Projects and pockets : Time-geographic approach to the creative processes of computer scientists

Abstract

Creativity is a process where interactions among individuals, resources, and peers bring about novel outcomes. Such processes have fundamentally changed in the digital era as creative activities are increasingly conducted along technologically mediated practices in spatio-temporally multifaceted contexts. This paper investigates the impact of such transformations on creativity by examining the spatial, temporal, and socio-material elements of creative processes. Drawing upon the literature on creativity and economic geography, and utilising Hägerstrand's time-geography framework, this paper presents a geographical approach to studying the creative processes on an individual level. Specifically, the concepts of projects and pockets of local order are employed to investigate spatio-temporal practices, routines, social interactions, and techno-material relationships during creative work. The empirical material involves nine Finland-based computer scientists. Mixed methods, including interviews, research diaries, and space-time maps, are used to document their everyday creative work. The results show three essential pockets where creative work is best advanced: pockets of flow, pockets of insight, and pockets of creative bundles. The findings further reveal how such pockets are disrupted and prevented in the everyday work of our participants due to spatio-temporal fragmentation, accelerating work-pace and ensuing feelings of time-pressure and digital congestion. The implications of the study extend to creativity management, the future of work in knowledge-intensive and creative professions, and the use of geographical methods in empirical process studies.