Concerted Creativity: Emergence in the Socio-(Im)Material and Intangible Practice of Making Music

The purpose of this article is to explore how the basic conception of
‘emergence’ informs the study of creativity as a socio-material practice. Initially,
the article explicates how creative processes, products and performances
involve not only tangible, but also intangible and social elements. Secondly,
the theoretical conception of creativity as socio-material and the general philosophical
notion of emergence are introduced. Inspired by the idea that a
‘whole’ is other than the sum of its ‘parts’ and by examples primarily from
the world of music, the article argues that the relationship between subject and
object – the main analytical focus of studies on creativity as a socio-material
practice – is fundamentally embedded in an emergent process. The article
concludes by highlighting how emergence theory acknowledges the performance
or product as an intangible material for creative processes of musicians, and
that studies of the socio-materiality of creative practices clearly involving
tangible, intangible and social elements must refer to the emergent process
through which the creative product or performance evolves meaning. The
theoretical framework suggested is relevant for researchers interested in exploring
how materials, social settings and physical environments are involved in
creative processes.