Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 24b

Research Study

Abstract

The aim of this Doctor of Creative Industries Research Project is to investigate both my DIY music and sound-making practice and my self as a practitioner during the process of creating and producing a cultural artefact (EP). My research study is designed to be a multi-method qualitative study: a practice-based, arts practice as research, auto-ethnographic study that is to include a first-person narrative of my personal journey, critical reflection and reflexive practice, highlighting the co-constituted nature of my music-making practice. As an auto-ethnographic study, I designed the project for me to be performing the dual primary roles of being both the practitioner as subject, and the researcher. Such a multi-tiered examination represents a significant departure from current discussion of music and sound practice, developing praxis of contemporary practice. In this Project 1 research study exegesis submission I narrate the process to date, highlighting observations around my practitioner self, my music and sound-making practice and the emergent distinctions integrated into my developing contemporary music and sound-making praxis.

(Page 2015a)

Preamble

Continuing on from my previous blogs (Page 2015b) in this series….

In the beginning……

My journey in music-making commenced a number of decades ago. I made music via physical instruments without much thought of the process. I strummed chords on a guitar or piano, hummed or played a melodic phrase, developed lyrics, and over time a song emerged. I felt connected to the process; I felt connected to the music. I recall getting positive feedback when I shared my acoustic instrument-based songs with an audience. I followed this process several hundred times over several decades, and because of the relative ease these songs came to me, I did not feel a need to consider my music and sound-making process.

As technologies developed, I transitioned into music and sound-making using digital virtual technologies. I invested in virtual technologies, trialling a number of virtual music and sound-making applications – digital audio workstations (DAWs). I experimented; I spoke to local pro audio retailers; I experimented some more; I bought instructional books and videos; I studied; I experimented a lot more. Over a number of years however, I found that irrespective of how much time and money I invested into my virtual music and sound-making production practice, I never managed to achieve a similar flow or a similar feeling – a creative high – as I had music-making using physical instruments. My frustration using virtual technologies to make music grew. I enrolled into a practical tertiary course. The course assisted me greatly to develop my theory and practical skills. However, using virtual technologies to make music that I felt connected to, (largely) continued to elude me. There was one instance, a remix project where I felt a connection. That experience gave me hope that my attempts to use virtual technologies to make music I felt connected to, was not going to be in vain. I continued to experiment; I continued to read; I continued to invest; I continue to immerse my self into my virtual music and sound-making production practice. However, I still found I wasn’t achieving a similar flow or a similar feeling – a creative high – using virtual technologies to make music as I had music-making using physical instruments. My frustration was at an all-time high. I had arrived at a juncture in my life where I felt there was now no alternative: my virtual music and sound-making production practice needed an intervention. I needed to put my creative practice using virtual technologies to make music and sound under scrutiny. In 2014 I applied to a formal academic research program – a professional doctorate program. I commenced the program in 2015. My formal research journey began.

My doctoral research study……

Research Study – 1st Observation:

I acknowledged that I approached my music and sound-making practice in terms of the outcome – the finished product. I was not considering the process in which I was music and sound-making, any more than with a cursory glance. My music and sound-making practice was product-driven.

(Page 2017a)

I recognised that I approached my music-making with physical instruments in a different manner to my approach to music and sound-making using virtual technologies (using my laptop to make music and sound for example). In drilling down I determined that much of this was how I viewed both devices.

Physical instruments as I played were derived directly from nature. Pianos and guitars that I played were manufactured from woods from the forest. They are physical instruments that have natural resonant qualities. The woods expand and contract, depending upon temperature and humidity. They are large instruments that I can touch, embrace and/or feel the resonant qualities as they are played.

I viewed virtual technologies very differently. The actual device that housed the music-making application software (DAW) was a computer (a laptop for example). I saw a laptop as a device that houses many many application software that enabled me to record data and/or make transactions. I used computer technologies for administrative purposes (applications such as iNote, word, excel, etc); organisation purposes (applications such as iCal, reminders, etc); and everyday personal and business management (services such as the internet-based social media sites, banking sites, utility sites to pay bills, etc). I viewed the music and sound-making application software (DAW) as somewhat removed from me. It was housed in a aluminium and plastic case, that I could see, but not touch. The virtual keyboards were engaged by pressing a computer keyboard letter; or perhaps a key on a plastic physical keyboard controller. Neither devices are derived directly from nature. They are manufactured. A computer and a keyboard controller are physical devices which also have natural resonant qualities. They only minimally expand and contract in extreme conditions, with such occurrences perhaps likely to render these devices inoperable. There is also a slight delay between the time you touch the key and having the sound emitted out of the computer monitors. They are not what I consider to be large resonant devices that can be embraced and/or feel the resonant qualities as they are played, such as I experience with a piano or guitar.

Research Study – 2nd Observation:

As I attempted to scope out the parameters of my research study, I was led to look at the industry of my practice, the field of music production, and the particular discipline of virtual technologies to make music. This process revealed gaps in my knowledge, and enabled me to form linkages across several strands within the field of contemporary music production.

I then looked in greater detail at the history of my practice, understanding for perhaps the first time the implications of how I approached my music and sound-making practice – as product rather than process. I also started to consider me as a practitioner, as the music and sound-maker. Who was I? How did I arrive to be this person?

My eyes were starting to open.

(Page 2017b)

Project 1 Pilot Study – 3rd Observation:

As I progressed my initial Project 1 Pilot Study, exploring the parameters of my music and sound-making practice, I started to highlight certain elements which I considered key to my practice. As a flow on from my music and sound-making practice, I acknowledged that the self was an element that had to be included. What motivated me to practice?

(Page 2017c)

My music praxis (v4) had six (6) elements listed: self, motive, music style, location, technology and workflow.

(Page 2015b)

My initial pilot study was to be an exploratory investigation to determine the parameters of my music practice; and to investigate what – if any – relationship existed between these elements. I engaged in conscious, deliberate and systematic reflective and reflexive practice of my creative practice, and as part of this process I felt obligated to consider everything that I observed.

As I progressively immersed myself into my quite isolated pilot study, I began to focus in on what I was doing at any point in time, as both the practitioner subject and the observer/researcher. To juggle both responsibilities was not beyond challenge and limitations. How was I to do both – be the creative practitioner, and simultaneously observe my practice?

Project 1 Pilot Study – 6th Observation:

One of the first elements I noted to be part of my developing music praxis (v5) – beyond the initial six (6) elements I had observed at the time of my Project Brief submission – was listening. I noticed listening was central to agency within my practice. Listening directed my choices and decision-making within my practice in terms of music style – in my ability to critically and analytically listen to reference tracks; in terms of my selecting appropriate notes and/or sonic event samples during the creative, pre-production or production stages; in terms of hearing needed or possible options of contra-melodies, rhythms, harmonies or instrumentation during the creative, pre-production or production stages; in terms of determining the degree of adjustment of sound sources or processing that needed to occur during the production or post-production stages.

(Page 2017d)

I started to observe that a central aspect of this listening was also in terms of my practice overall, such as deciding when I needed to have a break. Yes, listening to an inner voice, reminding me I was in need a break from creative practice. I started to notice by paying more attention to my self – to listening to my self – there was a great deal of head chatter occurring while I was engaged in practice.

(Page 2016a)

I had always known of my head chatter, but had accepted it by my mid-twenties as the outpouring of my inner fears as I approached a new experience. By my early-thirties I had learnt to manipulate this head-chatter, to work for me rather than against me. I used my head chatter to consciously motivate and focus my self. I have continued to develop this practice throughout my life, assisting me in preparing for any form of performance, be it: public speaking, education practice (as educator), learning practice (as learner in formal instrument or personal development), and my music and sound-making practice (on stage performing). However, I had never considered, nor explored my head chatter beyond this; particularly within the context of my creative practice.

As I listened more, I recognised that this head chatter – inner speech – did not just consist of just one voice, but were in fact multiple voices; multiple voices with multiple perspectives. As I focussed in on my listening – consciously, deliberately and systematically – I realised these voices were not necessarily independent. There was often a dialogue occurring between them. As I honed my focus and developed my inner listening, I noticed that the dialogue within my head was occurring across three perspectives of time – one of now; one of past; and one of future. In effect, three voices representative of each point in time. As Wiley (2010, P17) refers to it: the I of the present; the me of the past; and the you of the future. An epiphany. A light bulb moment, an ‘aha’ moment for me. The head chatter – as I had always referred to it – that had accompanied me in so many events and stage of my life, was indeed the inner speech of my dialogic self.

As my immersion in reflective and reflexive practice of my research study deepened, I honed in on the incessant daily dialogue of my dialogical self and began to distinguish between the inner speech – the three inner voices, the triadic voices of the I, the me, and the you – for each of my three selves operating at any point in time within the site of my practice: the self, the practitioner self and the observer/researcher self. I would take time to listen to the dialogue at any point in time during my creative practice, as they considered and debated: what I was seeing or observing, what I was hearing, what I was feeling, what I was imagining, what I was recalling, what I was smelling, or even what I was tasting; in order to better understand my music praxis. I devised ways to take notes during my practice of these daily triadic conversations, in order to return to them, reflect on them, and decode them. My music and sound-making praxis developed as a result of this process, to not only acknowledge significantly more stages and elements of my music-making process; but, perhaps most significantly, the non-linear form of my music praxis (v8i).

DLP DCI Praxis v8i.20161231.P1.png

(Page 2016b)

I realised my music praxis was in fact very circular, with reflective and reflexive practice occurring constantly at any point in time.

My practice has now developed to the point where I can engage in multiple forms of listening whilst immersed and engaged in any stage of practice. I can now distinguish between the triadic voices of my three selves: the self, the practitioner self and the observer/researcher self in the present, the past, and the future within a very short amount of time, or sometimes, almost instantaneously and/or simultaneously. Just as my critical and analytical listening has developed over many decades of practice, my ability to listen and decipher the dialogue occurring within my dialogical selves at any point in time has also developed.

I liken this developed complex skill to other forms of practice where multiple tasks are required in sequence over a very short amount of time, often times almost instantaneously and/or simultaneously. The practice of driving a car and the practice of performing are similar type complex skills that need to be learnt; and are often awkward or impossible when one first attempts them with no prior experience. The act of driving a car – accelerating, braking, looking to the side for another car, indicating, moving lanes, whilst watching cars to the side, in front and behind is an example of such a complex task. Another example of a complex task would be leading a band, singing into a microphone, engaging an audience, playing guitar, and selecting guitar floor pedals, over a very short amount of time, often times almost instantaneously and/or simultaneously. I recall when I was younger, that I would never be able to learn how to do both complex tasks. Now I reflect on how many times a year I engage in both practices without any preparation, and perform them to a very high level of practice: almost unconsciously.

Learning about, and getting to know my dialogical self has assisted my music practice exponentially. As part of the process, I have developed a greater understanding of my self which in turn informed my practitioner self. This in turn allowed me to develop my music and sound-making praxis to a greater depth and level of detail than I was able to previously. I now have far greater agency of my praxis (v9k), and its twenty-one (21) interdependent elements, at each of the various eight (8) stages of my creative practice.

(Page 2017e)

As a result, I have far greater agency of my praxis (v9k) while practicing music and sound-making. I am now exponentially more focussed and more deliberate in my practice, most noticeably in my music and sound-making within virtual technologies. I have found my self now responding within my music and sound-making micro workflow in a similar vein to that of my performing – improvising – on my long-term physical instrument of choice, the electric guitar. I observe that I now engage – almost instantaneously and/or simultaneously – in the voices of the I, the me, and the you – at any point in time, within my site/s of practice. A split second in-practice, on-practice and for-practice dialogue – in performance, in assessment of what the practitioner self just heard or performed, in consideration of what options the practitioner self now has before them, their decision as to what they want to express, and the performing of the next music-making action. Yes, a fluid practice performance that demonstrates the harmonious integration of the elements of self, listening, reflective and reflexive practice. In essence: I listen, I practice, I reflect, I analyse, I consider, I choose, I prepare to act, I act – almost instantaneously and/or simultaneously.

This Project 1 Pilot Study has been a personal journey of creative and research practice, highlighting the co-constituted nature of my music-making practice. I now engage in the process of music-making in pursuit of authentic expression of self, irrespective of the medium. My authentic music-making practice – in contrast to my practice prior to engaging in this doctoral research – now transgresses the mediums of: physical instruments and virtual technologies. I now have a sense of who I am, what I am attempting to create, why I am attempting to create it, and an affective connection in the creation of it, irrespective of the medium of my music-making practice – physical instruments or virtual technologies. Virtual technologies are now as much an extension of my music-making practitioner self’s body, as playing my physical instrument of choice, the electric guitar. Allow me now to share my finding of this Project 1 Pilot Study – holistic model of sustainable authentic practice – my journey and development through the four (4) phases of: identity-driven practice, value-driven practice, narrative-based practice, and embodied practice.

(Page 2017f)

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 25 (Page 2017g). It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

Onion image courtesy of: Onion Layers Accessed 28th March, 2015

Page, David L. 2017g. Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 25 Accessed 3rd January, 2018

Page, David L. 2017f .17th Observation image courtesy of David L Page DCI Project 1 Research Study Holistic Model of an Authentic Practitioner. Created 9th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017e. Praxis v9k image courtesy of David L Page. Created 20th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017d. 6th Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017c. 3rd Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017b. 2nd Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017a. 1st Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2016b. Praxis v8i image courtesy of David L Page. Created 29th, November, 2016

Page, David L. 2016a. Praxis v5b image courtesy of David L Page. Created 15th April, 2016

Page, David L. 2015c. Praxis 4 image courtesy of David L Page. Created 1st December, 2015

Page, David L. 2015b. Doctoral Research Study – Part 3 Accessed 1st December, 2015

Page, David L.2015a. image courtesy of David L Page. Created 14th September, 2015

Wiley, Norbert. 2010. “Inner speech and agency.” In Conversations about reflexivity, edited by Margaret S. Archer, 17-38. New York: Routledge

– @David L Page 27/12/2017

– updated @David L Page 03/01/2018

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Who I am……

(Page 2017a)

Me, myself, I – the multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner

As described in my blog Research Practitioner Part 16 (Page 2017b), I am a multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner – a practitioner across multiple practices of education & learning, research study commitments, creative practice, professional consulting practice and family responsibilities. I concluded that:

“All of my practice informs my self; and my self informs my practice – irrespective of the industry, the field, the discipline, or the site”(Page 2017c).

