Eitan Wilf

I am a cultural and semiotic anthropologist. My research focuses on the institutional transformations of modern creative agency and modern creative practice. Specifically, I am interested in the ways in which modern normative ideals of rationality, on the one hand, and of creativity, on the other hand, co-constitute and are negotiated in different institutional settings in the West. This interest has led me to pursue a number of research projects.

 

First, I am interested in the organizational cultivation of creativity, especially as it finds expression in forms of art socialization that take place in rationalized bureaucratic settings such as colleges and universities and any institutional setting that relies on standardized and rationalized curricula and pedagogies. This strand of research touches upon and problematizes a long-held dichotomy in anthropological theory between rule-governed or imitative social behavior and spontaneous or creative social action. As part of this research, I conducted an ethnographic study in creative-writing workshops in Israel and in academic jazz music programs in the US. This research resulted in my first book, School for Cool: The Academic Jazz Program and the Paradox of Institutionalized Creativity (2014, University of Chicago Press).  

A second research project that emerged from my interest in the institutional transformations of modern creative agency and modern creative practice focuses on the creative cultivation of the modern business organization. I am interested in the ways in which contemporary business organizations mobilize discourses and practices of creativity in an attempt to enhance the productivity of their employees. To study this phenomenon, I conducted an ethnographic study of the work of business-innovation consultants in the US. This research resulted in my second book, Creativity on Demand: The Dilemmas of Innovation in an Accelerated Age (2019, University of Chicago Press).

A third research project focuses on the numerous potentialities and complications generated by the rise of artificial intelligence and on its implications for human creative agency and sociality. To study these issues, I conducted an ethnographic study with the developers and users of art-producing computerized technologies in the fields of poetry and jazz in the US. This research resulted in my third book, The Inspiration Machine: Computational Creativity in Poetry and Jazz (2023, University of Chicago Press).