The first analysis was taken into account in the planning of the last two workshops that took place on January 18 and 20, 2025. Through the first analysis, the goal is to look at the exercises we have developed through the first six workshops, reflect on what needs to be changed in these, as well as concretize the goal of this artistic project. This final analysis serves as a fourth and final part of the project and looks at factors such as context, art for children, verbal tools and artistic project vs. educational project.
In workshop #7 and #8 are two completely different workshops, largely because the context is so different. In workshop #7 there are around 100 children and adults in the room, it is a public workshop so the audience does not know each other and we have a wide age range. In workshop #8, the context is completely different, it is a small group of children aged 5-6 years old, they know each other and they are in safe and familiar surroundings. Here, there are also adults present during the workshop, but they are not parents but employees of the kindergarten.
All these factors play a role in how the workshop develops. What we notice in workshop #7 is that it is much more difficult to get a response from the audience, and that there is a much greater threshold for a child to raise their hand and say something in a large group with many unfamiliar people. It's also more difficult for us musicians to take in all the responses we get from the audience, both verbally and visually, since the group is so big. In workshop #8, the setting is completely different, there is a clearer response from the children, but we can also take the time to listen and respond to the response from each child. All these factors need to be taken into account when doing these workshops because it will affect the outcome. The goal is still the same, to explore and create together, but it is important to be aware that children react differently in different settings.
The factors that come into play in the different contexts in relation to the verbal tools we musicians use have an impact on the children's creativity, and the goal that we should create on the children's terms. Here, workshop #8 stands out, especially in the exercise “Drawings can become sound”. As of workshop 3, we have added an element to this exercise where we bring two pieces of paper with two different shapes. Here we use one and one paper to explore how drawing can become sound together with the children. As explained in the previous chapter, when we asked what sound the green dots could make, the answers ranged from blue to green grass.
The sounds we end up making collectively over the same drawing of the green dots differs quite drastically from workshop #7 and #8.
We all felt that the last workshop, workshop #8, stood out from the others when we talked about creating on the children's terms. From the moment we introduced the paper with dots on it in workshop #3 until now, the sounds we have developed together with the audience have mostly been many short sounds. In workshop #7 we and the audience end up making similar sounds as in the previous workshops in response to the drawing with many green dots. After I ask how we all could make the sound of this drawing together, the kid answers "short sounds" and Nicolas suggests that we can make the clicking noise with our mouth.
In workshop #8, the sounds we end up making in collaboration with the children over the same drawing differ from the sounds made over a similar drawing in the other workshops. In workshop #8 we end up using a mix of three different sounds: whistling sounds, a mmmm sound and a more growl-like sound. The sounds are suggestions from the children that we have landed on after some exploration. But why were the sounds we made over the same drawing so different in workshop #8?
"Three long ones - an answer to our question about how the one drawing should sound that differed greatly from previous answers and perhaps even caught us a little off guard." (Leirtrø, through questionnaire)
This is precisely where the artistic vision of being able to have a co-creative setting where we create on the children's terms comes in. Previously, it may seem as if we have unconsciously had a more pedagogical approach to the drawing with the dots, and that we three musicians have tried to conjure up the sounds we associate with a drawing, which in turn is a result of many years in the music institutions. In workshop #8, it seems that we try to follow the children's thinking to a much greater extent. It starts with me asking the children what this drawing of green dots might sound like, without specifying that it's green dots, and one child answers “blue”. Instead of saying “but these dots aren't blue”, we ask what blue sounds like.
There are probably many factors that made the response to the sound in workshop #8 different from the other workshops, such as the size of the audience, age, whether there are parents or kindergarten staff present, etc., but it should be mentioned that we the musicians had a conversation before the last two workshops where we talked about what abstractness for children is, related to what is reflected in the previous analysis. The biggest difference from workshop #8 to #7 is the size of the group. As mentioned earlier, we find that this affects the verbal response from the audience, and when there is less response from the audience, we musicians have to control the direction of each exercise to a greater extent because we do not have as much input from the audience. Naturally, we then lead the way more in a direction that makes sense to us with our educational background. With a small group of children, we have much more time to focus on what each child is saying and thus more room to play on their associations.
That being said, there are instances in workshop #7 that corresponds to us having a more conscious relationship with how to respond to the children's associations. In addition to the drawing with the green dots, we also brought a drawing with three shapes that we went through with the children after the first drawing. When we ask if they have a suggestion for a type of sound that could go with this drawing, one of the children in the front row answers “hot dog”. We continue by asking what sound the hot dog makes and the child answers “plop”. We try to make the “plop” sound collectively using Nicolas's conducting. Then I continue by asking how many hot dogs are there on the paper and a child answers “Three. Plop, plop, plop”. We end up singing the three plops together.
