Designing Mind-Wandering

Research

When mind-wandering, our thoughts are decoupled from our external perceptual environment and instead turned inward. The content of these self-generated thoughts and feelings that occur when mind-wandering offer insights into our interpersonal lives and give a point of reflection to consider how our internal thoughts and feelings map onto social behaviors and interactions. During my PhD, one of my empirical studies investigated the wandering mind of narcissistic individuals. I became fascinated by how our colorful inner mental life can be a source for other types of investigations, such as creative thinking. Experimental psychological studies have shown that a positive outcome of mind-wandering is creative thinking and I wanted to explore this connection in my own way.

One of the research questions I am interested in is the link between boredom and creative mind wandering. Another is how technology plays a mediating role to where our minds wander, and the possibilities to create interactive digital spaces which could inspire creative wanders. See the Applied section below for more on this topic as well as my Marie Curie funded research project I am currently working on.

The book manuscript I am currently working on, tentatively entitled Exploring the X, investigates how creative thoughts are generated for artists and how to extrapolate these findings to enrich other practices. For instance, digital applications for HCI designs, and expanding on the empirical methods used to investigate creative thinking in the cognitive sciences.

Applications for Design

Translating Mind-Wandering research insights into designs for the digital and built environments.

Through the act of creating, one gives shape to their mental wanders and occupies an in-between space comprised of the inner mind-space and the shared perceptual environment. The entanglements between mind and environment are at times overlooked – therefore, I feel my work is a form of activism to activate designers to create with awareness of the human perspective. Through a mixed-methods approach, I assist artists and designers to apply insights from empirical investigations into mind-wandering to create human-centered designs. Design Examples follow from media students I have worked with at the Berlin University of the Arts in the seminar I created on Mindwandering, boredom and the arts.