Founder of Cognitive Druidry

Nicholas Davis, PhD, is the founder of Cognitive Druidry, an interdisciplinary framework integrating enactive cognition, ecological psychology, adaptive systems, creativity research, participatory cognition, and human-AI co-creation into a unified approach to perception, interaction, and adaptive engagement with dynamic environments.

He earned his PhD in Human-Centered Computing from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), where his research focused on co-creative artificial intelligence, human-AI interaction, creativity support systems, and participatory models of cognition. His work explores how intelligence emerges through interaction, feedback, and relational engagement rather than passive information processing alone.

His research interests include enactive cognition, adaptive systems, participatory sense-making, creativity and imagination, perceptual regulation, ecological models of intelligence, and the development of co-creative AI systems capable of collaborative interaction with humans.

Nicholas Davis has published work on human-AI co-creation and co-creative artificial intelligence, including the Springer reference work chapter “Human-AI Co-Creation: A New Interaction Paradigm for Human-Centered AI,” which explores enactive and participatory approaches to AI interaction and creativity.

Cognitive Druidry emerged through the synthesis of these interdisciplinary research areas into a broader participatory framework for understanding cognition, creativity, perception, adaptive interaction, and human engagement with dynamic systems. The framework integrates theoretical research with practical methods, cognitive technologies, and exploratory philosophical inquiry into the nature of intelligence, meaning, and co-creation.

Google Scholar Link: Nicholas Davis Scholar Profile

Publications

Conference Presentations with Proceedings (Refereed and Archived)

[c. 1] Davis, N., Clemens, M., Rafner, J., Rezwana, J., Sherson, J. (2024). Co-Creation as an Interaction Paradigm for Generative AI to Achieve Hybrid Intelligence. Submitted to 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

[c. 2] Davis, N., Deshpande, M., Rezwana, J., & Magerko, B. (2024) The Five Pillars of Enaction as a Theoretical Framework for Co-Creative Artificial Intelligence. In Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Computational Creativity. *Won Best Paper Award*

[c. 3] Davis, N., Siddiqui, S., Karimi, P., Maher, M. L., & Grace, K. (2019). Creative Sketching Partner: A Co-Creative Sketching Tool to Inspire Design Creativity. In ICCC (pp. 358-359).

[c. 4] Karimi, P., Maher, M. L., Davis, N., & Grace, K. (2019). Deep learning in a computational model for conceptual shifts in a co-creative design system. arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.10188.

[c. 5] Karimi, P., Grace, K., Davis, N., & Maher, M. L. (2019). Creative sketching apprentice: Supporting conceptual shifts in sketch ideation. In Design Computing and Cognition'18 (pp. 721-738). Springer International Publishing.

[c. 6] Karimi, P., Davis, N., Maher, M. L., Grace, K., & Lee, L. (2019). Relating cognitive models of design creativity to the similarity of sketches generated by an AI partner. In Proceedings of the 2019 on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 259-270).

[c. 7] Davis, N., Hsiao, C. P., Singh, K. Y., Lin, B., & Magerko, B. (2017, June). Creative sense-making: Quantifying interaction dynamics in co-creation. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 356-366). *Won Best Student Paper*

[c. 8] Long, D., Jacob, M., Davis, N., & Magerko, B. (2017, June). Designing for socially interactive systems. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 39-50).

[c. 9] Davis, N., Hsiao, C. P., Singh, K. Y., & Magerko, B. (2016). Co-creative drawing agent with object recognition. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 9-15).

[c. 10] Singh, K.Y., Davis, N., Hsiao, C.-P., Jacob, M., Patel, K., Magerko, B. 2016. Recognizing Actions in Motion Trajectories using Deep Neural Networks. In Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment.

[c. 11] Li, R., Wang, Y., Hsiao, C.-P., Davis, N., Hallam, J., & Do, E. 2016. Tactile Teacher: Enhancing Traditional Piano Lessons with Tactile Instructions. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (pp. 329–332).

[c. 12] Davis, N., Hsiao, C.-P., Singh, Y., Li, L. Magerko, B. Empirically Studying Participatory Sense-Making in Abstract Drawing with a Co-Creative Agent. In Proc. of 2015 Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI ’15)

[c. 13] Davis, N., Comerford, M., Jacob, M., Hsiao, C. P., & Magerko, B. (2015, June). An enactive characterization of pretend play. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 275-284).

[c. 14] Davis, N., Hsiao, C. P., Singh, K. Y., Li, L., Moningi, S., & Magerko, B. (2015, June). Drawing apprentice: An enactive co-creative agent for artistic collaboration. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 185-186).

[c. 15] Swarts, M., Davis, N., Hsiao, C.-P., & Hallam, J. 2015. Sharing the lights: exploration on teaching electronics for sensory augmentation development. In Proceedings of the 6th Augmented Human International Conference (pp. 203–204).

[c. 16] Davis, N. M., Popova, Y., Sysoev, I., Hsiao, C. P., Zhang, D., & Magerko, B. (2014). Building Artistic Computer Colleagues with an Enactive Model of Creativity. In ICCC (pp. 38-45).

[c. 17] Davis, N. Human-Computer Creativity: Blending Human and Computational Creativity. Proc. of 2013 Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE ’13)

[c. 18] Davis, N. Zook, A., Kirschner, F., Nitsche, M., Riedl, M. (2013) Techniques for Evaluating Novice-Oriented Creativity Support Tools. Proc. of 2013 ACM SIGCHI Workshop on Evaluation Methods for Creativity Support.

