ABSTRACT

Most researchers restrict their inquiries on collaboration to the implementation phase of a creative idea and leave out the detailed analysis of social processes of ideation as such. This chapter proposes to follow the becoming of an idea by showing how its materialization is collaboratively negotiated and established during a creative event called Museomix. Whenever something like an idea materializes itself, a relation is ipso facto created with another materialization that preceded or sometimes anticipated it. From a relational perspective, it is key to note that speaking about ideas, while not knowing yet what they actually consist of, already is a way to give them a mode of existence. In other words, ideas exist through their requirements—that is, through the features, properties, or characteristics they had to have: being written down, discussed, pitched, and represented/supported by enough supporters and validated by the organizers.