When we talk about being able to play in children's associations, it's about how we as musicians express ourselves and respond to them. An example of this is the way we express ourselves when we are told that green dots could sound blue. Instead of saying that there's no blue in this drawing, we asked “Okay, what does blue sound like?”. After letting another child talk about the color pink, I continue to ask: “Can we see any blue or pink in this drawing?”. In many ways, this question can be damaging to the children's associations because I am again trying to link it to associations we adults can understand. Instead a question like "how does pink and blue sound in relation to this drawing?" would maybe be more fitting because instead of concluding the obvious for us adults, it opens up for us adults to dive into the children's world. In other words the verbal tools we need are tools that make us able to dive deeper into the child's world of association.
Talking about these verbal tools is one thing, but using them consciously is something else. When reviewing the workshops it is easy to pinpoint things we should have formulated differently or things we should have reacted to that we did not. After workshop #7, Jenny and I say that we remembered some of the verbal tools we discovered in the first round of workshops, but that we didn't do it automatically this time (Conversation 18.01.2025). From the time we conducted workshop #5 to #7, about five months passed without us conducting any workshops together. When we discussed this, Nicolas suggested that we should either individually or together write a list of questions that could be useful in the various exercises (Leirtrø, 18.01.2025 p.2).
Looking through workshop 7, it's clear that we might need a bit more structure or written questions when asking the children, because when we go through the different drawings in the graphic score with the audience, we ask different questions for each drawing that can lead to different answers. Sometimes we ask “How does it look?” instead of “How does it sound?”. Although we often find that the children will connect the drawing to things or objects anyway, the question “What does it look like?” implies that the drawing must be a specific thing, which is certainly not the case.
At the same time, this question can also be a way for us to get a response from our audience when we don't feel we're getting a response. At almost all the workshops, the first question we usually ask when we bring a drawing and want help to create a sound from it is “What sound can fit this drawing?”. Here the response varies greatly and the times when we haven't received a response that we can work with further, it's easier to start by describing the drawing. We often continue by asking what we see in the drawing. For example, “Are there many or few dots?”, “Are there large or small dots?” etc. When we go through the large graphic notation, we don't take as long to talk about each drawing since we have already done the same exercise a few times. Therefore, asking “What does the drawing look like?” is in many ways a response to us trying to get to the sound of the audience more quickly so that we can continue with the next part of the workshop.
One of the factors of this being an artistic project is that improvisation is stronger than pedagogy. When we enter a room with unfamiliar children, and without any particular agenda other than to explore and create together, we cannot predict what will happen. If the project had been rooted in a pedagogical approach, we would have had a clear goal of what we wanted to teach the children through the workshop. With this artistic starting point, the situation will in many ways be just as educational for us as for the children because we have to improvise both musically and verbally based on the response we get from the children.
This means that we can't create a set structure for what we need to say or which verbal tools we need to use. Based on these findings and mistakes when reviewing the workshop we can have a plan of what to say, but we need to be aware that we may easily have to lead the workshop in another direction than planned. Just as we improvise over the children's drawings, we also have to improvise based on the verbal response the children give us. That's why this project is also largely about the experiences we musicians have in these workshops. In the same way that you learn to play motifs that you can use, modify and deconstruct while improvising in music, you pick up tools through these experiences that you use, modify and deconstruct in the next workshop.
“We had to approach some things a little differently than before - be a little spontaneous and follow what happens along the way." (Leirtrø, through questionnaire)
"I'd like to get better at “processing” their input better, so that they can say anything (which is the point) and that we can play on it and not have to use our usual tools." (Frøysa, through questionnaire)
I think the key here is to be open and not be afraid to fail. Just as we ask the children to explore and be curious throughout the workshop, we musicians need to be just as open to diving into the children's universe. As we experienced in workshop #8, some of the associations with the green dots were far from everything we musicians could imagine. As Nicolas says in the following question about the workshop, we had to be much more spontaneous and open to just follow along and see what would happen (Leirtrø, through questionnaire).
Ultimately, this workshop is about human interaction and about being in a space where we are all equal to create. Therefore, in many ways, this project cannot come from a pedagogical perspective, because if the goal was to teach the children about experimental music and drawing, we imply that we musicians possess a creative competence that the children have not fully developed.
"Experiencing how important art and music is, and how easily children relate to it." (Frøysa, through questionnaire)
Starting from Small's premise that everyone is born with the ability to make music requires that we as performers enter these workshops with an open mind. This means that we as musicians and guides in this workshop must be open to stepping away from the way we have learned and thought about music through our education in different music institutions. We must dare to step out of our comfort zone and step into playfulness. If we achieve this, the workshops will be just as much a learning arena for us as for the audience.