(Page 2017g)

A broad definition of me, myself, I – the creative practitioner

You will note that in terms of creative practice, I refer to my self as a creative practitioner. I consciously choose to use this broad term, not specific to any particular discipline – as I see my self as a creative being who likes to engage in a broad range – a very broad range – of creative practice. Whilst I love to engage in what I would classify as the primary focus of my creative practice – music and sound; listening, creating and performing – music and sound alone does not define me. Being passionate about music and sound does not mean that I am not also passionate about other forms of creative practice. I am a multi-facetted person, with many diverse dimensions to who I am as a being, and in what I love to engage in. I engage in visual arts, in design, in film and animation.

Engagement with particular creative media platforms for particular purposes

I also engage in web, but I see this as not so much as a creative process where I am creating, I see my engagement with web as a creative process in terms of function; curation for gathering resources to use as a practitioner; curation of resources to source inspiration; resources of others practice and/or viewpoints that assist me in the reflection process; to create a sense of identity – for my self, and for others; and, to market and distribute my creative practice.

As I indicated in my blog Media Identity & Curation Part 2 (Page 2014), I apply a diverse media strategy to include my media sites of: about.me, gravatar.com, wordpress.com, tumblr.com, twitter.com, linked-in.com, myspace.com, facebook.com, pinterest.com, you-tube.com, soundcloud.com, instagram.com, lastfm.com, slideshare.com, googlescholar.com, academia.com and google.com. I use these media sites for quite specific purposes.

For example, David L Page wordpress.com (Page 2017d) allows me to communicate detail of my professional practice – as a creative practitioner/subject, as a education & learner practitioner, as a reflective practitioner, as a management practitioner, and as a a researcher/observer in any or all of these areas.

(Page 2017d)
I use David L Page Pinterest.com (Page 2017e) to provide a curated static visual view of my multi-facetted self. I am a professional practitioner who loves diversity. I love culture, having been blessed to live across three diverse cultures to date – European Australian, Japanese, Indian. I have experienced many more cultures in my global travels. I love all things music and sound – audio, in terms of production (tracking), post-production, live and theory. I believe in the access of education for everyone (referred to as community education). I love performance. I love fast fun things. I love the environment. .. I love… I love…. I love… I love…..

(Page 2017e)

I use David L Page you-tube.com (Page 2017f) to provide a curated audio-visual view of my multi-facetted self. As indicated above, I am a professional practitioner who loves diversity, culture, all things music and sound, education for everyone, performance, comedy, or fast fun things.. I love diversity….

(Page 2017f)

Engagement with particular creative media mediums dictates what cultural productions I engage in

How I engage in media depends upon what cultural production – what cultural artifact – I will engage in at any particular time. Depending upon the medium I choose to listen to music or soundtracks will depend upon what I choose to listen to. Am I going to use the internet to stream; an iPod; a CD player – in a house, or a CD player in a car; a car radio; a portable tape player; a cheap record player; a high-end stereo system; or a high end 5.1 surround sound hi-fi system?

It is the same situation for visual arts and design. Depending upon the medium I choose to view visual arts and design will depend upon what I choose to view. on a small screen device such as an iPhone; via a static image platform such as Pinterest.com; via an audio-visual dynamic image platform such as you-tube.com; in a small art gallery with physical visual art or graphic displays; in a large National art gallery with physical visual art or graphic displays?

It is the same situation for film. Depending upon the medium I choose to watch film will depend upon what I choose to watch: on a portable small screen device such as an iPhone; a portable smallish screen device such as a laptop; on a small screen TV; on a large screen TV with a hi-fi 5.1 surround system; in a local suburban cinema; in a surround sound movie theatre equipped with dolby; or an outdoor drive in movie theatre with a window mono speaker system?

As a creative practitioner, I have listed examples below of media across four (4) disciplines and how I view them. Providing examples of four (4) different creative media disciplines I believe enables me to make my point of how engagement with particular creative media mediums very much dictates what cultural productions I actually engage in at any point in time.

(AE 2015a)

1. 4 different listening behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” for me, is best listened in the medium of an album, played on a HiFi record player system, in one sitting, in a comfortable chair, with ambient/subdued lighting (lava lamps etc), at the end of a day. Strict rule – no talking during each side… Flipping the album from side 1 to side 2 is the opportunity to have a break if one needs;

(Pink Floyd 1973)

eg 2: Tim Buckley’s “Greetings from LA” must be played as a full album, in sequence , in one go. I do not mind what medium I listen to it on (album on stereo, cassette tape, on itunes in car system, studio system, or on laptop/desktop/ipod/iphone via studio quality headphones) BUT MUST be listened to in sequence, at one time! (not negotiable);

(Buckley 1972)

eg 3: Where I did not buy the artist’s songs as an album, or I did, but I have never or have infrequently listened to it as a continuous complete album, I am happy to play the songs randomly in a multi-artist, multi-genre playlist via any medium (generally on itunes in car system, studio system, or on laptop/desktop/ipod/iphone via studio quality headphones);
eg 4: ambient music, or dance music for me is about a soundtrack to my life at that moment in time, supporting my emotional or physical state at that time, or my desired emotional or physical state at that time. I am happy to play the songs randomly in a multi-artist, signle-genre playlist via any medium (generally on itunes in car system, studio system, or on laptop/desktop/ipod/iphone via studio quality headphones).

(Olsen 2017)

2. 4 different visual arts and design viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: traditional art – physical paintings, etc – I do like to see in an art gallery, particularly a curated art gallery with a theme, or an artist’s works.. I like taking time to wander around in a relaxed stated;
eg 2: In saying that, I usually also like to have copies of my favourite works electronically (desktop pictures, pinterest, etc) to see and remind myself of that experience in the art gallery;
eg 3: I do view traditional art – physical paintings, etc – in coffee table books, but generally to see and remind myself of that experience in the art gallery…. eg 4: virtual design is ok on most modern mediums (laptop, desktop, etc). However in saying this, I tend not to view on smaller virtual devices such as iphones, as images gets lost/loses visual impact for me being so small, etc;
eg 4: Functional design, such as promotional or marketing brochures for me are best in a physical tactile state. i like to pour over them, digest them, turn the page, revisit the previous page, perhaps circle or add notes around the borders of the text that I may be attracted to, and have further questions about. I tend to want to engage physically with these mediums;
eg 5: virtual creative, artistic design is ok on most modern mediums (laptop, desktop, etc). However in saying this, I tend not to view on smaller virtual devices such as iphones, as images gets lost/loses visual impact for me being so small, etc.

3.4 different film viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: I most like watching feature movies on a movie theatre wide screen and sound system. However, I mostly watch them on my 65″ home TV with sound system – for convenience. For me, watching movies is a shared experience, watching with someone. I do not like watching animation movies on laptops or small screen for both the limited visual and audio experience, but mainly for the lack of watching in a relaxed shared experience environment. An example of a movie that i have seen in these conditions would be “Shawshank Redemption”;

(Entertainment, Castle Rock. 1994)

eg 2: Certain movies eg (original) “Point Break”, “Star Wars” are a cinematic experience, and lose a great detail of impact for me when not watched in cinema, but on my home TV system;
eg 3: Where I want to view a trailer to see if I am interested in watching it in full, I am happy to watch them on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop
eg 4: Certain movies eg “Blair Witch Project” I believe benefit from being watched on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop as this smaller – more intimate? individual? secretive? -medium lends itself more to the intent of the narrative in my opinion.

4. 3 different animation viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: I most like watching feature animation movies on a movie theatre wide screen and sound system. However, I mostly watch them from the second or third time via a DVD on my 65″ home TV with sound system – for convenience. “Lion King” is a good example of this. For me – now – “Lion King” is best listened to (note, not necessairly watched) in one go. It can be in background playing as i am working. In one particular period when i was working home over a three (3) month period, I recall “Lion King” was playing in the background on repeat, all day, every day for those three (3) months;

(Disney 1994)
eg 2: I most like watching animation movies (eg Disney or Pixar) on a movie theatre wide screen and sound system. However, I mostly watch them on my 65″ home TV with sound system – for convenience. I do not like watching animation movies on laptops or small screen for both the limited visual and audio experience;
eg 3: Where there are short animations (3 minute Pixar), I am happy to watch them on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop, just to entertain myself for a short moment to lift my mood, distract me, etc.

5. x different games viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: No contribution possible. mes not a gameboy!!!

Conclusion

What creative media medium I engage with will dictate to a degree what cultural production – what cultural artifact – I will engage in at any particular time. As a creative practitioner, I have provided examples across four (4) disciplines of how I may engage in particular creative media mediums, dictating what cultural productions – what cultural artifacts – I engage in at any point in time.

I love many, varied forms of creative media, In my personal situation have access to many, varied creative media mediums: the internet; an iPod; a CD player – in a house, or a CD player in a car; a car radio; a portable tape player; a cheap record player; a high-end stereo system; or a high end 5.1 surround sound hi-fi system; a small screen device such as an iPhone; a laptop; a desktop; static image platform such as Pinterest.com; via an audio-visual dynamic image platform such as you-tube.com; a small art gallery with physical visual art or graphic displays; a large National art gallery with physical visual art or graphic displays; a small screen TV; a large screen TV with a hi-fi 5.1 surround system; a local suburban cinema; in a surround sound movie theatre equipped with dolby; or an outdoor drive in movie theatre with a window mono speaker system. Most of us in western countries have many, varied options and access in this era.

The mediums one chooses to access media through, could therefore dictate what media you actually engage in.

How do you access creative media?
How does this inform what cultural production – what cultural artifact – you choose to engage in at any point in time?

References

AE 2015a Music note montage in the universe image courtesy of: Angelic Exorcism (AE) Studio Projects Accessed 11th March 2015

Buckley, Tim. 1972. Greetings from LA. Straight Records. Vinyl LP.

Disney, Walt. 1994. The lion king. Walt Disney Feature Animation. DVD.

DLP 2017a image courtesy of David L Page Accessed 11th June, 2017

DLP 2017g image courtesy of David L Page Accessed 11th June, 2017

Entertainment, Castle Rock. 1994. The shawshank redemption. Colombia Pictures. DVD.

Olsen 2017 image courtesy of Sydney Sun [or King Sun] 1965, National Gallery of Australia © John Olsen Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017b Research Practitioner Part 16 Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017c Research Practitioner Part 18 Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017d David L Page wordpress.com Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017e David L Page Pinterest.com Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017f David L Page you-tube.com Accessed 11th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2014 Media Identity & Curation Part 2 Accessed 11th June, 2017

Floyd, Pink. 1973. Dark side of the moon. Harvest. Vinyl LP.

– ©David L Page 11/06/2017

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 17a

(Page 2014a)

This blog is a continuation of a series. See here (Page 2014b) for the previous blog.

Reflecting on 2014 ….

My approach to practice was so different to that of my recently recruited peers. As part of the creative media studies stream, learners were now to be immersed in specific creative media lexis and theory, via tasks that guided the aspiring practitioners in the development of them selves as unique and individual creative media identities. They were to learn to critically consider what creative media is for them as practitioners; researching and investigating both concepts and areas of the creative media industry they may possibly choose to engage in via their practice. They were to then apply these concepts to develop their unique creative media practice. With a developed sense of themselves, having time to form their world views, they would be guided in their development as aspiring professional practitioners; and as academic researchers.

2017 Update

I commenced the doctoral program in February 2015. My formal research journey had begun. On the back of the knowledge and approach in 2014 as described in the previous blog in this series, I implemented a new blog strategy at the beginning of 2015. This saw me changing my blog site from tumblr.com to wordpress.com. I did this for a number of reasons, but primarily due to:

wordpress.com is what we were guiding our learners to create as their primary creative practice blog site;
functionality of the wordpress.com site, including the use-friendly nature of the interface, the editing features, and the ability to publish multi-media within the one entry.

(Page 2017a)

A selection of the 2014 journal entries were published retrospectively in wordpress.com as blog posts as soon as I opened that site. In revisiting this particular blog post- formerly named Reflecting Part 2 – now, nearing the end of my Project 1, I have chosen to rename some of those blog posts. Most noteworthy are:

my realisation that Reflecting Part 1 was essentially about my self , effectively situating my self in regard to my – at the time – pending research study. I therefore renamed this Doctoral Research Study Part 1;
my realisation that Reflecting Part 2 (this blog post) was essentially about my practitioner self , effectively situating my practitioner self in regard to my – at the time – pending research study. I therefore renamed this Doctoral Research Study Part 2.

(Page 2017b)

Standing here today, reflecting, I now realise how my focus within this Project 1 was influenced by my experience within my HE education & learning role in 2013 and 2014. The small sample of blogs I currently have listed on my wordpress.com site under the menu category DCI Phase 0 – Starting Point (Page 2017c) – are representative of some of the new knowledge and approach I acquired and developed during that period. These journals/blogs were completed prior to my official commencement of my doctoral studies, the research study I was choosing to embark on to seek out answers to my long-term queries regarding my music practice. Yes, these blog entries represented 10,000 words book-ending the beginning of my research study.

My view of 2013 & 2014, looking back from 2017….

Reflecting from this point, I realise now how much I have developed over the course of the past almost four (4) years, in terms of new knowledge and approach. I have developed a new set of eyes in terms of my self, and as a practitioner. I look at my developed identity – self and practitioner selves – in 2017, differently to how I saw my self and my practitioner self in 2013, just under four (4) years ago. I am surprised with the level of detail I now see my self, my practitioner self, and my practice is detailed. After all, I have always actively engaged in reflection. However, two (2) key distinctions have emerged.

