Ignoring Audience

While I think Elbow's theories about ignoring an audience are interesting, and the arguments make sense tome, I don't see ignoring one's audience as something that can feasibly accomplished. Unless you were raised as a recluse, sheltered from society, you always have some concept of what a potential audience for your writing must be, our self-consciousness comes from inadequacies we perceive when comparing ourselves with those around us, and self-consciousness in writing is no different. Even when we strive to emulate a style of writing, we do that because it has proven popular, found itself a niche audience that we too wish to play into. Conversely, even in the so called "desert island" writing exercise, the writer is conscious of the audience that is NOT there, and forms their words accordingly. So there is always some sense of audience, I don't believe it is possible to ignore it completely.
While it's true that we don't always have to write FOR our audience (that is, keep them in the front of our minds while composing and write for them to read), I still think it is true that all writing is conscious of it's audience or a potential audience, as the author is always a member of a society that is to this day putting increasing emphasis on perception by others.