Dr Klara Łucznik was awarded a PhD in psychology with research on 'Shared Creativity and Flow in Dance Improvisation Practice'. In her work, the inquiry into the mechanisms of human interaction and shared creativity forms an interdisciplinary dialogue with creative practices. In her PhD, she used qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate flow phenomena in dance. Furthermore, she designed a video-cued recall tool, an online application for collecting phenomenological reports and assessing flow experiences within group tasks (Łucznik, Loesche, 2017). In her dance practice, she explored group improvisation as a performance strategy that highlights the unpredictable, highly embodied, and shared character of creativity. In this process, new ideas emerge from interaction with other dancers and the environment rather than in isolation of an individual's mind (Łucznik, 2015).
‘The CogNovo training’, Klara emphasises, ‘built not only my research expertise but also provided many opportunities for developing my skills in multiple disciplinary collaborations and science communication.’ She prepared a series of public engagement events, such as Space to Wonder, a bio-sensor sound installation that explored the potential of spontaneous physiological synchronisation, and Let’s Improv It, a participatory improvisation format that looked into basic mechanisms of social communication (Łucznik, Jackson, Sakuta, Siarava, 2016). Klara also co-organized Off the Lip 2017, Off the Lip 2018, and ColLaboratoire. ‘I hope there will be many similar events to follow’ she says, ‘ that similarly aims to reimagine the way how the researcher skills are developed and how the science is disseminated.’ For example, in the editorial to an AVANT Special Issue on Collaborative Approaches to Cognitive Innovation she elaborates on the idea of how improvisation can inform research practice.
‘In my future collaborations, I want to maintain the spirit of openness I experienced in CogNovo. Now, together with the CogNovo Foundation, I will continue promoting open science, good practices, and support for researchers interested in multiple disciplinary research on Cognitive Innovation.’