Firstly: I always knew I was complex; I always knew I was diverse. I now accept I am complex. I now accept I am diverse. I have a wonderfully varied and diverse life. In my need to ground my self during a period of failing creative practice (‘writers block’?), in order to re-connect to my muse, it was suggested I attempt to re-connect to my identity. As a result, I revisited a task that I have led hundreds of professional through in their professional development; I developed a Charter of Values and Beliefs for my self and practitioner self across my Project 1. Three (3) versions over the course of sixteen (16) months. I noted a summary of these developments in my blog last month:

“Quantifiably, the development across the three (3) versions of the Charter of Values and Beliefs over the sixteen (16) months of Project 1 has been:

v1: 26 green entries – new entries – under 8 categories

v2: 55 entries under 10 categories (112% growth in entries)

v3: 87 entries under 11 categories (58% growth in entries)” (Page 2017d)

Viewing this blog in the graphic below – where v1 is column 1, v2 is column 2, and v3 is column 3 – the level of development across the sixteen (16) months is exemplified (see Research Practitioner Part 18 Page 2017d for greater detail of this chart):.

(Page 2017e)

Secondly: I acknowledged early in my Project 1 journey that I realised I was a multi-disciplinary practitioner (see Research Practitioner Part 5):

“I began to recognise that I naturally took a multi-discplinary approach in not only my music practice, but in my life in general. I recall few times in my life where I was content to focus on one discipline for an extended period of time. I have accepted that my practice now covers three broad disciplines: a broad definition of music practice (Small 1998), education and learning practice, and my most recent engagement, research practice” (Page 2016).

As per my blog Research Practitioner Part 16 in January (Page 2017f), this passage of time has also provided me an opportunity to realise I am a multi-facetted, multi-dimensional practitioner. Based on evidenced practice-led data, I have documented at various point in my journey multiple instances of how my self informs my practice; and how my practice inform my self.

Reflecting thus far, I realise how I immersed my self into this research study, a creative project opportunity that has provided me reflections of my self, and of my practitioner self. I can see with more clarity who I am as a unique and individual creative media identity. I have critically considered how I choose to engage in creative media – what motivates me – as a practitioner. I have researched and investigated how I engaged in my unique creative media practice. In doing so, I have left no stone unturned. Having crystallised my world view, with a developed sense of my self, I was then able to guide my own development via conscious, deliberate and systematic reflective and reflexive practice of my creative practice, as a professional practitioner; and as an academic researcher.

Yes, much like Bilbo Baggins (Bros 2014) I am grateful in retrospect, for the opportunity to go on the journey into what was largely unknown territory for me – academic research. It was a self-imposed intervention process in many ways, to look at my creative practice through a very different set of eyes than I had previously. I stepped forward out of my comfort zone, and put just about every facet of my practice under the microscope. I was the subject; and I was the observer. At points I thought I was going out of my mind, observing my practitioner self in the midst of practice, trying to conduct two roles at once. I faced large droughts of creativity, playing with session files for hours on end, and yet not connecting at all to the music I was making. When i finally did connect, i experienced quite the complete opposite situation. All of a sudden I felt I was drowning in a mass of data – electronic and paper notes, creative doodles, mindmaps, charts, textural, theoretical and methodological literature, session files, microphones, recording equipment, software updates, and an increasing list of potential blogs – my attempts to narrate my journey as I progressed. As I near the end of Project 1, and attempt to further streamline my findings, into an exegesis, i immerse my self more into the journey it has been to date. What a journey to date. Once I submit this document, I can then embark on the next Project this research study journey. I can’t imagine what is install for that next leg.

(Terry-Toons Comics 1945-1951)

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 23 (Page 2017g). It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

Bros, Warner. 2014. “The Hobbit.” Accessed 26th December, 2014

Learning Philosophy image courtesy of: Learning Accessed 25th December 2014

Page, David L. 2017a. David L Page wordpress.com site Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2017b. Revised DLP Blog Category Topics Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2017c. DCI Phase 0 Starting Point Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L 2017d. Research Practitioner Part 18 Accessed 15th May 2017

DLP 2017e. image courtesy of Data for DLPs Project 1_Music and Sonic Collage.20170529.v39 Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2017f. Research Practitioner Part 16 Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2017g. Research Practitioner Part 23 Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2016 Research Practitioner Part 5 Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2015. A Creative Artist’s Need – Gratitude Accessed 15th May 2017

Page, David L. 2014a image courtesy of David L Page Linked-In site Accessed 25th December, 2014

Page, David L. 2014b. Doctoral Research Study Part 2 Accessed 15th May 2017

Reflection image courtesy of: Reflection Accessed 15th May 2017

Terry-Toons Comics. 1945-1951. Mighty Mouse in Mighty Mouse #38-85 Accessed 8th March, 2014.

– @David L Page 15/05/2017

– update @David L Page 17/06/2017

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Creative Practitioner – Part 246

Doctorate of Creative Industries Project 1

(Self Reflection 2016)

This blog is a continuation of a series. See here (Page 2017a) for the previous blog.

Observations of my developing perspective

Based on my observations of practice over the course of this doctoral program, in pure quantitative terms: the number of elements of my Praxis has increased from six (6) to twenty-one (21) elements of practice; the stages of practice has expanded from five (5) to ten (10); and my motives for practice have increased from the original nine (9) in Praxis v4 (end 2015); to nineteen (19) in Praxis v7i (end-2016); and twenty (20) in Praxis v8j (20170401). Perhaps most importantly, my view of what music is, and how I define music and sound-making practice, has exponentially broadened over this time. My knowledge of the lineage, and of the functions and faculties required in each of the approaches to music-making practice has exponentially deepened.

As a music-making practitioner, I believe I had always defined music in what I thought were quite broad terms. I always considered my self blessed to have had such diverse musical lineage influences from a relative young age, such as: European high art-based music; roots-based music from any number of continents and cultures, including indigenous musics from many cultures including Australia, North America, Japan, Thailand, East Africa and India; and electroacoustic and sonic art-based experimental pieces. From the age of eight (8) my house was filled with the orchestrations of European symphonies and operas (see Page 2014). By the age of ten (10), I was immersing myself in all things mainstream popular. Firstly via the only device I had access to, the radio; then, after a piano was placed in my room[1], I dabbled with that instrument over the next few years. My father returned overseas with a semi-acoustic guitar for my brother, which further fuelled my musical desires for particular instruments. Through radio, my brother and his friends, and my friends, my development of a broad range of music and sound styles continued, to include an array of roots-based musical styles such as folk, country, blues, rhythm & blues, rock, rock opera, and psychedelic rock (see Page 1990). Next my father returned overseas with another guitar – an acoustic guitar –; this time for me. I increasingly was using my pocket money to purchase records (45 rpms and then 33 rpm LPs) to satisfy a growing thirst of listening to all things music. From a young age, I was musicking. Inadvertently, as technology was developing exponentially, I was introduced to various alternative forms of music what I know now to have been electroacoustic and sonic art-based experimental pieces; and roots-based experimental pieces. As a result of both my parents regularly receiving international guests; then their relocation overseas and my extensive travelling with them; followed by my independent travels and relationships, I have also experienced a wide range of indigenous music, other than the mainstream popularised westernised form of roots-based music.

(Hiveminer 2018)

I hear musical elements in many forms of daily life, such as a goods training crossing at a local road. I hear a rhythm as each wheel passes over a particular join in the tracks. If I close my eyes – whilst waiting at the intersection – I hear the metallic sound of metal on metal – the wheel on the rail. Not a screech, but a high frequency that sits in the background of the developing soundtrack that appears to be unfolding before me. I hear the local galahs sitting in the tall gums in the campus behind me, become restless at the noise of the passing train, and squawk as they take off to fly to another location. As the train approaches the station about five (500) hundred metres down the tracks to my left, I hear the driver sound its horn. Within the surrounds of the station, and the commuter car park opposite, the sound seems to spiral into the air, adding further dramatic elements to this soundtrack, being written before me, continuing to unfold as time continues on. Is this music? Is this a musical piece with the homogenous musical elements of duration, pitch, dynamics and timbre (rhythm, harmony, and melody)? Mmmmm… perhaps it would be argued not by High Art-based trained musicologists. But is it a piece of soundtrack that accompanies the experience I am having in my life at that moment in time? Does this piece possess the heterogeneous sonic elements of mass, spatialisation, and sequence an electroacoustic and sonic art-based composition may have? I would respond with a resounding yes. Perhaps more importantly, does this soundscape have meaning – and therefore relevance – to the surrounding environment, the culture, the society, the community, and the individual? If this sample of my soundscape had been recorded, and played to any members of of a community, would they be in a position to derive meaning from it? Some may be reminded of where they once grew up, and be stimulated to travel; some may have a memory triggered, that takes them back to their childhood visiting cane growing areas such as Gladstone, Queensland, as I did as a boy; some may be reminded of being held up by the inconvenience of this train crossing; others may recognise the soundtrack, and get lost in the effect of the sounds of the galahs, the sound of the locomotion for the moment they are required to patiently wait; others may be reminded of where they live, and have their wander to narratives including other sound objects and sound events.

Gratitude

For me, I now take an even broader view of what music is. Music to me is no longer restricted to roots-based song, or High Art-based compositions created by what we know in the west as musical instruments. Music and sound for me now encompasses all things that may be embedded in an electroacoustic and sonic art-based style soundtrack. These may or may not include musical instruments, but will also likely include other sound related textures that may derive from synthetic devices, or from everyday life itself – sonic events, or sound objects.

At this point in time, there is less clear distinction between music-making and musicking. For me, there is less clear distinction between what I see as the elements of Praxis in my music-making practice, and the elements of Praxis in my non-music-making practice. The line between my music-making practice, and my non-music-making practice is now very blurred – if not feint, and becoming more feint every day as more time passes. I would argue, within my head there is always a soundtrack unfolding before me, over time. The primary governor here is, whether I am in a state – a personal space – to listen to the surrounding environment, and allow my self to have a memory triggered, or to immerse myself in musical and sonic textures of the particular soundtrack that is unfolding, over time. When I am in this personal space and allow my self to do so, I often find my self breaking a smile at this point, enjoying the aesthetic of the moment, re-situating one self into a past event, or another location, whilst often simultaneously in full-flight in an unrelated form of practice[2]. I may look around the current site of practice I am in at that moment, and if/as one of the participants asks for assistance, I re-immerse my self back into that moment in time, and interact with that person in full presence. At that moment, I am. I am experiencing every moment both as private self, and social self. I am music-making within the environment by allowing my self to focus on an unfolding soundtrack, over time. A soundtrack that is not created using traditional musical instruments; a sound track that unfolds over time within that environment, drawing on any material generated from within that environment. That soundtrack supports me, as I make-meaning of that soundtrack at that particular point in time, based on my individual experience, memories, emotions and creative choices within my imagination. Concurrently, I am self-making. I am developing my self-image and self-concept based on that experience of both music and sound-making and meaning-making, at that moment of time. I then return to the immediate context – the particular environment of my practice at that moment in time, and engage with someone in real time, assisting them as they require. I am. On this note, I return to my conclusion of Moore’s quote in Chapter 1:

“music can be a useful resource in the development of the self – a way we can develop our identities; it is likely to be an individual experience in terms of deriving meaning; and a way to support the communication of our identities in social and cultural settings” (Page 2018, reflecting on Moore 2012).

I can say confidently that I now have greater clarity regarding my music and sound-making practice. However, the process has been far being a simple one. I had been warned that auto-ethnographic research studies would likely be an affective experience, both revealing and confronting. The warning was appropriate. The journey to date has been both, and so much more. At this stage of the research study, in few ways do I consider my self to be the same practitioner as when I considered embarking on this post-doctoral journey in 2014. In few ways do I consider my self to be the same person. Whilst I still don’t feel academic, I do note my ability to draw on a wide range of knowledge, and offer more frequent insight to those around me from a place of greater conviction, than I had previously. This is perhaps not surprising given the volume of titles of books, articles, and artifacts[3] I have either read or at least skimmed and pondered their relevance to my particular pilot study.

~DLP Pro Image 1.20141020

(DLP 2016)

The phrase music and sound-making, meaning-making and self-making has very clear meaning for me today, that more than likely would have glanced off my ears some two years months ago. I now ponder what I may understand in another two year that may currently glance off my ears? This thought now excites me, despite knowing that in the next Project 2 I am again likely to experience overwhelm and varying levels of anxiousness. I now understand these states represent a disparity between self-image, (in-) experience and self-esteem, that which can only be re-aligned through continuing to practice and realising the learning required. I now accept in the pursuit of new knowledge, as someone on a deliberate path of adaptive learning for fully-functionality and self-actualisation, experiencing these extra-rational faculty affective states are somewhat necessary. Academics such as Csikszentmihalyi (2005), Ohman (2010), Fredrickson & Cohn (2010), Kensinger (2010) connect overwhelm and anxiousness as emotional extra-rational faculty affective states associated with, and having an effect on self-making, meaning-making and practice. As a result of this Project 1 pilot study, I now better understand multiple selves; the causal relationship of emotion, memory and values of self or selves in practice; and how they may influence my decision-making across the broad elements and stages of practice. I can see clearly now[4] how one’s practice informs one’s self, and how one’s self informs one’s practice. I now accept my music and sound -making practice, my creative practice – in fact all of the forms of my practice – as “technology of the self” (Foucault 1988, 16).

[1] My grandfather’s piano our family inherited following his death. For some reason, this piano was put into my room. I do not recall why, but in hindsight, I suppose I am grateful that it occurred given the influence it had on my musical development.

[2] For example, I may be at the time delivering a management training session to a group of business persons

[3] 1,896 titles currently inhabit my Endnote software application, along with another 4,000 PDFed articles, evidencing the breath and depth of textural artifacts and literature I have engaged in this relatively short time frame.

[4] The song “I can see clearly now” was a major influence as I was growing up. Nash, Johnny. 1972. I can see clearly now. Epic. Vinyl LP.

