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essential part of the continuous discussion about what can be created, and what can
be expressed—and this discussion is what I call art.
8.3.9 Social and Cultural Creativity
The discussion in this chapter has focused on the individual creative process, even
though cultural aspects have been implicitly mentioned in terms of networks formed
by cultural heritage in the material space. But we can see the advantage of this model
also in analysis of collective creative activities, both real-time exchanges such as
musical improvisation, or in slower processes such as the general artistic discourse
within a particular field. Let us look at some examples.
In group improvisation, musicians communicate through the material represen-
tation, i.e. the sonic result, communicated through the air. This is possible thanks
to the amazing human ability to interpret sound into conceptual musical structures.
Once again, creative misunderstandings during this process will result, since the
music is always ambiguous. Each musician makes his own re-conceptualisation of
what is happening, and reacts to that musically, contributing to the continued mate-
rial shape of the work.
In non-real-time activities based on verbal discussion, such as collaborative
works, or a continuous artistic discourse, we communicate through conceptual rep-
resentations, exchanging and developing ideas, but also through material results.
And misunderstandings and re-conceptualisations thereof form the basis for new
ideas.
This is interesting, because different individuals carry different networks, regard-
ing concepts, tools, cognition and perception. The re-interpretation of a temporary
result, an artwork or a musical output by someone else, can modify the concept in
an unexpected direction, i.e. adjust it to fit his networks, so that he can develop it
further along pathways available to him. When the originator is confronted with this
re-interpretation, his own network can grow, to also include this kind of output. In
this way, we learn from each other, in a continuous development of ideas.
8.3.10 Abstraction Levels
One aspect that has not been directly discussed is the problem of sketches as tem-
porary material form. Sketches are in themselves conceptual and imprecise, but still
more precise than the original thoughts that inspired them. The sketch is somewhere
between the conceptual representation in your head and the final material result. In
many domains, such as drawing, sketches are intentionally vague to allow the test-
ing of ideas without requiring the development of complete detail. How can we
account for this? A similar case is the various forms of concept-based artforms,
where the final medium for the artwork is ideas. But I suggest that the proposed
