The Illusion of Creative Immediacy

This chapter challenges traditional cognitive approaches to creativity by examining how finished creative products create an illusion of immediacy that obscures the messy, materially-engaged processes through which they were actually produced. Using Rachel Kushner's simile “saltwater confetti” as a starting point, the chapter argues that the brilliance of polished works encourages researchers to attribute corresponding brilliance to moments of creation, leading to explanations that invoke exceptional cognitive abilities while effacing the temporal and collaborative dimensions of creative work. Drawing on Latour's symmetrical anthropology and concepts from material engagement theory, the chapter proposes five principles for understanding creativity as enacted practice: visibility, symmetry, temporality, materiality, and contingency. Rather than locating creativity within individual minds, this framework positions creative thinking as emerging from dynamic interactions between humans and their material environments, where objects function as active partners rather than passive instruments.