Exploring creative decision-making in choreographic practice: a phenomenological study of situated cognition

This thesis explores creative decision-making in choreographic practice by studying phenomenological experience of choreographers. By using a digital tool named Scuddle that employs a genetic algorithm to introduce constraints for movement generation, we reveal creative decision-making processes in choreographic cognition. When a portion of the choreographic process is constrained to investigate tacit creative decision-making, the result is a heightened awareness of the process of making decisions. Constraining a choreographer's process challenges creative problem-solving skills, guides attention to the experience and facilitates verbal articulation of that experience. In this research, the digital tool, Scuddle, generates 'catalysts' for movement, which are incomplete movement data that act as constraints to provoke movement development. As movement material and compositional structure is often intricately entwined, the incompleteness of this data facilitates creative exploration, enabling multiple solutions to be generated from such a catalyst. Phenomenological interview methods were used to aid choreographers ability to identify and articulate attention to decision-making throughout their compositional process.