ABSTRACT
Creative practitioners become reflective in practice through individual activities honed over many years. But what happens when their creative work involves collaboration with others? How much does collaboration itself influence the way the practitioner creates new ideas and works and reflects on the process and its outcomes? In Chapter 4 we examine collaborative practice and its implications for reflection. A picture of the world of collaborative creation emerges in which different patterns and structures influence how practitioners think and make. When people collaborate creatively, they learn from one another as they are exposed to each other’s ideas and actions. Reflection is as necessary in co-creation as it is in solo work. In co-creation, practitioners create mechanisms for reflection that provide opportunities to reflect on their respective responses to what they have created together. Research on organisations working collaboratively, including artistic collectives, news media operations and design companies have provided valuable examples of real world collaborative practice. Interviews with artists, designers, curators, entrepreneurs, musicians and technologists who collaborate extensively have been invaluable. Together they represent a broad spectrum of co-creation that provides the foundation for the discussion of co-reflection which follows.
