ABSTRACT
If one asks people what they think of when hearing the expression ‘the artist at work’, the chances are overwhelmingly that they will picture a painter in front of his (rather than her) canvas or a writer alone at a desk or table where there is a piece of paper, a typewriter or a computer. What lies behind this, is of course the Romanticist idea of the artist as an individual with particular expressive needs and gifts. The simple historical fact that much or perhaps even most art has routinely been created by more than one person – from the work of Michelangelo’s assistants to the creation of performances and orchestral concerts – has not significantly altered this standard image of the lone creator. The image even pops up in recent arguments that digital technologies are challenging it (cf., e.g. Woodmansee, 1994, p. 25) – as if it had not been challenged already by actual artistic practices.
