APG5662 Chap.8 Creative Innovation and Repertoires
Creative Innovation and Repertoires
Creative industries generate large volumes of new work under uncertain demand, but novelty, adoption and lasting significance are different outcomes. Fads, fashions, taste-makers, scenes and catalogues help determine what circulates and what endures. This chapter follows innovation through selection, diffusion and consequence, while testing the assumption that every new format improves diversity or working conditions.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Novelty in products and processes
- 02
Fads, fashions and taste-making
- 03
Scenes and communal creativity
- 04
Selection, adoption and diffusion
- 05
Repertoires, catalogues and canons
- 06
Unintended consequences and slow innovation
Worked example · free
Evaluate an interactive exhibition format
- +2Define the novelty in participation, technology, organisation or interpretation.
- +2Measure adoption by institutions and audiences rather than relying on the launch claim.
- +2Compare access, cost, repeatability and experience with existing formats.
- +2Test unintended effects such as technical exclusion, maintenance burden or changed labour roles.
Key terms
- Creative Innovation
- A novel cultural product, process, format, organisation or mode of participation whose effects require evidence.
- Fad
- A rapid concentration of attention that declines quickly and may not create durable institutional change.
- Fashion
- A socially organised pattern of taste and adoption that shapes visibility over a longer period.
- Cultural Repertoire
- The changing set of new, established and enduring works available within a cultural field.
- Taste-maker
- An actor whose selection, recommendation or recognition shapes what gains attention and legitimacy.
- Diffusion
- The spread of a product, practice or idea across users, organisations or places.
Creative Innovation and Repertoires FAQ
Is novelty the same as innovation?
Novelty identifies something new, while innovation analysis asks whether it is adopted and changes practices, organisations or outcomes. A novel launch can disappear without wider consequence.
How do fads differ from fashions?
Both organise attention, but a fad is usually shorter and more abrupt, while fashion can structure taste and adoption across a longer cycle. Define the time pattern rather than using either label casually.
Why do older works remain important?
Catalogues, canons, institutions, education and audience attachment sustain older work alongside new releases. Cultural change is therefore a shifting repertoire, not a simple replacement of old by new.
At what point can a novelty be described as culturally significant?
Significance requires more than technical availability or promotional attention. Trace selection, adoption and diffusion, then examine consequences for participation, labour, cost, discoverability, diversity or value over a stated period. Identify the actors and institutions that carried the novelty and compare it with durable older practices.
Early uptake may indicate interest without demonstrating lasting change, while wide production may coexist with concentrated visibility. State the time horizon and evidence threshold used for the judgement. A careful conclusion can describe emerging significance conditionally and specify which later outcomes would confirm or weaken that assessment.
Assessment move
Choose one claimed innovation and build a timeline from invention to selection, adoption, diffusion and consequence. At each stage, write the relevant actor and evidence. Compare promotional claims with actual changes in participation, labour, cost or diversity. Create a second column for unintended effects and durable older practices.
In writing, avoid assuming that more production guarantees more discoverability or reward; production diversity can coexist with concentrated distribution. End the analysis by stating the conditions under which the innovation matters and the period over which that judgement can reasonably be made. Define what is new before collecting success stories.
The novelty may concern a work, format, production process, revenue model, distribution channel or audience practice, and each requires different evidence. Establish the comparison point and period so an old practice in a new market is not mistaken for an invention. On the timeline, distinguish technical availability from organisational adoption and from routine cultural use.
Identify gatekeepers, scenes, critics, platforms, funders or communities that select and legitimate the novelty. Gather evidence at each stage: release records can establish supply, usage data can show adoption, interviews can reveal practice and revenue or labour evidence can test consequences. Track who absorbs the costs of experimentation and who captures value if the innovation spreads.
Build a repertoire table placing the new form beside enduring catalogues, fashions and short-lived fads. Ask whether it complements, displaces or revives older work. Use a diversity check with separate columns for the quantity produced, discoverability, audience reach and creator reward; movement in one column does not guarantee movement in another.
Add an unintended consequence and a group for whom the change matters differently. When drafting, present a mechanism between stages instead of narrating a chronological sequence. Test a counterfactual about what would have happened without the claimed innovation. Conclude at an appropriate time horizon, acknowledging that early adoption evidence cannot establish long-term cultural significance.
This makes innovation a researched process rather than a synonym for technology or improvement.
