Partner Project

For our class this semester I was paired up with Jude. I was really excited to get to know him as an artist better and try to create something with him. In figuring out what we wanted to do, we met for tea. Both of us were very exhausted, and knew this was the only little bit of time we had to put something together. Initially, I had a different idea in mind which was to have one presentation of a song or other piece of art that the participants would then reinterpret and create another song or piece based on the original. After talking with Jude we both agreed that might not demonstrate a process of creation as well as another idea. In the end we decided to take two elements of music (melody, and rhythm) and form a circle with other class mates. Jude took a rhythmic idea and I took a melodic one. We started playing and then walked to the next person in the circle who then was supposed to change something in the melody or rhythmic structure that Jude and I would take to the next person in the circle to change again. In our heads this was a very straight forward and efficient way to demonstrate how an idea develops with different influence and perspective. I feel like the project didn't turn out the way we had in mind. Instead, it turned into a more improvisatory game, which was interesting, but didn't really display what we were trying to show. I think we could have made our intentions more clear, by setting up a few boundaries, like "change one note in the melody," "or change the meter, or subdivisions in the rhythm." These restrictions would have made it less confusing and would have yielded a more concrete change and development.
I do like the idea of our project, especially the movement of peeling away in a circle. We could experiment with movement in the creative process. If ideas change when people are stationary or in a circle, spread out, or if they were to come to us. Overall, what this project taught me is that we must not confuse the creative process with improvisation, and that boundaries and guidelines often help a more solid product in the end.  I also learned from this project that the concept of 'the creative process' is very obscure and when considered as a tangible teachable thing, can get frustrating and misguided.