Chapter 29: Distributed, cumulative, collaborative, collective creativity
Restricted access

In an age of file sharing and peer-to-peer networking, of social media, mashups and remixes, we need a new language to speak of creative agency. Historically, folk tradition offered an alternative to authorship. This foresight essay proposes to imagine creative agency differently, to think in other terms about creative processes that are collective, collaborative, incremental, and distributed in space and time. Such creative processes are in fact the norm, not the exception. The chapter sketches a model of creativity in which creation is not a single act but a cumulative process; in which creative acts do not exist outside history but are historical, take place over time; in which creative agency is not modelled as individual but as collective or social; in which the figures of the author and the folk are not mistaken for empirical realities but provide instead two imaginary points on the compass of creative agency. The space between them is where creation happens. The figure proposed for that space is that of the collector-editor in the mould of the Grimm brothers.

You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Other access options

Redeem Token

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login via Institutional Access

Personal login

Log in with your Elgar Online account

Login with your Elgar account
Handbook