Place-based Affordances: Theorizing the Role of Places in Organizing Creativity

Abstract – While some studies have sought to clarify the role of spatial settings in organizing creativity, this relationship remains theoretically ambiguous, specifically when we consider the capacity for action offered by places. Therefore, we propose to revisit this issue through the concept of affordances, which originally refers to actors’ relationship to their physical environments and how it generates possibilities for action. This conceptual paper proposes a framework for place-based affordances that theorizes the material, social, and institutional possibilities for creative practices that emerge from one’s attendance of a place. This framework is exemplified through a vignette of place attendance and usage by an artist practicing projection mapping in Montreal. Through this example drawn from artistic creation, the place-based affordances framework offers a new look at the generative power of places for organizing creativity.