(Reality Shifts 2017)

Next Step

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 16a (Page 2017b). It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

DLP 2016 image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 28th November, 2016

Foucault, Michel. 1988. “Technologies of the self.” In Technologies of the Self: a Seminar with Michel Foucault, edited by Luther H Martin, H Gutman and Patrick H Hutton, 16-49. London: Univ of Massachusetts Press.

Hive miner. 2018. South-East Queensland goods train image courtesy of Hiveminer.com Accessed 30th August, 2018

Moore, Allan F. 2012. Song means: analysing and Interpreting recorded popular song, Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Nash, Johnny. 1972. I can see clearly now. Epic. Vinyl LP.

Onion image courtesy of: Onion Layers Accessed 28th March, 2015

Page, David, L. 2018. KK59 Project 1 Submission. Accessed 30th August, 2018

Page, David L. 2017b. Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 16a. Accessed 2nd April, 2017

Page, David 2016 Research Practitioner Part 14 Accessed 28th November, 2016.

Page, David L. 2014. Music Practitioner Pt1 Beginnings Accessed 27th March, 2017.

Page, David L. 1990. Memory Age 10 Accessed 30th March, 2017.

Reality Shifts. 2017. Film clip courtesy of Reality Shifts youtube channel. Accessed 27th March, 2017.

Self Reflection 2016 image courtesy of: Self-reflection-for-personal-growth Accessed 18th March, 2016.

– ©David L Page 01/04/2017

– updated ©David L Page 02/04/2017

– updated ©David L Page 30/01/2018

– updated ©David L Page 30/08/2018

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 15a

Doctorate of Creative Industries Project 1

(Research 2016)

Precis

Continuing on from my previous blogs in this series; as I am now into my third year of my post-graduate academic research study, I felt motivated to revisit and develop my values, goals and beliefs for both my self and my music practice. It is now early- Year 3, with the pending significant milestone being the completion of my Doctoral Research Study Project 1. You will note in the following blog, the considerable insight I have gained into both my self and my practice over the past three (3) to four (4) months since my last blog post – Charter of Values and Beliefs v2 , on the 28th November 2016.

(Self Reflection 2016)

Opening remarks

Over the course of the past sixteen (16) months, I have gained new levels of understanding and clarity about my self and practice. The most notable development to the Year 2 (2016) Charter of Values and Beliefs v2 was over a three (3) to four (4) month period from November 2016 to the near end of February 2017. In living my very busy life across full-time employment, research study commitments, creative practice, professional consulting practice and family responsibilities, I noticed I was no longer just restricting my research study observations of my creative practice, but I was now observing how my self was engaging in my multiple forms of practice. It was as though the many forms of practice I had previously treated as quite separate entities, suddenly were being seen through a lens as one of the same thing: a multi-discplinary practice. In realising what was occurring, in January 2017 I recorded my observations in the blog the multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner (Page 2017).

(Page 2017a)

Over the course of this period (from v2 to v3), I broadened the term I refer to my practitioner self from music practitioner to a more holistic view to that of, creative practitioner. From that point in time, the manner in which I now saw my self and my practice has been very much through a non-disciplinary specific – or perhaps a multi-discplinary lens. This illumination was for me, profound. I developed my Charter of Values and Beliefs v3 , and now consider this to be exponentially more aligned with my self and my practitioner self, irrespective of my form of practice I am engaging in at any point in time. Over the course of this period, I broadened the term I refer to my practitioner self, from music practitioner to creative practitioner; to now that of only, practitioner. I am a practitioner across many industries, fields, disciplines and sites. All of my practice informs my self; and my self informs my practice – irrespective of the industry, the field, the discipline, or the site.

(Page 2017b)

The chart below visually shows (left column is v1, middle column is v2, right column in v3) the degree of development of my Charter of Values and Beliefs from v1 (green lines = new entries, and grey lines = no entry), to v2 (white lines = same entry as previously made in v1, green lines = new entries, and yellow entries = a development of a previous green entry), to v3.

(Page 2017c)

Quantifiably, the development across the three (3) versions of the Charter of Values and Beliefs over the sixteen (16) months of Project 1 has been:

v1: 26 green entries – new entries – under 8 categories

v2: 55 entries under 10 categories (112% growth in entries)

24 white entries (previous existing entries with NO change)
1 yellow entry (development of previous existing entries) [4% change in previous existing entries]
30 green entries (new entries, or complete re-write/change to previous existing) [115% growth in new entries]

v3: 87 entries under 11 categories (58% growth in entries)

19 white entries (previous existing entries with NO change) [35% of v2 total]
36 yellow entries (development of previous existing entries) [65% of v2 total]
32 green entries (new entries, or complete re-write/change to previous existing) [106% growth in new entries]

However, whilst the quantifiable number of entries demonstrates the volume of change, it is only when you engage in each and every entry, that you can begin to understand the significance of the development from v2 to v3 of the Charter of Values and Beliefs. It is in the quality – the depth and breadth – of these new (green) entries, and the revised (yellow) entries. I welcome you to engage in my findings that I believe reveals a more aligned self with my practice; with my multi-facetted, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary practitioner self; my authentic self.

(DLP 2016a)

DLP’s Charter of Values and Beliefs v3

Year 1 Research Study Part 1a – who I know I am now

1a. Self: N/A [Value]. N/A [Goal]. I believe self as being central/core to my being [Belief].

1b. Self: In life, I value a phenomenological approach to life – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills. (Just about) Every person has the capacity (ability) to learn – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills (eg: think learning to baby talk, crawl, talk, walk, converse, function at home, go to school, etc) [Value]. I strive to maintain a phenomenological approach to life – to experience, to learn and to continually develop my knowledge and skills. (Just about) Every person has the capacity (ability) to learn – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills (eg: think learning to baby talk, crawl, talk, walk, converse, function at home, go to school, etc) [Goal]. I take a phenomenological approach to life – to experience, to learn and to continually develop my knowledge and skills. (Just about) Every person has the capacity (ability) to learn – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills (eg: think learning to baby talk, crawl, talk, walk, converse, function at home, go to school, etc) [Belief].

1c. Self: I value an empirical evidentiary approach to life – a physical and sensory experience – gaining knowledge by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Value]. I strive to gain knowledge by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Goal]. I gain knowledge most effectively and efficiently by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Belief].

1d. Self: In life I value authenticity [Value]. I aspire to being authentic in life, living true to my values and beliefs [Goal]. I believe I live to a high degree of authenticity in life, living true to my values and beliefs [Belief] [see *Note below].

1e. Self: In life, I value a spiritual approach to life – to develop understanding, respect and acceptance of self [Value]. I strive to maintain spiritual balance within my life – to develop understanding, respect and acceptance of self [Goal]. We are spiritual beings, engaging in a human experience. My human journey is to resolve the limitations, contradictions and inconsistencies of being human – to experience, to learn, and to develop understanding, respect and acceptance of self – and to engage congruently within the physical world [Belief] [see *Note below].

1f. Self: I value a holistic perspective of self, with consideration of the many facets and dimension that each person possesses [Belief]. I strive to see a holistic perspective of self, looking for the many facets and dimensions that each person possesses [Goal]. In life, I accept a holistic perspective of self, revealing the many facets and dimensions that each person possesses [Belief].

1g. Self: In life I value self-reliance [Value]. I aspire to being self-reliant in life [Goal]. I am self-reliant in life, but choose to be, or not to be, as I see appropriate [Belief] [see *Note above].

1h. Self: I value inner speech to guide the self [Value]. I strive to develop my inner speech to act as a more effective inner guide the self [Goal]. I have developed my inner speech to act as a more effective inner guide the self [Belief].

1i. Self: In life, I value the conscious pursuit of the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose [Value]. I consciously strive to in the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose [Goal]. I consciously strive in the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose. I now possess a clearer view of who I am as a person, and what my purpose is [Belief].

1j. Self: I value the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guide the self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ [Value]. I strive to develop the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guide the self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ [Goal]. I have developed the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guide the self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ [Belief]

1k. Self: In life, I value an embodied approach to life: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to tools or process [Value]. I strive to exercise an embodied approach: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to tools or process [Goal]. I exercise an embodied approach in practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to tools or process [Belief]. I am a physical being – a tactile being, a kinaesthetic being, a sensual being that chooses to tools or process [Belief].

1l. Self: In life, I value affective connection [Value]. I strive to be affectively connected [Goal]. I am an affected being [Belief] [see *Note above].

1m. Self: In life, I value balance [Value]. I strive to be balanced, to be a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – spiritually, physically and mentally [Goal]. Whilst being very busy, I have balance in my life. I am a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – spiritually, physically and mentally [Belief].

[*Note: though I became quite imbalanced over the last three months of 2016, by choosing to overlook the balance of my spiritual, physical and mental being. I am happy to report though, this balance has mostly returned by the close of the year].

1n. Self: In life, I value diversity of orientation [Value]. I am very end product/goal-orientated with actions; and I also very process-orientated with expression and reflection [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I have a great opportunity in life. I believe I am target-orientated and effective and efficient in realising personal goals: I believe I do not waiver from my focus. However along the journey, I believe I am process-orientated in my expression and reflection. I believe I immerse my self in the process [Belief].

1o. Self: In life, I value an open intellect/mindfulness [Value]. I strive to approach life with an open and inquiring mind [Goal]. I approach most aspects of my life with an open and inquiring mind, applying thought and mindfulness [Belief].

1p. Self: In life, I value joy [Value]. I strive to be connected to joy and happiness [Goal]. I am a joyful being [Belief] [see *Note above].

1q. Self: I value a sincere and deep level of engagement with others [Value]. I aspire to engaging with others in a sincere way, and to a deep level of engagement with others [Goal]. I engage with others in a sincere way, and to a deep level of engagement with others – in a genuine and congruent manner [Belief] [see *Note above].

1r. Self: I value nurturing as a human quality [Value]. I aspire to be a nurturing soul [Goal]. I am a nurturing soul [Belief] [see *Note above].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1b – who I know I am now as a practitioner

2a. Self & Practice: N/A [Value]. N/A [Goal]. I believe the practitioner self is central/core to my practice [Belief].

2b. Self & Practice: I value a phenomenological approach to practice – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills [Value]. I strive to maintain a phenomenological approach to practice – to experience, to learn and to continually develop my knowledge and skills [Goal]. I take a phenomenological approach to practice – to experience, to learn and to continually develop my knowledge and skills [Belief].

2c. Self & Practice: I value an empirical evidentiary approach to practice – sense experience, gaining knowledge by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Value]. In practice, I strive to gain knowledge by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Goal]. I believe I gain knowledge most effectively and efficiently in practice by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation [Belief].

2d. Self & Practice: In practice I value authenticity, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Value]. I aspire to being authentic in my practice, being true to my values and beliefs, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Goal]. I believe I demonstrate a high degree of authenticity in my practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Belief].

2e. Self & Practice: I value a holistic perspective of the practitioner self, with consideration of the many facets and dimension that each practitioner possesses [Belief]. I strive to see a holistic perspective of the practitioner self, looking for the many facets and dimensions that each practitioner possesses [Goal]. I accept a holistic perspective of the practitioner self, revealing the many facets and dimensions that each practitioner possesses [Belief].

2f. Self & Practice: In practice I value self-reliance [Value]. I aspire to being self-reliant in my practice [Goal]. I am self-reliant in my practice, but choose to be, or not to be, as I see appropriate [Belief] [see *Note above].

2g. Self & Practice: In practice, I value inner speech to guide the practitioner self [Value]. In practice, I strive to develop my inner speech to act as a more effective inner guide the practitioner self [Goal]. In practice, I have developed my inner speech to act as a more effective inner guide the practitioner self [Belief].

2h. Self & Practice: In practice, I value the conscious pursuit of the development of practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose [Value]. I consciously strive in the development of my practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose [Goal]. I consciously strive in the development of my practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose. I now possess a clearer view of who I am as a practitioner, and what my purpose is [Belief].

2i. Self & Practice: I value the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guides the practitioner self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ in practice [Value]. I strive to develop the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guides the practitioner self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ in my practice [Goal]. I have developed the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guides the practitioner self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ in my practice [Belief].

2j. Self & Practice: I value an embodied approach to practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the practice – tools or process [Value]. I strive to exercise an embodied approach to practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the practice – tools or process [Goal]. I exercise an embodied approach in practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the practice – tools or process [Belief]. I am a physical being – a tactile being, a kinaesthetic being, a sensual being that chooses to engage in the practice – tools or process [Belief].

2k. Self & Practice: I value a high volume of post-training practice (10,000 hours) in order to develop a professional level of knowledge and skill in that practice [Value]. In any form of new practice I choose to learn, I set the goal on 10,000 hours of post-training practice in order to develop a professional level of knowledge and skill in that practice [Goal]. The forms of practice I have developed a professional level of knowledge and skill in, is the result of having invested 10,000 hours of post-training practice [Belief].

2l. Self & Practice: I value a high standard of practice [Value]. I aspire to execute a high standard of practice within the various forms of practice I engage in [Goal]. I believe I operate at a high standard of practice within the various forms of practice I engage in [Belief].

2m. Self & Practice: Further to 2c above, I value a multi-faceted/multi-dimensional approach to practice [Value]. I aspire to execute a multi-faceted/multi-dimensional approach within the various forms of practice I engage in [Goal]. I execute a multi-faceted/multi-dimensional approach to practice, within the various forms of practice I engage in [Belief].

2n. Self & Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my practice [Value]. I am very end product/goal-orientated with actions; and I also very process-orientated with expression and reflection [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I have a great opportunity in life. I believe I am target-orientated, effective and efficient in realising goals within the various forms of practice I engage in: I believe I do not waiver from the output focus for that practice. However within my various forms of practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of practice with my expression and reflection [Belief] [see *Note above].

2o. Self & Practice: In practice, I value spontaneity (being spontaneous = freedom for DLP) [Value]. In my practice, I aspire to spontaneously – effortlessly, naturally – alter my practice as I see fit/appropriate [Goal]. I operate in a spontaneous manner – effortlessly, naturally – within the various forms of practice I engage in [Belief].

