Creativity and Arts in Organizations and Society (CAOS)
Aalto early-career research community exploring art and creativity in organizations and society
CAOS Workshop - Ostranenie as a technique for thinking, creativity, and research
This interactive workshop, led by Dr. Annamari Huovinen, Professor of Practice in Organizational Communication, introduces ostranenie—the practice of making the familiar strange—as a practical technique for breaking habitual ways of thinking. Especially useful when refining a research question or navigating conceptual stagnation, the session offers concrete tools for generating new angles and renewing perception in scholarly work.
Organized by the CAOS Network in collaboration with the Aalto Organizational Communication Group, this two-hour interactive workshop invites participants to experiment with new ways of approaching their research. Through guided exercises and structured reflection, the session explores ambiguity, shifting perspectives, and imaginative reformulation as deliberate strategies for loosening entrenched assumptions.
Drawing on literary fiction as a creative method (not as an object of analysis), participants engage with strangeness and productive non-understanding in order to renew perception. The aim is not interpretation, but learning to suspend automatic explanations and approach one’s work differently.
Participants will:
- Encounter moments of strangeness through short literary texts
- Reflect across linguistic and disciplinary perspectives
- Experiment with describing a current research question in unfinished, metaphorical, or fragmentary ways
- Identify how disturbance and creative detours can support problem formulation and conceptual renewal
The workshop provides a structured yet open space to refresh perception, loosen entrenched framings, and reconnect with generative thinking in research practice, and it is inteded for anyone engaged in research, regardless of discipline.
Instructor
Annamari Huovinen is Professor of Practice in Organizational Communication at the School of Business. Her work bridges academia, public debate, and literary writing, bringing together strategic communication expertise and creative practice.
She has extensive experience training researchers and professionals in academic writing, media engagement, and public communication. Known for creating reflective and dialogical learning environments, she supports participants in navigating uncertainty, reframing complex questions, and developing clarity without oversimplification.
In addition to her academic role, Annamari is an essayist and author of Hankala eläin (Tammi, 2024), a reflective exploration of the entanglements of humans, other animals, and the economy. Her workshops combine intellectual rigor with creative experimentation, helping scholars renew perception and rediscover generative thinking in their research.
Organizational Communication
Research and teaching in the unit of Organizational Communication focuses on the social and communicative practices through which organizations, communities, and societies are managed and organized.