



`The locus of creativity. This “map” shows the interrelations of the three systems that jointly determine the occurrence of a creative idea, object, or action. The individual takes some information provided by the culture and transforms it, and if the change is deemed valuable by society, it will be included in the domain, thus providing a new starting point for the next generation of persons. The actions of all three systems are necessary for creativity to occur.’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1988, p. 329) & reprinted in The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2014, p. 51, Kindle Edition)

`The systems view of creativity – for creativity to occur, a set of rules and practices must be transmitted from the Domain to the Individual. The Individual must then produce a novel variation in the content of the Domain. The variation then must be selected by the Field for inclusion in the Domain’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1999, p. 315)
Note how, in the diagram above, the arrows of causality go both ways(!)
`Describing biological evolution may, at first, seem an odd way to present a model of creativity (Fig. [below]), but the process of evolution at the level of species is analogous to the creativity at the level of cultural traits.
Biological evolution occurs when an individual organism produces a genetic variation that is selected by the environment and transmitted to the next generation (see Campbell 1976; Mayr 1982; Csikszentmihalyi 1993).’
(Csikszentmihalyi & Wolfe [2000] 2014, p. 165, Kindle Edition).
`The systems model of creativity is formally analogous to the model of evolution based on natural selection.
The variation which occurs at the individual level of biological evolution corresponds to the contribution that the person makes to creativity; the selection is the contribution of the field, and the transmission is the contribution of the domain to the creative process (cf. Simonton 1988; Martindale 1989)… creativity can be seen as a special case of evolution.
Creativity is to cultural evolution as the mutation, selection, and transmission of genetic variation is to biological evolution.’
(Csikszentmihalyi & Wolfe, 2000, pp. 83-84).

`The systems model of creativity. For creativity to occur, a set of rules and practices must be transmitted from the domain to the individual. The individual must then produce a novel variation in the content of the domain. The new variation must then be selected by a field of experts for inclusion in the domain. In this chapter, we focus on the relationship between the field and the individual who aspires to add creatively to the domain. It is here that social capital is generated through mentoring and peer relationships’ (Hooker, Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi 2003; 2014 p. 210, Kindle Edition)
Note how the amount of text information on the diagram has increased, in the above-! – e.g., In the above diagram, the `Domain‘ now includes the explanation: knowledge, tools. values, practices… And the `Field‘ now includes ‘community of practice, gatekeepers‘… Also, instead of the term `Individual‘ the term Person (individual practitioner) is used.

DPFi (Domain, Person, Field interaction) systems model of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi in Simonton (ed) 2014 p. 538)
Thus, you can pretty easily see how the DIFi (Domain, Individual, Field interaction) systems model of creativity became the DPFi (Domain, Person, Field interaction) systems model of creativity…
And here is a beautiful one (integrating: AI! – Yay!) from 2018:
For an example of Computational Creativity (using AI), see: The Robo-Raconteur.
And – so, that’s a very-brief tour, of: the evolution of Csikszentmihalyi’s the Systems Model of Creativity diagram, from its first emergence in 1988, up to… about now.
And…
…It was, in part, thinking about this evolution of The Systems Model of Creativity diagram over the years, that also led me to create: Creative Practice Theory. (i.e., The Systems Model of Creativity, synthesized with: Bourdieu’s `practice theory’)…
And, which – also led me to create:
- StoryAlity #43B – The `Creative Practice Theory’ online Agent-Based Model
- StoryAlity #43C – Creative Practice Theory – The Game
- StoryAlity #65 – The StoryAlity K-Film: Ep 1 (online i-doc – interactive documentary)
…And, for much, much, much, more, see: my (2016) PhD thesis-!
(…Yes, it’s a transmedia PhD).
Aaaand — some of these posts may also be of interest:
An INDEX to this PhD-research blog…
And if you like this sort of thing, see also:
See also, this great online article, about creativity in Music (specifically, in music record production):
McIntyre, P. (2008). The Systems Model of Creativity: Analyzing the Distribution of Power in the Studio. Journal of the Art of Record Production; Supplement to ARP08, The Peer – Reviewed Proceedings of the 2008 Art of Record Production Conference(4).
And, for even more practical applications of The Systems Model of Creativity, see:
Creative documentary practice: internalising the Systems Model of Creativity through documentary video and online practice, PhD thesis, (Kerrigan 2011)
and see also:
The performance of comedy by artificial intelligence agents. PhD thesis, Victoria University. (Meany, M 2014)
and see also:
Making the news: Print journalism and the creative process. PhD thesis, (Fulton 2011)
Also – I can highly recommend this article below, for more on creativity research in communication:
Fulton, J., & McIntyre, P. (2013). Futures of Communication: Communication Studies ~ Creativity. Review of Communication, 13(4), 269-289. doi: 10.1080/15358593.2013.872805
Also here is a short animated video (17 minutes) that explains the DPFi socio-cultural systems model of creativity.
See also:
On Systems Theory and Evolution
- StoryAlity #70 – Key Concepts in Systems Theory, Cybernetics & Evolution
- StoryAlity #70B – The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision (Capra & Luisi 2014)
- StoryAlity #70C – Systems Philosophy (Laszlo 1972)
- StoryAlity #70C2 – General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspectives, Practice (Skyttner 2005)
- StoryAlity #70D – The Evolving Self (Csikszentmihalyi 1993)
- StoryAlity #70E – On Human Nature – and Evolutionary Psychology
And also
StoryAlity #132 – The holon/parton structure of the Meme, the unit of culture – and the narreme, or unit of story – book chapter (Velikovsky 2016)
and
StoryAlity #144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (in: The Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology, Velikovsky 2017)
…Comments, always most welcome.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). `Society, Culture, and Person: A Systems View of Creativity’. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The Nature of Creativity (pp. 325–339 ). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. ([1988] 2014). `Society, Culture and Person: A Systems View of Creativity’, in The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pp. 46-62). Netherlands: Springer (Kindle Edition).
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity, in Robert Sternberg (ed) Handbook of Creativity Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Wolfe, R. ([2000] 2014). `New Conceptions and Research Approaches to Creativity: Implications of a Systems Perspective for Creativity in Education’. In M. Csikszentmihalyi (Ed.), The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pp. 161-184). Netherlands: Springer (Kindle Edition).
Hooker, C., Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. ([2003] 2014). `The Group as Mentor: Social Capital and the Systems Model of Creativity’ in The Systems Model of Creativity: The Collected Works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pp. 206-226). Netherlands: Springer (Kindle Edition).
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2006). `A Systems Perspective on Creativity’. In J. Henry (Ed.), Creative Management and Development (pp. 3-17). London: SAGE.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). `The Systems Model of Creativity and Its Applications’. In D. K. Simonton (Ed.), The Wiley Handbook of Genius (pp. 533-545). Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Csikszentmihalyi, M, and DT Gruner. (2018). “Engineering Creativity in an Age of Artificial Intelligence.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity Research, edited by I. Lebuda and V. P. Glăveanu, 447-62. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fulton, J., & McIntyre, P. (2013). `Futures of Communication: Communication Studies ~ Creativity’.in Review of Communication, 13(4), 269-289. doi: 10.1080/15358593.2013.872805
McIntyre, P., Fulton, J., & Paton, E. (Eds.). (2016). The Creative System in Action: Understanding Cultural Production and Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Velikovsky, J. T. (2016). `Communication, Creativity and Consilience in Cinema: A comparative study of the top 20 Return-on-Investment (RoI) Movies and the Doxa of Screenwriting’. PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
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