2p. Self & Practice: In practice, I value being prepared [Value]. I aspire to being prepared in all situations of my practice, facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others [Goal]. I prepare thoroughly for my practice, facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others. I believe such preparation is an integral part of the practice process [Belief] [see *Note above].

2q. Self & Practice: In practice, I value appearing to be in a relaxed state [Value]. I aspire to appearing to be in a relaxed state in all situations, enabling the execution of what appears to be an effortless/natural/automatic high level of practice; in turn facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others [Goal]. I prepare thoroughly for my practice, prior to practice, in order to be in a relaxed stated at the time of public practice (ie the performance). Being in this state in turn facilitates optimum engagement and maximizes the opportunity of an optimum experience for others. I believe such a relaxed state in public performance is a key element of the practice process [Belief][see *Note above].

2r. Self & Practice: I value practice that provides opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to practice that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others)[Goal]. I engage in practice that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief] [see *Note above].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1c – who I know I am as a practitioner

3a. Social and Cultural contexts: I value social and cultural diversity [Value]. I strive to live across a very wide and broad range of social and cultural contexts – countries and cultures in my life [Goal]. I embrace a very wide and broad range of of social and cultural contexts – countries and cultures in my life [Belief].

3b. Social and Cultural contexts: I value equal opportunity for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Value]. I strive to provide equitable levels of service and practice for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Goal]. I assist people by providing equitable levels of service and practice for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Belief].

3c. Social and Cultural contexts: I value opportunity for all for learning and development to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… (what I refer to as “community education”) [Value]. I strive to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community education”) [Goal].I assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community education”) [Belief].

3d. Social and Cultural contexts: I value opportunities in contexts that provide opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to practice in contexts that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Goal]. I engage in practice in contexts which provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief].

~DLP Pro Image Fun 5b small.20141020

(DLP 2016b)

Year 1 Research Study Part 1d – who I know I am as a creative practitioner

4a. Creative practice: In my creative practice I value authenticity [Value]. I aspire to being authentic in my creative practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Goal]. I believe I demonstrate a high degree of authenticity in my creative practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Belief].

4b. Creative practice: I value the conscious pursuit of the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align one’s purpose to one’s creative practice [Value]. I consciously strive in the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose to one’s creative practice [Goal]. I consciously strive in the development of self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose to one’s creative practice. I now possess a clearer view of who I am as a person, and what my purpose is [Belief].

4c. Creative practice: I value diversity of orientation in my creative practice [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my creative practice [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, there is a great opportunity in my creative practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my creative practice, not wavering from the output focus – the product – for that creative practice. However within my creative practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of the creative practice with my expression and reflection for creative benefit [Belief].

4d. Creative practice: I value social and cultural diversity of creative practice, music and sonic styles [Value]. I strive to experience and be influenced by a very wide and broad range of diversity of creative practice, music and sonic styles in my life [Goal]. I am open to experience and be influenced by a very wide and broad range of diversity of creative practice, music and sonic styles [Belief].

4e. Creative practice: I value creative practice occurring in a supportive environment or culture [Value]. I strive for my creative practice to occur in a supportive culture and environment in my life [Goal]. I facilitate my creative practice to occur in a supportive culture and environment [Belief].

4f. Creative practice: I value creative practice assisting participants to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community creative education”, “community music education”, etc) [Value]. I strive for creative practice to assist participants to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community creative education”, “community music education”, etc) [Goal]. Creative practice workshops I provide assist participants to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community creative education”, “community music education”, etc) [Belief]. My creative practice workshops assist participants to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community creative education”, “community music education”, etc) [Belief].

4g. Creative practice: I value creative practice workshops that provide opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to provide creative practice workshops that provide opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Goal]. I provide creative practice workshops that provide opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief]. My creative practice is engaged in a manner that is nurturing (of both my self and others) [Belief].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1e – who I know I am as a sound-track making practitioner

5a. Composition and Performance of Narrative: I value authenticity in my composition and performance of narrative practice [Value]. I strive to maintain authenticity with my composition and performance of narrative practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Goal]. I believe I maintain authenticity with my composition and performance of narrative practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Belief].

5b. Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value diversity of orientation in my composition and performance of narrative practice [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my composition and performance of narrative practice [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, there is a great opportunity in my composition and performance of narrative practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my composition and performance practice, not wavering from the aim and objective focus for that practice. However within that practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of the composition and performance practice with my expression and reflection for creative benefit. I believe I am in the moment during that practice [Belief].

5c. Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value narrative compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, appropriate to the music and sonic style, woven together in an original holistic cohesive manner [Value]. I strive to create narrative compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, appropriate to the music and sonic style, woven together in an original holistic cohesive manner [Goal]. I integrate a range of music and sonic textures into my narrative compositions, appropriate to the music and sonic style, woven together in an original holistic cohesive manner [Belief].

5d. Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value composing and performing instrumentation and/or music and sonic elements, integrating all of the music and sonic textures together into an original holistic cohesive manner [Value]. I strive to compose and perform instrumentation and/or music and sonic elements, integrating all of the music and sonic textures together into an original holistic cohesive manner [Goal]. I compose and perform instrumentation and/or music and sonic elements, in and around other instruments, integrating all of music and sonic textures together into an original holistic cohesive manner [Belief].

5e. Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value composing and performing music and sonic narratives that are nurturing of both my self and others [Value]. I aspire to compose and perform music and sonic narratives that are nurturing of both my self and others [Goal]. I compose and perform music and sonic narratives that are nurturing of both my self and others [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2a – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a professional practitioner

6a. Self and Professional Practice: In my professional practice I value authenticity [Value]. I aspire to being authentic in my professional practice, being true to my values and beliefs, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Goal]. I believe I live to a high degree of authenticity in my professional practice, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs [Belief].

6b. Self & Professional Practice: I value the conscious pursuit of the development of professional practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose to the professional practice [Value]. I consciously strive in the development of my professional practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose to the professional practice [Goal]. I consciously strive in the development of my professional practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose to the professional practice. I now possess a clearer view of who I am as a professional practitioner, and what my professional practice purpose is [Belief].

6c. Self and Professional Practice: I value an embodied approach to professional practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the professional practice – tools or process [Value]. I strive to exercise an embodied approach to professional practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the professional practice – tools or process [Goal]. I exercise an embodied approach in professional practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the professional practice – tools or process [Belief]. I am a physical being – a tactile being, a kinaesthetic being, a sensual being that chooses to engage in the professional practice – tools or process [Belief].

6d. Self & Professional Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my professional practice [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my professional practice [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, there is a great opportunity in professional practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my professional practice, not wavering from the aim and objective focus for that practice. However within that professional practice, I believe I believe I am in the moment. I immerse my self in the process of that practice with my expression and reflection, for great benefit to both my self and my practice. [Belief].

6e. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value reflection – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my practice [Value]. I aspire to being reflective – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my professional practice (creative -music, education, research, management, or governance practice) as appropriate [Goal]. I am able to be reflective – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my professional practice (creative -music, education, research, management, or governance practice) as appropriate [Belief].

6f. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my professional practice [Value]. I aspire to ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my professional practice (creative -music, education, research, management, or governance practice) as appropriate [Goal]. I am committed to ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my professional practice (creative -music, education, research, management, or governance practice) as appropriate [Belief].

6g. Self & Professional Practice: I value varied motives of professional practice [Value]. I practice professionally due to many varied motivations [Goal]. I practice professionally as a result of:

Discovery (to use creative practice as a medium for exploring, attempting to do something which you haven’t done previously)
Technically (to technically develop one’s skills)
Social (to connect to others)
Affectively (to express or connect to emotion)
Aesthetically (for expression or engagement in something artistic or of beauty)
Creatively (for action, just to do)
Physical (for physical expression, for exercise]
Commercial (for income generation purposes)
Educational (to demonstrate specific practice to my students, live or in preparation)
Cathartic (for self-development or intervention purposes. For me to connect with my emotions – to notice, to reflect, to acknowledge the emotion, and their significance, to work through that emotional experience – to deal with specific and/or significant events, and hopefully in doing so, move beyond certain emotions associated with these significant events, developing my self)
Performance (to maximise my performance standard, and what others get to see of me/ practice)
Nurturing (core to my Charter of Values is nurturing – nurturing of self and others. I demonstrate this motive in my education and learning practice; nurturing of others (eg when I am performing either as an artist, or as a producer) and nurturing of my self (when I am performing to/for my self) in my creative practice; and nurturing of my self (eg when I am reflecting) in my research practice [Belief].

6h. Self & Professional Practice: I value nurturing of my self and others – across my areas of my professional practice (creative – music, education, research, management, or governance practice) [Value]. I aspire to be a nurturing being – of my self and others – across my areas of my professional practice (creative -music, education, research, management, or governance practice) as appropriate [Goal]. I am a nurturing being – of my self and others – across my areas of my professional practice (creative – music, education, research, management, or governance practice) – a social carer, an encourager, a coach, a mentor, an educator, a friend…. as appropriate [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2b – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a creative practitioner

7a. Self & Creative Practice: As a contemporary creative practitioner, I value practice across all of the eight (8) stages of creative practice: everyday practice, creating the narrative, composing the narrative, performing the narrative, pre-production planning, producing the music and sonic narrative, post-production polishing, and distributing the narrative [Value]. As a contemporary creative practitioner, I strive to practice across all of the eight (8) stages of creative practice: everyday practice, creating the narrative, composing the narrative, performing the narrative, pre-production planning, producing the music and sonic narrative, post-production polishing, and distributing the narrative [Goal]. As a contemporary creative practitioner, I practice across all of the eight (8) stages of creative practice: everyday practice, creating the narrative, composing the narrative, performing the narrative, pre-production planning, producing the music and sonic narrative, post-production polishing, and distributing the narrative [Belief].

7b. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice – the composing and performing of music and sonic narratives – motivated by a diversity of intentions – the majority of which are non-commercial [Value]. I strive to engage in creative practice – the composing and performing of music and sonic narratives – motivated by a diversity of intentions in my life – the majority of which are non-commercial [Goal]. I engage in creative practice – the composing and performing of music and sonic narratives – motivated by a diversity of intentions – the majority of which are non-commercial such as:

Discovery (to use creative practice as a medium for exploring, attempting to do something which you haven’t done previously)
Technically (to use creative practice as a medium to practice one’s craft, and technically develop one’s craft skills)
Social (to use creative practice as a medium for social interaction purposes, to connect to others [communicative])
Affectively (to use creative practice as a medium to express or connect to emotion)
Aesthetically (to use creative practice as a medium for expression or engagement in something artistic or of beauty)
Creatively (to use creative practice as a medium for action, just to do [expressivity])
Physical (to use creative practice as a medium for physical expression, for exercise]
Commercial (to use creative practice as a medium for income generation purposes)
Educational (to demonstrate specific creative practice to my students, live or in preparation)
Cathartic (self-development or intervention purposes. For me to connect with my emotions – to notice, to reflect, to acknowledge the emotion, and their significance, to work through that emotional experience – to deal with specific and/or significant events, and hopefully in doing so, move beyond certain emotions associated with these significant events, developing my self)
Performance (where my primary motive is to perform, and therefore all creation and creative development is built upon wanting to maximise my performance standard, and what others get to see of me/my art/my creative practice
Nurturing (core to my Charter of Values is nurturing – nurturing of self and others. I demonstrate this motive in my education & learning practice; nurturing of others (eg when I am performing either as an artist, or as a producer) and nurturing of my self (when I am performing to/for my self) in my creative practice; and nurturing of my self (eg when I am reflecting) in my research practice [Belief].

7c. Self & Creative Practice: I value music and sonic narratives primarily for their affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Value]. I strive to perform and compose music and sonic narrative primarily for their affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Goal]. I perform and compose music and sonic narrative primarily for their affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Belief].

7d. Self & Creative Practice: I value embodied creative practice, connecting affectively to the linguistic, music and sonic narratives irrespective of the technology that is used to create such cultural productions [Value]. I strive to exercise embodied creative practice – to connect affectively to the linguistic, music and sonic narratives irrespective of the technology that is used to create such cultural productions [Goal]. I more effectively and efficiently exercise embodied creative practice. I understand how I connect affectively to my linguistic music and sonic narratives, irrespective of the technology that is used to create such cultural productions [Belief]. I understand that for me to exercise embodied creative practice, I necessarily engage in deep reflective practice: in-situate, re-experiencing the experience – generated creative writing. In doing this, I realize a core of authenticity – of affective connectedness to the linguistic, music and sonic narratives, irrespective of the technology that I use to create such cultural productions [Belief].

7e. Self & Creative Practice: I value creating music and sonic narratives that I have an affective connectedness to. I value these narratives more, when I draw on deep reflective practice – in-situate, re-experiencing the experience – in order to generate an associative memory-based narrative whilst I am in the moment of the creative process, to maximize the affective connection of the product outcome/artifact. [Value]. I strive to create music and sonic narratives that I have an affective connectedness to. I aim to do this by drawing on deep reflective practice – in-situate, re-experiencing the experience – in order to generate an associative memory-based narrative whilst I am in the moment of the creative process, to maximize the affective connection of the product outcome/artifact [Goal]. I create music and sonic narratives that I have an affective connectedness to. I do this by drawing on deep reflective practice – in-situate, re-experiencing the experience – in order to generate an associative memory-based narrative whilst I am in the moment of the creative process, to maximize the affective connection of the product outcome/artifact [Belief].

7f. Self & Creative Practice: I value commencing the creative process using one of the forms of: narrative, prose or song lyrics [Value]. I intuitively commence creative practice using one of the forms of: narrative, prose or song lyrics [Goal]. I intuitively commence the creative process by using one of the forms of: narrative, prose or song lyrics [Belief].

7g. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice of a range of cultural origins, based on a diversity of interest, observation and experience [Value]. I strive for my creative practice to extend across of a range of cultural origins, based on a diversity of interest, observation and experience [Goal]. My creative practice extends across a range of cultural origins, based on a diversity of interest, observation and experience [Belief].

