Unpacking Emergent Creativity in Online Collaborative Making

Abstract

Making encompasses creative problem solving and artistic self-expression. When makers work in groups by utilizing the available material resources, the creative process can be significantly influenced by social and material interactions. The article aims to contribute to the understanding of creativity as a distributed phenomenon, by discussing an empirical case study of how creative outcomes emerge from collaborative making. We specifically look at data from a graduate course run online, where novice makers collaboratively engage in solving design problems. Our analysis suggests that creativity arising from a collaborative making process cannot be reduced to individualistic traits, but spread across social and material worlds.