3.1 The team and qualities of interactions
The HumanTree involved a team of musicians and visual artists. The team involved in this project were all based in Helsinki although coming from very different backgrounds and cultures including Brazil, England, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Nepal, Peru, Portugal, Spain and the United States. The team of musicians was formed by students from the Global and Folk music department of the Sibelius Academy who were familiar with the contexts and ways of engaging in the kind of a collaborative process I was facilitating. The visual artists team was formed by students from The Academy of Fine Arts, with whom we were discovering new contexts and ways of working together across disciplines. We had different groups within the creative process that included the following artists:
|
Musician |
Instrument |
Performed in themes |
|
Repkat Parhat |
Electronics and Guitar |
1) Seeds, 4) Darkness and light, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Tommi Blackroff |
Accordion |
2) Roots |
|
Essi Hirvonen |
Double Bass |
3) Stages of growth |
|
Joao Luis |
Percussion |
3) Stages of growth, 4) Darkness and light, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Adriano Adewale |
Percussion |
3) Stages of growth, 4) Darkness and light, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Zane Uitto |
Voice |
3) Stages of growth, 4) Darkness and light, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Noora Arola |
Voice and Kantele |
3) Stages of growth, 4) Darkness and light, 5) The relief of forgiveness, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Prem Gurung |
Electric Bass |
4) Darkness and light, 6) A harvest of wishes |
|
Neus Enrich |
English Horn |
7) Peace and freedom |
|
Michal Hoter |
Voice |
7) Peace and freedom |
|
Linda Ciesielski |
Creator of the musical logs |
Art in stage |
|
Daniel Villodas |
Visual projection |
Visual projection in 2, 5, 6 and 7. |
Figure 1.1 (2020), The Team
The HumanTree was the first time this group of artists came together. The fact that I have been working together with some of the participants in other contexts, helped in developing appropriate qualities of interaction, mentioned in the Reflective Matrix of Gaunt and Treacy (2019). Everybody had their special role in the project always expressing motivation, respective trust and gratitude toward the project. Some words that I found in my diary reflect this fact: ‘They are bringing so much good energy, always encouraging me. I am so thankful for that’ (Personal diary entry, October 2019). The motivation from one participant was reflected through this message: ‘Thank you for being so full of ideas and making this amazing project become so more and more interesting’ (Message conversation, October 2019)
By listening to the diverse vulnerabilities and insecurities I learnt and realized that we need each other's ‘varied profiles of skills, knowledge and expertise' (Barrett, 2014, p. 9) for making this project real. The importance of the qualities of interaction are also present in the models presented by Hendrickse (2005) as he affirms that
this kind of work does seem to necessitate the formation of relationships based on mutual respect, trust and reciprocated interest in the work of the other musicians involved. Without these important ingredients, no framework or model will enable successful collaboration. The integrity of the music and the depth of the exploration are directly related to the formation of these relationships. (p. 387)
As for the seeds of this project, the importance of spending time walking in nature was essential as it wanted to emphasize our relation with nature. The seven different themes of the performance, as well as the idea of bringing a connection of trees and people, was giving a non-musical seed as a common starting point. The whole structure was initially builded from my personal vision but refined and developed with the Team during the collaboration. The frame was allowing the others to feel free to interpret the stories through their experiences. The process was flexible and continuously emerging from the circumstances of every moment. For that reason, many things happened simultaneously and the creative process had a continuum of individual and collaborative work. For example, as everybody was in a situation of busy schedules, we had to work separately in small groups until the last stages where all the puzzle pieces assembled. Working in small teams was much easier for finding a common free time as well practical for working and developing specific aspects of the different instrumental sections. When we all met, individual aspects were already clear in the different sections and it made it more fluid.
Even if the focus of the project was on process and the learning values (Gaunt and Treacy 2019), aiming towards a performance positively encouraged the process and the actual creation to happen. Referring to Bruner (1996), Muhonen (2016) states that ‘externalization produces a record of our mental efforts, one that is “‘outside us”’ rather than vaguely “in memory”’ (p. 24). And so, a performance is producing an externalization of our mental efforts while at the same time our creativity is still in an active process because of the communication and improvisation with the present moment, the musicians and the audience. Furthermore, having a goal such as a performance, it is essential for creativity to reach its final state.