7h. Self & Creative Practice: I value the practice of listening to music and sonic narratives on any of the three levels: holistic, associative, or critical and analytical listening [Value]. I strive to practice listening to music and sonic narratives on any of the three levels: holistic, associative, and critical and analytical listening [Goal]. I practice listening to music and sonic narratives on all of the three levels: holistic, associative, and critical and analytical listening [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2c – who I am discovering/accepting myself to be as a creative practitioner

8a. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice of music and sonic narratives, which extends across diverse technologies, to influence the cultural production outcome [Value]. I strive for my creative practice of music and sonic narratives to extend across diverse technologies, to influence the cultural production outcome [Goal]. My creative practice of music and sonic narratives extends across diverse technologies, to influence the cultural production outcome [Belief].

8b. Self & Creative Practice: Intuitively, I value physical music and sonic narrative technologies that emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I can physically embrace and/or engage in [Value]. I intuitively seek a range of physical music and sonic narrative technologies that emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I can physically embrace and/or engage in. These technologies are to become extensions of my self [Goal]. I intuitively seek and engage in/play a range of physical music and sonic narrative technologies that emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I can physically embrace and/or engage in. These generally become extensions of my self [Belief].

8c. Self & Creative practice: I now also value physical music and sonic narrative technologies, which don’t necessarily emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I may not necessarily be able to physically embrace and/or engage in [Value]. I now seek a range of physical music and sonic narrative technologies, which don’t necessarily emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I may not necessarily be able to physically embrace and/or engage in. These technologies are to become extensions of my self [Goal]. I now seek and engage in/play a range of physical music and sonic narrative technologies, which don’t necessarily emit vibrations and resonances; of a style and size I can physically embrace and/or engage in. These are now becoming extensions of my self [Belief].

8d. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice of music and sonic narratives which extend across diverse sites, where one site’s practice influences and/or informs other forms of practice in other sites; to influence the cultural production outcome [Value].I strive for my creative practice of music and sonic narratives to extend across diverse sites, where one site’s practice influences and/or informs other forms of practice in other sites; to influence the cultural production outcome [Goal]. My creative practice of music and sonic narratives extends across diverse sites, where one site’s practice influences and/or informs other forms of practice in other sites such as studio performance; which in turn can influence and inform other forms of practice such as live performance; to influence the cultural production outcome [Belief].

8e. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice of music and sonic narratives, which extend across a range of holistic work practice, including composition of songs and soundtracks, to influence the cultural production outcome [Value]. I strive for my creative practice of music and sonic narratives to extend across a range of holistic work practice, including composition of songs and soundtracks, to influence the cultural production outcome [Goal]. My creative practice of music and sonic narratives extends across a range of holistic work practice, including composition of songs and soundtracks, to influence the cultural production outcome [Belief].

8f. Self & Creative Practice: I value creative practice of music and sonic narratives, which extend across diverse (micro) workflows, to influence the cultural production outcome [Value]. I strive for my creative practice of music and sonic narratives to extend across diverse (micro) workflows, to influence the cultural production outcome [Goal]. My creative practice of music and sonic narratives extends across diverse (micro) workflows, to influence the cultural production outcome [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2d – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a sound-track making practitioner

9a. Technology used for the Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value a diversity of technology – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices – in the practice of – creation and layering of – music and sonic textures in the composition and performance of narrative [Value]. I strive to engage in my creative practice a diversity of technology – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices – in the practice of – creation and layering of – music and sonic textures in the composition and performance of narrative [Goal]. I now – with confidence – engage in a diversity of technology – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices – in the practice of – creation and layering of – music and sonic textures in the composition and performance of narrative. I have developed a diversity of technology that I access and engage in, in the creation and layering of music and sonic textures in my composition and performance of narrative [Belief].

9b. Technology used for the Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value the incorporation of acoustic style instruments and their specific timbres; and the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative practice purposes; in cultural productions [Value]. I strive to incorporate acoustic style instruments and their specific timbres; and the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative practice purposes, in cultural productions [Goal]. I incorporate acoustic style instruments and their specific timbres; and the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative practice purposes, in cultural productions [Belief]. I have developed my live/studio technology (rig) to facilitate the manipulation and layering of music and sonic textures, and duplicate these irrespective of location – in both live and studio settings for cultural productions [Belief].

9c. Technology used for the Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value the manipulation and layering of music and sonic textures to be duplicable equally in live and studio settings. I value a performance rig that facilitates sourcing these music and sonic textures irrespective of site (stage or studio) at any moment in time [Value]. I strive to manipulate and layer music and sonic textures that are duplicable equally in live and studio settings. I strive for my performance rig to facilitate sourcing these music and sonic textures irrespective of site (stage or studio) at any moment in time [Goal]. I manipulate and layer music and sonic textures that are duplicable equally in live and studio settings. My performance rig facilitates sourcing these music and sonic textures irrespective of site (stage or studio) at any moment in time [Belief].

9d. Technology used for the Composition & Performance of Narrative: I value a diversity of technology used for the composition & performance of narrative, that influences the cultural production outcome [Value]. I strive to use a diversity of technology in the composition & performance of narrative process, to influence the cultural production outcome [Goal]. I use a diversity of technology in the composition & performance of narrative process, to influence the cultural production outcome [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2e – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a creative practitioner

10a. Creative Practitioner: I value creative practitioners who aspire to create cultural production as a personal narrative, conscious it is technology of their self [Value]. I intuitively strive to be a creative practitioner who aspires to create cultural production as a personal narrative, conscious it is technology of their self [Goal]. I believe I am a creative practitioner who aspires to create cultural production as a personal narrative, conscious it is technology of my self [Belief].

10b. Creative Practitioner: I value holistic authentic creative practitioners – an identity-driven, value-driven, narrative-based, embodied practitioner [Value]. I aspire to being a holistic authentic creative practitioner – an identity-driven, value-driven, narrative-based, embodied practitioner [Goal]. I believe I am now a holistic authentic creative practitioner – an identity-driven, value-driven, narrative-based, embodied practitioner [Belief].

10c. Creative practice: I value the conscious pursuit of the development of one’s practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to develop as a holistic authentic creative practitioner [Value]. I consciously strive in the development of one’s practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to develop as a holistic authentic creative practitioner [Goal]. I consciously strive in the development of one’s practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to develop as a holistic authentic creative practitioner. I now possess a clearer view of who I am as a person, and what my purpose is [Belief].

10d. Creative Practitioner: I value creative practice with origins in artistic expression, over creative practice solely reliant on craft expression. I value drawing on all forms of life practice – not necessarily only creative practice – in order to in order to compose or perform narratives [Value]. I strive to practice music for artistic expression, over creative practice solely for craft expression [Goal]. I strive to be an innovator, an artist, an experimental artist, a non-musician composer, a technologist producer, drawing on any technological device – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices – or otherwise – natural medium – or site – studio, outdoors or nature – in order to compose or perform narratives [Goal]. I am now practicing music for artistic expression, rather that practicing music solely for craft expression [Belief]. I am now practicing to be an innovator, an artist, an experimental artist, a non-musician composer, a technologist producer, drawing on any technological device – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices – or otherwise – natural medium – or site – studio, outdoors or nature – in order to compose or perform narratives [Belief].

10e. Creative Practitioner: I value diversity of orientation as a creative practitioner [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) as a creative practitioner [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I believe there is a great opportunity as a creative practitioner. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals, not wavering from the aim and objective focus of that practice. However, I believe I am in the moment as a creative practitioner, fully immersed in the process of my creative practice [Belief].

10f. Creative Practitioner: I value a described music praxis – a framework that outlines the interdependent elements for consideration during the stages of one’s creative practice [Value]. I strive to describe my music praxis – a framework that articulates the interdependent elements for consideration during the stages of one’s creative practice [Goal]. I have developed a considered music praxis – a framework that outlines the elements for consideration during the stages of one’s creative practice. These primary elements of my Creative practice Praxis v9k 20170520 are: self, listening/hearing, decision to act, reflection/reflective practice, reflexive practice, motive, theme, song mood, decision to commence, music production approach, compositional approach, agreed reference track, music and sonic style, simple versus complex textures, technology, site, holistic work practice, micro workflow, aesthetic choices, time opportunity, and social network engagement [Belief].

10g. Creative Practitioner: I intuitively value self-reliant DIY creative practitioners who aspire to compose or perform complex textured narrative soundscapes in each and every practice session, irrespective of the interdependent elements as outlined in Praxis v9k (see below) [Value]. I intuitively strive to be a self-reliant DIY creative practitioner who aspires to compose or perform complex textured narrative soundscapes in each and every practice session, irrespective of the interdependent elements as outlined in Praxis v9k (see below) [Goal]. I am a self-reliant DIY creative practitioner who aspires to compose or perform complex textured narrative soundscapes in each and every practice session, irrespective of the interdependent elements as outlined in Praxis v9k (see below) [Belief].

DLP DCI Praxis v9i.20170420.P1

Figure I – Project 1 Research Study Developed Praxis v9k (Page 2017d)

Year 2 Research Study Part 3 – who I have discovered and accepted my self to be as a practitioner, as a result of this Research Study, at this point in time

11a Practitioner: I value authenticity – an authentic affective connection across all stages of practice – process and technology – across all practice [Value]. I strive to maintain being an Authentic practitioner = maintaining an authentic affective connection across all stages of practice – process and technology – across all practice [Goal] As an authentic practitioner (holistic, embodied, value-driven, narrative-based), I engage in life to consciously, deliberately and systematically, stream my self to inform (all) practice, and (all) practice to inform my self [Belief]

(DLP 2016c)

Significant Differences between my Project 1 end-Year 2 Charter of Values and Beliefs v2; and my early-Year 3 Charter of Values and Beliefs v3

As mentioned in my opening remarks: the quantifiable number of entries demonstrates the volume of change I made from v2 to v3 of the Charter of Values and Beliefs in the course of four to six (4 – 6) months of living my very busy life across full-time employment, research study commitments, creative practice, professional consulting practice and family responsibilities (especially relative to the previous ten to eleven month period). However, it is only when you engage in each and every actual entry, that you can begin to understand the significance of the development from v2 to v3 of the Charter of Values and Beliefs. It is in the quality – the depth and breadth – of these new (green) entries, and the revised (yellow) entries.

A notable development to the Year 2 (2016) Charter of Values and Beliefs v2 were in the inclusions of my self-knowledge within an academic environment as I had experienced since the beginning of 2015. I felt these were key to include to broaden the scope of how I saw my self:

2b. Self & Practice: I value a phenomenological approach to practice – to experience, to learn and to continually develop knowledge and skills;

2c. Self & Practice: I value an empirical evidentiary approach to practice – sense experience, gaining knowledge by means of my senses, particularly that of observation and experimentation.

Other notable developments that I felt key to include to broaden the scope of how I saw my self and my practice, were the inclusions from with in my holistic approach to practice, and my developing praxis:

2a.Self & Practice: I believe the practitioner self is central/core to my practice;

2d. Self & Practice: In practice I value authenticity, maintaining alignment to my values and beliefs;

2h. Self & Practice: In practice, I value the conscious pursuit of the development of practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to align to one’s purpose;

2i. Self & Practice: I value the triadic voices of the dialogic self that guides the practitioner self across time – ‘the I, the me, and the you’ in practice;

2e. Self & Practice: I value a holistic perspective of the practitioner self, with consideration of the many facets and dimension that each practitioner possesses;

2j. Self & Practice: I value an embodied approach to practice: an immersive physical and sensory experience with physical connection to the practice – tools or process;

2g. Self & Practice: In practice, I value inner speech to guide the practitioner self

I also felt it was important to reiterate my approach to practice:

2k. Self & Practice: I value a high volume of post-training practice (10,000 hours) in order to develop a professional level of knowledge and skill in that practice

These were then developed across all forms of practice and specific stages of practice, broadening finally as expressions of the creative practitioner:

10a. Creative Practitioner: I value creative practitioners who aspire to create cultural production as a personal narrative, conscious it is technology of their self;

10b. Creative Practitioner: I value holistic authentic creative practitioners – an identity-driven, value-driven, narrative-based, embodied practitioner;

10c. Creative practice: I value the conscious pursuit of the development of one’s practitioner self and identity – exploring one’s narrative – in order to develop as a holistic authentic creative practitioner;

10d. Creative Practitioner: I value creative practice with origins in artistic expression, over creative practice solely reliant on craft expression. I value drawing on all forms of life practice – not necessarily only creative practice – in order to in order to compose or perform narratives;

10f. Creative Practitioner: I value a described creative praxis – a framework that outlines the interdependent elements for consideration during the stages of one’s creative practice;

10g. Creative Practitioner: I intuitively value self-reliant DIY creative practitioners who aspire to compose or perform complex textured narrative soundscapes in each and every practice session, irrespective of the interdependent elements as outlined in Praxis v9k.

Over the course of this period (from v2 to v3), I broadened the term I refer to my practitioner self from music practitioner to a more holistic creative practitioner view. However, it was the next step that was to be the most profound. In living my very busy life, I noticed I was no longer just restricting my observations of my creative practice, but I was now observing how my self was engaging in my multiple forms of practice. It was as though the many forms of practice I had previously treated as quite separate entities, suddenly were being seen through a lens as being one of the same thing – a broad generic form of practice: a multi-disciplinary practice. I therefore revisit my Charter of Values and Beliefs v3, and added;

Year 2 Research Study Part 3 – who I have discovered and accepted my self to be as a practitioner, as a result of this Research Study, at this point in time

11a Practitioner: I value authenticity – an authentic affective connection across all stages of practice – process and technology – across all practice [Value]. I strive to maintain being an Authentic practitioner = maintaining an authentic affective connection across all stages of practice – process and technology – across all practice [Goal] As an authentic practitioner (holistic, embodied, value-driven, narrative-based), I engage in life to consciously, deliberately and systematically, stream my self to inform (all) practice, and (all) practice to inform my self [Belief]

From January 2017, I now see my self and my practice are very much a multi-disciplinary approach. I now consider this Charter of Values and Beliefs v3 to be exponentially more aligned with my self and my practitioner self. I accept I am a practitioner across many industries, fields, disciplines and sites. All of my practice informs my self; and my self informs my practice – irrespective of the industry, the field, the discipline, or the site. I believe my Charter of Values and Beliefs v3 reveals my multi-facetted, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary practitioner self; my authentic self.

