistence needed during experimentation, especially when things don’t work out immediately. The ‘fail often and early’ mindset is important when experimenting. A learning-oriented approach aligns with the iterative cycles of testing, gathering feedback, learning and refining, and a readiness to share makes group learning possible.

Tua Björklund, a professor at Aalto University’s Design Factory, says that the radicalness in radical creativity comes from openly discussing and questioning assumptions, bringing in and appreciating diverse experiences, and being willing to consider and test even wild ideas. This increases the odds of finding and being able to realise truly novel solutions.

In sum, experimenting is a key means for radical creativity. Prototyping and testing are the definition of experimentation: prototypes are built in order to test ideas with others to learn how they can be improved, ideally in rapid iteration. The practice of experimentation allows people and organizations to explore new ideas in unknown areas. Experiments can be used to define the next steps in the creative process. In other words, having cycles of experimenting, prototyping, testing, and learning is a key practice radical creativity.

By adopting an experimental way of doing, organizations and people gain what Carlgren, Rauth and Elmquist (2016) call a bias toward testing. In practice, this means that a team can conduct experiments and make prototypes which provide  learning for the team and move it closer to finding a solution. Experiments put you on the path to radically creative acts.

Experimentation doesn’t only happen at the end of the creative process for validation and verification. It also helps practitioners test ideas out, learn and uncover new directions and ideas.

Serendipity can have a big role in the creative process, such as in scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, serendipity means finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. In other words, serendipity refers to an unplanned but fortunate discovery.

Serendipity’s role in science has been widely discussed. Merton’s and Barber’s (2006) research offers a history of serendipity, using the history of the word to explore the miracle of intellectual discovery. The creative process can be a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance. Simonton (2003) argues that scientific creativity cannot be entirely explained unless one incorporates randomly determined or stochastic elements as an integral part of the discovery process, including serendipitous events.

When creating something new and heading toward the unknown, the path is very seldom clear, straight, or linear. The most important thing is to be persistent (Runco, 2014) while also trying different approaches. Experimentation and learning from failures offer a valuable tool for this. As discussed in the Ideation sub-chapter, the creative process can start even without an actual idea, from mere intuition or a feeling that there could be something interesting to explore. An idea can also develop significantly while doing experiments. How a an initial thought is cultivated further is at least as important as the idea itself — the first idea is rarely the best or most radical one.

When we do experiments, we observe whether things behave as expected. Working is embodied and sensory, and we constantly make observations as we word. We connect with people and places to sense the environments that we’re part of (Scharmer, 2016). It’s important to be able to make observations even in surprising situations, when something unexpected happens or when everything goes completely wrong. Only in this way can we detect serendipity that may revolutionize what we do or our entire field, discipline, or industry. Without serendipity, we wouldn’t have penicillin or microwave ovens, for example.

 

References

Björklund, Tua, Eriksson, Vikki, Feng, Xiaoqi, Kirjavainen, Senni, Klenner, Nico, Kuukka, Anna and van der Marel, Floris. 2022. Toward Radical Creativity. https://www.aalto.fi/sites/g/files/flghsv161/files/2022-11/Aalto%20University%20Toward%20Radical%20Creativity%20REPORT%20October%202022.pdf

Carlgren, Rauth, and Elmquist. 2016. Framing Design Thinking: The Concept in Idea and Enactment.

Kronqvist, J., Erving, H., & Leinonen, T. (2013). Cardboard hospital – Prototyping Patient-centric Environments and Services. In P. E. Eva Brandt, M. H. R. Troels Degn Johansson, & A. V. Thomas Markussen (Eds.), NORDES 2013. Proceedings of the Nordes 2013 conference (pp. 293-302). Kunstakademiets Arkitektskoles Forlag.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serendipity

Merton, Robert K. & Barber, Elinor. 2006. The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691126302.

Mäkikoskela, Riikka. 2018. From Far to Close (and Back). Material Resistance and Changing Perspectives in Visual Art Practice. Research in Art and Education, Vol. 2018 No. 3: Special issue on Catalyses, Interventions, Transformations, 349–378, https://journal.fi/rae/article/view/118874.

Runco, Mark A. 2014. Creativity. Theories and Themes: Research, Development, and Practice. Second edition. New York, NY: Elsevier.

Scharmer, Otto. 2016. Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges. 2nd edition. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Simonton, D. K. 2003. Scientific creativity as constrained stochastic behavior: The integration of product, person, and process perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 129(4), 475-494.

Wallas, Graham. 1926. The Art of Thought. Turnbridge Wells: Solsis Press.