The humanity of creativity_The transformative value of the imagination in setting up sites for new knowledge construction

This paper outlines the processes and outcomes of an international research project titled Big Blue Ball: Pictures, people, place. Essentially, the project is an ongoing investigation into the nature of meaning-making and the significance of creativity and creative practice in setting up sites for shared understanding in a contemporary and globally interactive world. The project was developed and carried out by Donna Wright during her PhD Candidature at Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia between 2004 and 2007. Making use of practice-led research strategies, and drawing on creative arts practice, the project has exploited the inherent capacity of the creative function to support innovation. The project design offers a new model of intertextual processes of creativity that opens up spaces for intercultural negotiation, by linking spatial conceptions and processes for semiotic mediations, to multiple, interconnected mediums for the production and reception of new information. This in turn provides a context in which to support knowledge discovery that may facilitate intercultural awareness and understanding.