Summary

As I indicated in my last blog Charter of Values and Beliefs v2 (Page 2017b)

As a person new to formal academic research studies, I have been surprised with the number of occasions that I have been confronted by a range of thoughts, feelings, observations, recollections – positives and learnings – and highlighted behavioural patterns over the course of my life, relative to my music practice. Over the past few months I realised that I did not have in fact, the clearest understanding of who I was as a creative practitioner at this moment in time (Page 2017b).

In an attempt to anchor my self to my creative practice, I developed my Charter of Values and Beliefs to maintain a valid contemporary values statement – a Charter of Values and Belief for both my self and my practice at any point in time. In doing this, I have been able to continue to observe a significant number of distinctions and insight into my multiple forms of practice and my self, and apply these reflexively to my self and practice.

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 19. It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

DLP 2017a image courtesy of Research Practitioner Part 16 Accessed 28th May, 2017

DLP 2017b image courtesy of Research Practitioner Part 20 Accessed 29th May, 2017

DLP 2017c image courtesy of Data for DLPs Project 1_Music and Sonic Collage.20170529.v39 Accessed 29th May, 2017

DLP 2017d image (Figure I) courtesy of Project 1 Research Study Developed Praxis v9k Accessed 29th May, 2017

DLP 2016a image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 31st December, 2016

DLP 2016b image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 31st December, 2016

DLP 2016c image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 31st December, 2016

Ohm image courtesy of: Ohm Accessed 28th May, 2016

Onion image courtesy of: Onion Layers Accessed 28th March, 2015

Page, David 2017a Research Practitioner Part 16 Accessed 20th March 2017

Page, David 2017b Research Practitioner Part 14 Accessed 20th March 2017

Pulsating image courtesy of: Image Accessed 15th January, 2016

Research 2016 image courtesy of: Research Accessed 28th January 2016

Self Reflection 2016 image courtesy of: Self-reflection-for-personal-growth Accessed 28th March, 2015

– ©David L Page 20/03/2017

– updated @David L Page 29/05/2017

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Education & Learning – the first 10,000 hours….

The first 10,000 hours of practice is everything…..

“10,000 hours. That is: 40 hours per week, for 48 weeks a year, for 5.2 years. A full-time employment workload excluding time where the aspiring practitioner is observing, or being talked through a task by a professional practitioner. A full-time employment workload, excluding training periods where the aspiring practitioner is doing menial or non-related functions around the site of the practice. 10,000 hours of working in your practice, following process and developing your workflow.

10,000 hours of assessing situations; considering choices and options to proceed; making a decision as to which choice or option appears to be the most effective one to proceed; and proceeding.

10,000 hours of assessing the result of that workflow. Perhaps a positive outcome? Perhaps a not positive outcome, and needing to consider the other options one may have taken in a repeat of that situation in the coming weeks.

40 hours per week, 48 weeks a year, for 5.2 years of practice, doing. Experiencing, observing, reflecting, considering, deciding, and developing ones’ practice. 10,000 being a practitioner, in order to develop to a level that of a professional practitioner” (Page 2017a).

On the job training

In his 2012 blog Industry Outline, David L Page listed a diversity of roles within the audio industry, which were traditionally trained within industry as employment placements. The apprenticeship model served aspiring audio industry practitioners by providing an junior role opportunity within an industry-based practice, surrounded by professional practitioners. It was an ideal training ground for aspiring practitioners, An aspiring audio industry practitioner requires guidance and training to introduce them to all aspects of a studio:

“with skilled practitioners to observe, imitate and then the opportunity to apply as the situation provided: the importance of training in the workplace, “learning and working are interdependent” (Billet 2001, 39; Burgess 2013, 38). The “apprenticeship approach – modelling, coaching, scaffolding and fading” was used as it was found to be central to effective workplace-training techniques (Billet 2001, 145 in Page 2012).

The motivated aspiring practitioner needed to gain an industry placement, commit to doing a good job by imitating the professional practitioners, and over the course of five (5) to ten (10) years experience, they would develop themselves into professional practitioners on the basis of 10,000 hours practice (excluding training).

Changing worlds

However, with the ever diminishing opportunities within industry in such industry placements (particularly in audio with the decreasing number of large format console studios in existence, but an increase in access to technology (see History of Music Production Part 4 Page 2015a), contemporary aspiring practitioners now have access to technology, but more than likely will be:

“without access to experienced and skilled technicians within work-place-training environments” (Hague 2010; Therbege 1997, 19 in Page 2015g)

In his 2013 blog (see Introduction to Audio Engineering), Page outlines what an aspiring practitioner needs to develop as part of their initial industry orientation.

The era of self-learning

In contemporary practice – in order to gain knowledge and develop one’s skills – aspiring practitioner are now required to possess the added personal qualities of discipline, commitment and the ability to self-learn. Effective DIY learning requires the aspiring practitioner to be resourceful – motivated and proactive in sourcing and seeking out information and learning opportunities. With the unlikelihood of finding an existing site to receive workplace-training, the contemporary practitioner needs to be resourceful in their quest to learn the art and craft. Accompanying their on-going practice, aspiring practitioners now also need to become “aware of the questions and problems” that all practitioners are likely to face (Burgess 2013, 35 in Page 2013). Whilst there is an abundance of resources today aimed at the DIY practitioners that are aligned to effective self-learning methods and tools, the aspiring practitioner must maintain their discipline, commitment and the ability to self learn; in order to gain the required knowledge and developed skill to practice at a professional level (Billet 2001, 71 in Page 2013).

Access to self-learning resource options

In his 2015b blog (see Research Practitioner Part 1) Page outlines the historical development of the audio industry, noting several historically significant resources that were developed.

“Today, there exists an enormous range of resources in the market place today to support contemporary DIY music practitioners. Sources of knowledge and influence include: 1) academic texts, academic journals, functional textbooks[4], industry associations, industry conferences, industry trade magazines, product and service providers, manufacturers and distributors, specialist professionals such technicians and engineers, forums, blogs and websites; courses, and; cultural production artifacts such as albums, CDs and mp3s. Additionally, professional level videos such as on Pensado’s Place and Lynda.com provide industry experienced and skilled technicians, with the benefit of this resource being it can be replayed infinite times. Burgess (2013, 35) encourages the practitioner to “learn as much as you can by imitation from the most experienced people who are available to you”. However, lacking in contemporary practice is having a more experienced and skilled technician observe one’s practice to provide appropriate feedback, further explanation and retraining as required. Networks and communities can provide such an opportunity, with experienced and skills technicians available to provide mentoring and training opportunities” (Page 2015b).

The era of self-reflection

“In addition to the imitation and experience, a third essential aspect of training in order to develop ones’ knowledge in order to develop ones’ practice is, reflection (Burgess 2013, 35; Schön 1983, 3; McKee 2003; Roth 1989). Reflection allows for the consideration of your practice – “to understand, question, and investigate” – to appraise if one’s current processes are the most appropriate, or ‘best practice’ (Brookfield 2002, 32). Certain scholars believe reflection is so essential, one will experience a “crisis of confidence in professional knowledge” if it is lacking from ones’ practice routine” (Schön 1983, 3 in Page 2015c).

In order to become a professional practitioner, one must engage in one’s own development. One needs to adopt an attitude of self-learning across one’s life: life-long learning – constant and never-ending improvement. In order to become the best practitioner one can be, one must take every opportunity to learn. The most effective way to do this, is to become one’s own teacher – learning to observe and advise in, or on one’s own practice, and then make positive change to process. That is, develop one’s own reflective and reflexive practice. In Page’s blog (2016d) on his educational & learning practice, he notes:

“Given my approach to practice [see Layer 5: My approach to all forms of practice], I am of the belief that there is little point in being proactive in professional practice, without engaging in professional development research or learning. Further, having engaged in professional development research or learning, I need to take the process one step further and reflect upon what I have learnt, consider the possible application to the particular context I am engaged in; and to then decide for change, and to implement that change into my practice. Yes, being proactive in professional practice, means engaging in professional development research – that of reflective and reflexive practice” (Page 2016d).

To become a proactive reflective and reflexive practitioner is to proactively – consciously, systematically and rigorously – observe one’s practice for the purposes of analysis, evaluation and development. To become a proactive reflective and reflexive practitioner, is a to a large degree, to become self-reliant as a practitioner. This is not to say, that one must become a lone wolf – an island. This is to be prepared to embark on a developmental plan of one’s practice, without necessarily either the financial cost or time-cost to engage the services of a practice consultant to advise you on how you may develop your practice: an external person who is likely not to know your practice in any way close to how you know your own practice.

Reflection of practice, in order to be reflexive for practice

A professional practitioner therefore incorporates reflection into their practice. A professional practitioner will consciously, deliberately and systematically make the time to reflect on what they have been doing in their practice; considering any disparities and possible developments that they may have picked up from other practitioners that could potentially be incorporated into future practice (reflexive practice). Picking up innovative structures, techniques or equipment other practitioners may be employing in their practice process, to realise unique outcomes. This observation and reflection process may be done by whatever resources one has on hand: by direct observation of peers or mentors, via resources such as texts and videos, or via attending course (formal or informal).

Being proactive in the practitioner process

A professional practitioner is passionate about the practice they are engaged in, and therefore focussed in each and every day of practice. For most I have discussed with, there are never enough hours within the day to realise everything that they desired to get done. In my observation, professional practitioners are unrelenting:

“10,000 hours: 40 hours per week, 48 weeks a year, for 5.2 years of practice, doing. Experiencing, observing, reflecting, considering, deciding, and developing ones’ practice. 10,000 being a practitioner, in order to develop to a level that of a professional practitioner” (Page 2017a).

(Page 2016a)

An advocate of 10,000 hours practice…..

Throughout his many forms of practice, Page (2015d) has espoused the need of 10,000 hours practice for several decades in his mentoring of aspiring practitioners. In his blog Professional Practice,

“my over riding philosophical stance embraces the 10,000 hours trades philosophy of skilled craftworkers (Ericsson et al 1993 in Page 2004). I value and believe in the merit of developing of a skill, a trade, a craft, or art – for that practitioner developing specialist knowledge and tools over many thousand’s of hours of practice, to ultimately express one self through uniquely personalised and developed content, information knowledge base and skill level. I consider this approach integral to becoming a professional practitioner” (Page 2004 i nPage 2015d).

Multiple practitioner

Page (2017b) has an extensive range of experience – and formal qualifications – across a number of fields and disciplines (see Linked-in Professional Profile). Namely in: Music Industry; Sound Production; Automotive Engineering; Business, Management & Communication; Education; and Governance. Across four (4) decades of practice, Page has learnt to invest him self into all of his practice. Irrespective of which discipline, he is focused at any moment in time in any one of his forms of practice. Page understands the importance of researching the field, encompassing the main elements of the discipline, and channelling this into his particular interpretation of what his practice will be within that field and discipline. Based on his personal cultural vision of values and beliefs, Page sculpts his practice with outcomes aligned to his self and motives (see Page 2017c Research Practitioner – Pt 16).

Page’s main practice as of 2017 resides in education & learning practice, academic research practice, creative practice, professional consulting practice and family responsibilities. It is worth noting, that over 10,000 hours of practice has been invested into each of his disciplinary practice at some point. I think would suggest that Page’s holistic view of practice is the result of having immersed himself into the number of industries and disciplines across his life as he has.

David L Page has been married for several decades..

With his life partner, Page has created a portfolio that allows him to pursue his diverse interests across a range of industries and disciplines (see Linked-in Professional Profile).

Given that both Page and his life partner came from different cultural backgrounds and experiences, they consciously developed their own culture – a conscious decision to blend particular values and beliefs from both of their diverse cultural backgrounds to accommodate and respect both parties view points and needs. It is interesting that this process was engaged in a number of decades ago, with Page becoming somewhat of a specialist in cultural development of organisations, designing and delivering a number of corporate training programs across the globe. The basis of this cultural orientation is embedded within what Page now refers to as his Charter of Values and Beliefs.

Creative practice

Page’s primary creative practice endeavours are as a writer, musician, songwriter, composer, sound engineer and producer.

“Music has been the one constant in my life, central to my being, accompanying me wherever I am, irrespective of whether I am physically playing, listening or internally listening via memory. Irrespective of the location, circumstance or event, music is within me. Music practice is not a choice for me; it is a necessity. I have practiced music for over four decades in multiple social and cultural contexts, and in significantly contrasting creative locations, such as a church choir singer, musician, songwriter, band member, teacher, project manager, engineer, solo artist, musician for hire, producer, and most recently an Electronic Music Producer and educator. I have engaged a (vast) range of technologies, using countless variations of workflow. I continue to practice music on a daily basis, engaging physical instruments, digital virtual technologies, or in the research, analysis, or listening to music styles” (Page 2015e, 5).

Whilst his current motives for practice are not volume sales-based, on the back of my four decades of practice, he has his eyes very much on the future.

“I still have a lifetime of music goals still to realise: songs to write and arrange; sonic textures to explore; creative productions to develop; and engage with both my peers and the public to a far greater degree than I have to date” (Page 2015e, 6).

Page is also an Avid Technology Accredited Instructor (Pro Tools), mentoring and guiding aspiring musicians and producers in the development of their craft and art.

Research practice

Page is currently studying his Doctorate in Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. The aim of this Doctor of Creative Industries Research Project is to investigate both his DIY music practice and his self as a practitioner during the process of creating and producing a cultural artefact (EP). His research study is designed to be a mixed-method qualitative study: a practice-based, ethnographic study that is to include a first-person narrative of his personal journey, critical reflection and reflexive practice, highlighting the co-constituted nature of his music practice. As an auto-ethnographic study, he has designed the project with him performing the dual primary roles of being both the practitioner as subject, and the researcher. Such a multi-tiered examination represents a significant departure from current discussion of music practice, developing praxis of contemporary music practice. In this Project 1 research study exegesis submission, Page (2015f) intends to narrate the process to date, highlighting observations around him self as a practitioner, his music practice and the emergent distinctions integrated into his developing music praxis ( Music Practitioner Part 5).

