Creativity as Observer-Mediated Configurational Transition: A Formal and Testable Framework for Domain Topology, Recognition Dynamics, and Idea–Habitat Alignment

Creativity research has produced influential local theories but still lacks a common formal language able to span ordinary reconfiguration, cross-domain novelty, observer disagreement, and delayed uptake. This paper proposes such a language by modeling creativity as an observer-mediated configurational transition in a structured space defined by domains, receiving habitats, and observer clusters. Five claims are advanced. First, general creativity must be defined before radical novelty is treated as a special regime. Second, intra-domain, multi-domain, and trans-domain creativity are better represented as regions in a continuous topological space than as categorical labels. Third, produced creativity, seen creativity, accepted creativity, and attributed paternity are analytically distinct states. Fourth, the lag between idea-readiness and habitat-readiness is a structural variable rather than a sociological residue. Fifth, a creativity theory becomes scientifically useful only when its variables are tied to measurement rules, explicit baselines, and falsifiers. To implement these claims, the paper combines a gap-to-idea sequence with a bounded scoring operator, a domain-topology module, a cluster-indexed observer block, a five-component chronodynamic alignment model, and a Maximum-Intensity Novelty Profile separated from release discipline. A coded comparative pilot on six historical cases and three negative controls demonstrates differential regime scores, bottleneck signatures, and lag structures. The result is a formal creativity framework that is theoretically integrative, mathematically specified, empirically joinable, and open to progressive calibration.