On the creativity of reality: cognition as an interface between humans, the environment, and the future.

Markus F. Peschl
In this talk, we will get to the bottom of the question of how new knowledge and innovation are created, or more generally, how the new comes into the world.
We will take a closer look at the foundations and perspectives on creativity, generation of new knowledge and innovation. These are understood as socio-epistemic processes that unfold in the interaction between a cognitive system (or systems) and its (material) environment, producing (new) artifacts. Furthermore, we will discuss what it means to bring forth new and sustainable knowledge/innovations in a future-oriented way and which (environmental) factors and conditions support such processes (so-called "enabling spaces").
Recent cognitive science approaches (e.g. the so-called 4E or enactivist paradigm) suggest to turn the classical understanding of creativity and knowledge generation upside down: Creativity no longer takes place (only) in our brains, but emerges in active engagement with the world, in a process of "sense-making", of bringing forth and co-creating the world by harnessing unfolding potentials in the environment and "learning from the future". "Creative agency" shifts-at least in part-from the head/mind of the creator to the world, which mutates into the source of the new. 
This has far-reaching consequences not only for our understanding of creativity and innovation, but also for our epistemic attitudes/mindsets and the cognitive skills necessary for such processes.

Markus F. Peschl is Professor of Cognitive Science, Innovation and Philosophy of Science at the University of Vienna, Institute of Philosophy/Vienna Cognitive Science Hub. His research and expertise areas include innovation and alternative approaches to creativity, cognitive science (4E/enactive cognition), organizational theory and strategy, design and spaces for knowledge and innovation work. In the field of radical innovation, he has developed the concepts of Emergent Innovation and Enabling Spaces.
He is the director of the research group OCKO - Organizing Cognition in Knowing Organizations. He holds several visiting professorships (Berlin, Bratislava, etc.) and has received several awards for his innovative teaching/learning approaches. He has published 6 books and more than 150 papers in international journals and collections.