[c. 19] Davis, N., Zook, A. O’Neill, B., Grosz, A., Headrick, B., Nitsche, M., Riedl, M. O. (2013) Creativity Support for Novice Digital Filmmaking. Proc. of 2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing.

[c. 20] Davis, N., Winnemoeller, H., Dontcheva, M., Do, E.-Y. (2013) A Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support. Proc. of ACM Creativity & Cognition 2013 (C&C ’13)

[c. 21] Hsiao, C.-P., Davis, N., Do, E. Y.-L. Sketch Master – A Sketch Game for Collecting Exploratory Data. In proceedings of ACM Creativity & Cognition 2013.

[c. 22] Li, B., Zook, A., Davis, N. M., & Riedl, M. O. (2012, May). Goal-Driven Conceptual Blending: A Computational Approach for Creativity. In ICCC (pp. 9-16).

[c. 23] Davis, N., Li, B., O'Neill, B., Riedl, M. O., Nitsche, M. (2011) Distributed creative cognition in digital filmmaking. In Proceedings of ACM Creativity & Cognition (C&C '11) *Won Best Student Paper*

Book Chapters

[b. 1] Davis, N., Clemens, M., Rezwana, J., & Browne, E. (2025). Human-AI Co-Creation: A New Interaction Paradigm for Human-AI Interaction. In Handbook of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (pp. 1-57). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

[b. 2] Davis, N., Clemens, M., Browne, E., Rezwana, J. (2024). Unlocking the Black Box of Artificial Media with Quantified and Explainable Co-Creative AI. In eds. Zagalo, N. Artificial Media. Springer.

[b. 3] Davis, N. (2024) Creative Sense-Making: A Cognitive Framework for Modeling Interaction Dynamics in Co-Creative AI. To appear in eds. Tigre-Moura, F. AI, Co-Creativity, and Creativity. Routledge.

[b. 4] Davis, N., Hsiao, C. P., Popova, Y., & Magerko, B. (2015). An enactive model of creativity for computational collaboration and co-creation. Creativity in the digital age, 109-133.

Journal Articles

[j. 1] Davis, N., Hsiao, C., Singh, K. Y., Lin, B., & Magerko, B. (2017). Quantifying collaboration with a co-creative drawing agent. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS), 7(4), 1-25.

[j. 2] Nietsche, M., Riedl, M. O., Davis, N. Creativity, Cognition, and Machinima. Animation Journal, 27. 50-66.

[j. 3] Davis, N., & Do, E. Y. L. (2012). Quantifying the Artistic Experience with Perceptive Sketching Tools: Cognitive Technologies to Support Creativity Researchers. Comunicação e Sociedade, 22, 76-95.

Invited Talks

[pr. 1] Davis, Nicholas. 2024. AI Drawing Partner: Co-Creative Drawing Agent and Research Platform to Model Co-Creation. Invited presentation to the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, Aarhus University, Denmark.

[pr. 2] Davis, Nicholas. 2024. Co-Creative Art Making with the AI Drawing Partner: A Quantified Approach to Model Co-Creation. Invited presentation to the Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Warsaw University, Poland.

[pr. 3] Davis, Nicholas. 2015. Using Feedback and Interactive Machine Learning to Train Co Creative Agents. Invited talk to Goldsmith University’s Computational Creativity Lab, London, England.

[pr. 4] Davis, Nicholas. 2015. Drawing Apprentice: A Co-Creative Drawing Agent for Real Time Collaboration. Interactive Art Exhibit at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, Atlanta.

'[pr. 5] Davis, Nicholas. 2015. Collaborating with Creative Agents. Presentation at STEAM3: The Future of Education Conference at Georgia State University, Sept 11-12, 2015.

[pr. 6] Davis, Nicholas. 2015. Where Art and Technology Meet. Guest Panelist at C4Atlanta TechSmarts Lecture Series, Atlanta, Georgia.

[pr. 7] Davis, Nicholas. 2014. Towards Human-Computer Co-Creativity. Guest Lecture to Dr. Ashok Goel’s Computational Creativity at Georgia Tech.

[pr. 8] Davis, Nicholas. 2014. Creative Cognition and Sense-Making. Guest Lecture to Dr. Michael Nitsche’s Literature, Media, & Communication Course at Georgia Tech.

[pr. 9] Davis, Nicholas, Ellen Yi-Luen Do. Teaching Patients to Regulate Stress with Biofeedback Art Therapy. Poster presented to Public Health Informatics Conference August 21-24, 2011, Atlanta, GA, USA.

[pr. 10] Elliott, Matt, Davis, Nicholas. Cognitively Based Parsing and Extraction of Potential Knowledge from Sentence Structures. Poster presented to TABU Dag Linguistics Conference, June 10, 2008, Gronningen, Netherlands.

[pr. 11] Davis, Nicholas. The Theoretical Architecture for a Cognitive Robot. Cognitive Science Student Conference, April 18, 2009, Cleveland, OH, USA.

[pr. 12] Davis, Nicholas. Perceptual Symbols Meshing: Examining the Relationship Between Intention and Perception. Presented to Conceptual Structure Discourse and Language (CSDL 2009), October 18, 2009, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Google Sites

Report abuse