Auto-tuned and R-Squared. Reflecting Audience Quality Evaluations in the Creative Process in Music Production and Systems Biology

Elizabeth Long Lingo, Hille Bruns

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

While audiences play a key role in the implementation and ultimate success of novel ideas, how audiences are reflected in negotiations about quality within the creative process remains undertheorized. We examine this question through a comparative ethnography of two settings where digital technology use magnifies the countless micro-decisions involved in producing a creative output and considerations of audience evaluation throughout the creative process – Nashville music production and systems biology cancer research. We find that actors encounter a fundamental tension between two competing standards of quality: the technically perfect, processed and ideal versus the empirically grounded, unprocessed and real. We show how actors navigate this tension vis-á-vis three different audiences – internal peers, extended community, and external reviewers – and how this manifests differently across audiences and the arts and sciences, depending on the audience’s expertise. Our study illuminates the tension between the “ideal versus real” in creative processes that is brought to the fore when creating with digital technology, extends extant research on audiences and organizing for creativity, and offers unique insights from our comparative ethnography across the arts and sciences.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOrganizing Creativity in the Innovation Journey
EditorsElke Schuessler, Patrick Cohendet, Silviya Svejenova
PublisherEmerald
Pages91-113
Number of pages23
ISBN (Electronic)9781839828744
ISBN (Print)9781839828751
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Publication series

NameResearch in the Sociology of Organizations
PublisherEmerald Publishing Limited
Volume75
ISSN (Print)0733-558X

Keywords

  • Creativity
  • Audience
  • Quality evaluations
  • Comparative ethnography
  • Digital technology
  • Arts and sciences

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