DNA and Lovesongs:Optimization within the Collective Creative Process

Abstract

Contemporary creative work often brings together multiple experts to realize a novel outcome, and each area of expertise is associated with unique aspirations, requirements and standards. How does the collective creative process unfold when these are conflicting? We harness the institutional logics literature as a lens to highlight cognitive and behavioral implications of larger institutional dynamics that shape and constrain the collective creative process. Based on a comparative ethnography of creative work in the science and music industries, we demonstrate that a significant portion of the collective creative process consists of optimization work. More specifically, we find that actors in both settings developed an approach of optimization – shaping their work so as to integrate and satisfy the requirements of conflicting logics to the greatest extent possible. This study illuminates a critical part of the collective creative process that has so far been unarticulated, and adds to best practices of comparative ethnography