ABSTRACT
A critical means by which artificer and consumer may interact is by way of a creative encounter between the two. A creative encounter occurs in the event that the production of an artifact by the artificer evokes a response in the consumer such that the consumer identifies with the artificer. In this situation the creative phenomenon lies in the occurrence of the creative encounter itself. It is not so much that that in this scenario the consumer is serving as a judge as was the case discussed in Chapter 3. Rather, artificer and consumer engage in a private relationship, a kind of cognitive pas de deux.
This chapter elaborates in detail this idea of the creative encounter. It discusses its main ingredients—the artificer’s “act of production” and the consumer’s “act of consumption”—and the factors that participate in the forming of creative encounters: the consumer’s sensibility to respond to the artificer’s creation, the artificer’s desire for originality, aesthetics, and the roles of genetics and culture. Episodes from the history of the creative tradition are introduced as examples and case studies of the creative encounter.
