As mentioned in the previous chapter, the process of reflecting on the development and delivery of the concert can be a rich source of insights, which can be very helpful for the further development of one’s practice.
These may include reflections on subjective aspects of the experience (for example, feelings or creative inputs that may have emerged) and/or on practical issues of the production (for example, learning about recruitment strategies). Furthermore, reflections and analyses may be a required task for the elaboration of reports to host institutions and/or sponsors.
Some aspects of the reflective process may show similarities with qualitative analysis, which is ‘a process of searching for meaning and understanding, seeking to illuminate participants’ realities’.[1] In that respect, it requires the use of ‘creativity, insight and knowledge to make sense of the complexity of the experiences and perceptions’.[2]
There are a variety of methods that can help in the reflective process, which can serve different purposes, and be more appropriate to different affinities.
For example, the practice of free writing can be an interesting tool to capture impressions and feelings. Alternatively, the practice of voice recording can also be interesting, especially to capture spontaneity and inflections that cannot be expressed in written words.
When reflective processes such as free writing or voice recordings are done soon after the concert, emotions can be captured in the freshness of the moment. However, in some situations it can be also interesting to take some distance and give some time before doing the exercise of writing - which can then reveal aspects that have been engraved in the memory.
In the process of reflecting on the experience, it can also be helpful to analyse video, audio, photos, and other types of documentation. Also, looking back to one’s own notes during the creative process can illuminate questions and bring up interesting insights.
Although it may be difficult to analyse documentation material when we are deeply involved as an artist and/or producer, it is important not to ignore any undesirable elements that may have happened. On the contrary, an honest reflective process can engage with those ‘less than optimal’ elements and construct knowledge from those experiences.
Some projects also involve collection of audience feedback. The analysis of such material can be a source of rich insights, and a great learning opportunity.
Some simple initial questions can be helpful for one to start the reflective process, such as:
- What are the most immediate thoughts that come to mind, when thinking about the project?
- What was the most enjoyable element / moment of the project?
- What was the least enjoyable element / moment of the project?
- What was the initial aim of the project?
- How far has the project fulfilled its initial aims?
- What new insights came from this experience?
Some of these questions have been used in the feedback forms that were filled by the participants in the music as an invitation project. However, in our experience, they can be helpful tools to help the reflective process of the artist / leader / facilitator and/or producer as well.
For some more in-depths analysis, Williamon et. al. suggest three types of analysis:
- Thematic analysis, which looks for key themes or patterns of shared meaning in qualitative data;
- Interpretative phenomenological analysis, which focuses on the lived experiences of individual participants in depth, looking into each participant’s perspectives;
- Qualitative synthesis, which aims to offer a holistic view, by producing a narrative that tells the story of the experience, usually supported by a theoretical framework.
In some situations, especially when it involves report writing for sponsors, there may be the need to analyse some practical and/or quantitative aspects as well, for example: reach (how many viewers and/or how many in-situ attendees), impact of the project (e.g. audience feedback, reviews, presence in local media, engagement on social media), by-products (videos, recordings, publishable texts, etc) and financial report.
The music as an invitation project was situated in a practice-based research context, therefore the analysing and report writing were mandatory steps in its development. Having the requirement to write an article about the the learnings from each year of research was then a helpful element, working as a goal for the reflective process.
Case study 1: music as an invitation (year 1: 2023-2024)
As mentioned in the previous chapter, I kept the habit of logging my reflections as blog posts throughout the development of the first year of the project. These entries turned out to be very helpful by the time I had to look back and gather what the learnings were from that phase of the research.
The analysis and reflection process also encompassed looking back on the documentation of the workshops - my personal notes, and transcripts of conversations - and carefully reading the participants’ responses to the feedback form.
As a first step, I retold how the creative process unfolded, as if retracing the steps of the development of the project.
Subsequently, I went back to the keywords that were set at the beginning of the project, and aimed to identify excerpts of the participants’ comments, which related to those questions.
In this process of carefully reading the notes and feedback, I also identified some topics that emerged during the creative process - where some of those ‘emerging learnings’ were already noted down as blog posts on the project website.
Additionally, communications of the research in academic events, which I have presented throughout the first year of project, were useful material for me to look back on and gather the topics that have been highlighted during the creative process.
Those reflections revealed learnings from two different starting points - from responses to questions set in advance, and from topics that emerged during the development of the project - which were then gathered in a section of ‘Findings’ in an academic article.
The text of this article turned out to become a multimedia documentation displayed as an exposition on Research Catalogue’[3].
This phase of the project did not require a quantitative analysis. However, it was helpful for me to look back and document the number of participants and the countries they were located in. It was also helpful to look at the amount of months it took to carry out the creative process, and how many workshops took place. Since the main focus of the research was the experience of the participants, as well as my own, I did not find it relevant to keep account of how many views the online concert has been receiving.
However, the overview of the project participation reach offered me valuable perspective, which has been helpful in the development of the second year of the project.
Besides the article writing, the overview of the reach of the project and the findings from its first year have been included in the reports that had to be submitted to funding bodies.
[3] DECOTÉ RODRIGUES, Késia. 2025. music as an invitation year 1 – processes of co-creation of an online piano concert. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2975619/2975620
Case study 2: Hecate writes / rsvp: piano, toy piano, electronics, and actions
In the second year of music as an invitation, I carried on the practice of keeping track of my reflections through blog posts. I also kept a kind of diary, where I logged more private reflections.
The reflective process of the second year of the project included looking back at those blog and diary entries, as well as at the participants’ feedback, which they shared though conversations and an online feedback form. Additionally, listening to the feedback collected right after the concert offered some insights about the participatory experience of the in-situ audience/participants.
In this second year of the project I decided it would be relevant to highlight my experience as an artist in a participatory context. To this, the diary entries have been an essential source of information.
As part of the development of research within an artistic context, I have been exploring alternative ways of elaborating the article of the second year of the project. I have been exploring compilation of small formats, including short audio and/or video and text slides in the style of a social media carousel.
These small form publications aim to resonate the material that has been explored in the creative process - short videos made by the participants - using the social media context, which relates closely to teenage girls’ worlds. Also, the experimentation with alternative formats aims to communicate, in an embodied way, the very ‘smartphone-based’ dynamic that the development of this turned out to be for me during this period of my life.[4]
The end of the second year coincides with the finalisation of the research project, which brings the requirement of elaboration and submission of reports to the funding agencies. Helpful strategies to elaborate those reports include: looking back at the initial proposal of the project, particularly the sections about the expected outcomes, and reflecting about which results were obtained - both anticipated and unanticipated. For this type of project, there is no requirement of focus on quantitative analysis, although it will be interesting to include brief information about the number of participants and countries involved in the participatory processes. The centre of attention for reflection, which will inform the project report, consists of analysing and summarising the new understandings that were gained from the development of this project, and which new insights the project brings to the fields of participatory arts and music performance.
[4] Notes on maternal experience within an artistic research project. Available on https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2975619/2989308?c=9