4.1 Methodology
I worked with the approaches of Artistic Research (AR), defined by the The Vienna Declaration on Artistic Research as a “practice-based, practice-led research in the arts which has developed rapidly in the last twenty years globally and is a key knowledge base for art education in Higher Arts Education Institutions (HAEIs)” (Culture Action Europe et al., 2020, p.4). This approach supported my artistic practice, which is defined at The Vienna Declaration on AR as “an epistemic inquiry, directed towards increasing knowledge, insight, understanding and skills” (Culture Action Europe et al., 2020, p.4). I focused my research on 1) hope, 2) ecosystemic thinking and 3) interviews with Song composers. I had the privilege to interview Hara (Rara Sekar Larasati), Indonesian singer-songwriter, activist and urban gardener, and Melisa Yıldırım, Turkish musician, Anatolian Kamanche player and poet. My artistic process, and Song composition and performance was inspired and grounded in all three areas of my research.
4.2 Data generation
The artistic data in my research is generated through composition of 7 Songs for my final Bachelor Concert “Geographies of Hope.” Data was generated by composing Songs that are in dialogue with the research that I did around hope and ecosystemic thinking. I also have my journal where I wrote and reflected about my artistic process, and audio samples and videos of the Songs. I also produced data from the two interviews that I did with Song composers. I recorded the interviews in zoom and transcribed them. Lastly, after the concert I collected data from the audience on their impressions and notions about hope.
4.3 Data analysis
I analyzed and categorized my data according to its nature:
A) Song analysis: I selected two compositions for a deeper analysis: Al Jardín (To the Garden) and Asters and Goldenrods. Both Songs are grounded in emotions of grief, loss and anger. I chose to analyse them to explain the methodology of Sonic Geographies of Hope. I took a closer look at the lyrics, the compositional gestures, and the stories that are embedded in the Song. I also analysed the Songs by listening to the rehearsal and concert recordings.
B) Journal entries: I kept a journal to reflect on my composition process and personal life. Then during my thesis writing process, I went back to analyse journal entries to understand my state of mind during the composition process. I was interested to find entries that reflected on how Song composition could become a restoration act for myself, my definitions of hope and what were the challenges and limitations of the project.
C) Interviews: I interviewed and recorded two Song composers and poets. Then I transcribed the interviews to word documents to better process the data. I was interested in their experience as composers-performers, as well as their thoughts on Song as an act of restoration.
D) Audience contributions: After the concert Geographies of Hope, I held an informal installation with sticky notes and pens. People could anonymously write their own definitions of hope. I collected these answers and put them on an excel sheet. (For the full list of answers see Appendix A). Then I made a zine with drawings as part of processing this data. See Appendix B.
4.4 Researcher Position
I am a Chilean song composer, human ecologist, climate activist, community arts organizer and Global Music student at Sibelius Academy. I am interested in this topic because it is key to my artistic identity and sense of responsibility, love and care for the Earth. I am a colleague and friend with Melisa Yıldırım, whom I interviewed for this project. We share a horizontal relationship of trust and open communication. Before the interview we already had informal conversations about the world, politics and music. This is why I decided to include her in my research. Her tuning to the world, active listening, poetry and activism is relevant to this work. Thanks to her I got in touch and learned about the work of Hara, Rara Sekar Larasati, who I also interviewed for this project. We had a horizontal and open conversation which contributed greatly to this project.
4.5 Ethics
This artistic research was a personal solo project when it comes to song composition and independent reading of texts and academic articles. I involved people in two stages of the project: 1) Interviews, and 2) rehearsals for the concert.
I personally hold the copyright to all the artistic data produced, including videos and audio recordings. The data is securely stored on an external hard drive. The research was conducted with reliability, honesty, respect and accountability, which are the basic principles of research integrity (RI) according to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, thus following the TENK 2023 RI guidelines (Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK, 2023).
In terms of my ethics strategy and plan, all the data gathered from the interviews will be destroyed 6 months after the publication of my work. Until then, the data is securely stored on an external hard drive. I got the consent from both participants to take part in this artistic research project and for their names and identities to be revealed as fellow artists and research participants.