As part of his academic research practice (but also part of his creative process within that process), Page has just written a series of memory blogs that follow his developmental process – reflecting on selected significant events in the early stages of his life, and associating sonic and musical textures that best represent his memory of those significant events. The collection of associative memories have then be formed into a composition of a fifteen (15) minute soundtrack of the first stage of his life. This cultural artefact is to make up one part of Page’s (2016b) Doctoral Project 1 submission (see Memory – Introduction).

Education & Learning practice

Page has spent almost three (3) decades in one form or another of education and learning practice. Predominantly situated in post-compulsory practice, he has experience in vocational , higher education and non-accredited proficiency-based education and learning practice. As part of this, Page has specialised in what he classifies as community education – providing education & learning opportunities for dis-advantaged groups. Such role have included that of mentor, coach, and facilitator. Currently, Page (2017b) is working as a Senior Lecturer in a Higher Education creative media institute in Australia.

“As a Senior Lecturer at SAE Institute Brisbane, David has provided Module coordination and/or instruction over the past five (5) years in: audio theory (signal flow, microphone, audio processing, sound theory, acoustics, applied electronics, critical & analytical listening); pre-production, production & post-production (planning, tracking & mixing narrations, songs and soundtracks, including instrumentation & arrangement, across various formats – organic, virtual & fusions); creative media studies; reflective practice. David is currently the Higher Education (HE) Final Creative Projects Module Coordinator & Supervisor of audio-based final projects. David is an Avid Technology Accredited Instructor (Pro Tools).

SAE Institute is a Creative Media Institute offering a range of HE & HE Diploma offerings across the disciplines of Animation, Audio, Film, Game Design, Game Programming, Graphic Design & Web Programming at over 50 locations globally. SAE Institute is part of the Navitas Group “(Page 2017b).

Multi-facetted practitioner

In a recent blog, (Page 2017c) restated a resounding theme of his practice – the concept of the multi-facetted, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary practitioner. The practitioner who practices beyond boundaries of specific discipline practice. In his classrooms, Page encourages aspiring creative practitioners studying in the fields of animation, audio, film, graphic design, games development & programming, and web applications development to consider their practitioner positioning to be that of a broader creative practitioner.

(Page 2017c)

“I engage passionately in all forms of my multi-faceted practice, consisting of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice. After much observation, I now accept that the self informs my multi-faceted practice of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice – conceptually and literally. My multi-faceted practice of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice in turn informs/contributes to the self, even if that contribution is only with increased clarity around that particular practice, which in turn increases confidence within the self. I have observed within the self, that this increase in confidence in turn informs and/or shapes my practice – irrespective of what practice I am about to engage in – my creative practice, my research practice, or my education & learning practice. Over the course of the twelve (12) month research study Project 1, I have observed this cycle of interdependency and commonality between the self – my self – and the various incarnations of my practice – creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice” (Page 2017c).

The importance of self in the practitioner process…

In commencing my research study, to investigate my music-making practice, I quickly realised that the self was core – central – to my practice. I had an immediate sense, that for me to better understand my practice, I needed to better understand my self. This came as a shock initially – something I rejected. “Me?” “My self?” I had studied my self over a number of decades, and I – of many practitioners I knew – had a great sense of who I was. But as I delved more into literature regarding both arts research and the self, I admitted that perhaps it couldn’t hurt to reinvestigate the self, from the perspective of this academic research study.

“Observing new music production technologies and associated workflows impacted my music practice and the realisation of my creative productions. I observed this phenomenon had an effect on the concept of my self, which then in turn had an effect on my motive to practice music. Music is acknowledged as being particularly important in terms of the development of the self” Hargreaves et al (2002) discuss how music facilitates self expression and development, allowing the self to transform, and construct new identities. Frith (1996,124) argues that “Music constructs our sense of identity through the direct experiences it offers of the body, time and sociability, experiences which enable us to place ourselves in imaginative cultural narratives” (Page 2015f)

Since engaging in my doctoral research study, I have embarked on several self-knowledge activities, such as the development of a Charter of Values and Beliefs (2017e, 2016c, 2016e). It has been an extremely beneficial process.

“Engaging in this research study has allowed me to continue to develop my self, increase my self confidence, develop clarity regarding my practice, and increase my confidence with this task at hand as a practitioner with my Research Study Project 1. In short, it has allowed me to become a more holistic and balanced practitioner – an expanded practitioner (see figure III below)” (Page 2016c)

creative-practitioner-graphic_more-holistic-balanced-practitioner-20161231-p2

Figure III – Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach (Page 2016c)

“While Bennett (2000, ii) concludes that “music is produced and consumed by young people in ways that both inform their sense of self and also serve to construct the social world in which their identities operate”. For many decades I have asked questions of my self, though always in isolation of my music practice. Velosa and Carvalho’s (2013) “Music Composition as a way of learning: emotions and the situated ‘self” and Taylor’s (2008) “Pink Noise: Queer Identity and Musical Performance in a local context” both stressed the importance of situating the self within the context of interest, in order to study it. There are a number of studies where this is done, from example Taylor’s (2012) and Peraino’s (2006) studies of gender. However, whilst an increasing number of music practice discussions include the element of self, however, few exist outside of academic-based articles or texts (DeNora 1999; MacDonald et al 2002; DeNora 2005; Peraino 2006; Taylor 2012 in Page 2015b)

One by product of my expanding the observation of my focus to all forms of my practice, is for my education & learning practice. Being a Senior Lecturer within a Higher Education (HE) Institute enables me to engage in discussions of practice and approach almost on a daily basis. Given my education & learning practitioner peers know my research study is centred around self, practitioner self, and a methodology of reflective and reflexive practice; I have been asked several times to provide some guidance as to how they could approach their education & learning practice in a more contemporary manner – integrating the elements of contemporary practice as I developed. I have conducted several professional development sessions for a specific discipline, and as well conducted my own small research project (see Reflecting on my educational practice Page 2016d), and then shared my findings to all academics at a staff meeting.

However, for the predominant number of creative practitioners who are now aspiring education & learning practitioners, this did not appear to be sufficient. I therefore considered options I had, and chose to adapt a holistic approach to education & learning practice I had from several decades ago, and include several elements of my Praxis v9k – self, motive (values & beliefs), decision to investigate, reflective practice and reflexive practice (Page 2017e).

DLP DCI Praxis v9i.20170420.P1.png

Figure I – Project 1 Research Study Developed Praxis v9k (Page 2017e)

The result is this generic Holistic Approach to Practice (2017d) – an outline of the steps or considerations tI take in preparing for every education & learning practice session I engage in. Whilst it is not the purpose of explaining the detail of this approach in this blog post (see Research Practitioner Pt19 for more detail), I felt it had merit mentioning my approach. Perhaps it could be useful in reminding aspiring practitioners – those who is aspiring to realising 10,000 hours of practice – of the process that they may use when planning for the education & learning practice sessions they are about to engage in.

(Page 2017d)

In Summary

This brief post has attempted to outline the need – if you aspire to becoming a professional practitioner in industry – of the need for you as a practitioner to:

be a resourceful self-learner;
be a reflective practitioner – consciously, deliberately and systematically
be a reflexive practitioner – consciously, deliberately and systematically, to develop your practice
be proactive in practice – focussed and passionate

“10,000 hours: 40 hours per week, 48 weeks a year, for 5.2 years of practice, doing. Experiencing, observing, reflecting, considering, deciding, and developing ones’ practice. 10,000 being a practitioner, in order to develop to a level that of a professional practitioner” (Page 2017a).

In Closing

As a supplementary measure, I have also embedded the following instructional you-tube – by Bosler and Greene (2017) “How to practice effectively…for just about anything”. I found that such a resource is excellent to use as motivation for aspiring practitioners – irrespective of their discipline. Whilst it is very focussed on music practitioners, this presentation holds universal truths for effective practice that can be applied I believe, to any practice situation.

Bosler and Greene (2017) “How to practice effectively…for just about anything”

This blog series is planned to continue with another in the series of education & learning.

References

Billett, Stephen. 2001. Learning in the workplace: strategies for effective practice. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Bosler, Annie and Greene, Don (2017) “How to practice effectively…for just about anything”. Accessed 28th February 2017

Brookfield, Stephen D. 2002. “Using the lenses of critically reflective teaching in the community college classroom.” New Directions for Community Colleges 2002 (118): 31-38.

Burgess, Richard James. 2013. The art of music production: the theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ericsson, K.A., Krampe, R.T. and Tesch-Römer, C., 1993. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological review, 100(3), p.363.

Frith, Simon. 1992. The industrialization of popular music. Popular Music and Communication 2: 49-74.

Hague, Graeme. 2010. “Recording and production: make and record music now.” Guerilla Guide (29): 131. Accessed May 16, 2015.

Hargreaves, DJ, D Miell and RAR MacDonald. 2002. What are musical identities, and why are they important? In Musical Identities, edited by RAR MacDonald, DJ Hargreaves and D Miell, 1-20. Oxford Oxford University Press.

Learning image courtesy of: Pedagogy vs Andragogy chart Accessed 28th February 2017

Lynda.com. 2017. Lynda.com Accessed 28th February 2017

McKee, Alan. 2003. Textual analysis: a beginner’s guide. London: Sage.

Page, David L. 2017a. Quote by David L Page in practice. Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2017b. Linked-in Professional Profile. Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2017c. Research Practitioner Part 16 Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2017d. Generic Holistic Approach to Practice. Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2017e. Research Practitioner Part 18/Charter of Values & Beliefs v3 Accessed 21st April 2017

Page, David L. 2016a. David L Page Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2016b. Memory- Introduction. Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2016c. Charter of Values and Beliefs v2. Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2016d Reflecting on my educational practice Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2016e Charter of Values & Beliefs v1 Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2015a. History of Music Production Part 4 Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2015b. Research Practitioner Part 1 Accessed 28th February 2017.

Page, David L. 2015c. Music Practitioner Part 3 Reflective Practitioner Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2015d. Educational Philosophy Part 2 Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2015e. “Contemporary DIY music production practice, and the implications for effective practice” Doctoral research study KKP623 Contextual Review submission. Personal collection. Accessed 18th February 2017

Page, David L. 2015f. Music Practitioner Part 5 Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2015g. Critical Listening Part 1 Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2013. Introduction to Audio Engineering Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2012. Industry Outline Accessed 28th February 2017

Page, David L. 2004. Educational Philosophy Part 1 Accessed 28th February 2017

Pensado’s Place. 2017. Pensado’s Place Accessed 28th February 2017

Roth, Robert A. 1989. “Preparing the reflective practitioner: transforming the apprentice through the dialectic.” Journal of Teacher Education 40 (2): 31-35.

Schön, Donald A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Aldershot, England: Arena.

Théberge, Paul. 1997. Any sound you can make: making music/consuming technology. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Bibliography

Armstrong, Thomas. 1999. 7 Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple Intelligences. New York: Plume Books.

Boud, David, Rosemary Keogh and David Walker. 2013. Reflection: turning experience into learning. New York: Routledge.

Bradbury, Helen, Nick Frost, Sue Kilminster and Miriam Zukus. 2010. Beyond reflective practice: new approaches to professional lifelong learning. New York: Routledge.

Brookfield, Stephen D. 2006. The skillful teacher: on technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. 2 ed. San Francisco: The Jossey Bass.

Brookfield, Stephen D. 1995. Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass

Brookfield, Stephen. 1986. Understanding and facilitating adult learning: A comprehensive analysis of principles and effective practices. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Covey, Stephen R. 2013. The 8th habit: From effectiveness to greatness. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Covey, Stephen R. 1991. Principle centered leadership. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Covey, Stephen R. 1989. The 7 habits of highly effective people. Melbourne: The Business Library.

Entwistle, Noel and Paul Ramsden. 1983. Understanding Student Learning. New York: Routledge Revivals.

Gardner, Howard and Thomas Hatch. 1989. “Multiple Intelligences go to school: educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences.” Educational researcher 18 (8): 4-10.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences image courtesy of: Gardners’ MI Accessed 28th March 2015

Griffiths, Morweena. 2010. “Research and the self.” In The Routledge companion to research in the arts, edited by M Biggs and H Karlsson, 167-185. London: Routledge.

Haseman, B 2015. “Forensic reflective practice: effecting personal and systemic change.” Accessed May 24, 2015. https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_118711_1&content_id=_5744651_1.

Knowles, Malcolm S, Elwood F Holton III and Richard A Swanson. 2012. The adult learner: the definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. 7 ed. New York: Routledge.

Lawrence-Wilkes, L. & Chapman, A. 2015. Reflective Practice. Accessed March 28th, 2015 http://www.businessballs.com/reflective-practice.htm

Light, Greg, Susanna Calkins and Roy Cox. 2009. Learning and teaching in higher education: the reflective professional. London: Sage.

Merriam, Sharan B. 2001. “Andragogy and self‐directed learning: Pillars of adult learning theory.” New directions for adult and continuing education 2001 (89): 3-14.

Page, David L. 2014a Doctoral Research Study Part 2 Accessed 30th April 2017

Page, David L. 2014b Doctoral Research Study Part 1 Accessed 30th April 2017

Pascal, J., & Thompson, N. 2012. Developing critically reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 13(2), 311. doi: 10.1080/14623943.2012.657795

Roth, Robert. 1989. “Preparing the reflective practitioner: transforming the apprentice through the dialectic“. Journal of Teacher Education 40 (2): 31-35

Ryan, Mary Elizabeth. 2014. Reflective practice in the arts. In Literacy in the Arts, edited by G Barton, 77-90. London: Springer.

SAE Institute, 2015 SAE Institute Accessed 28th March 2015

Schön, Donald A. 1987. Educating the Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 355 + xvii pages.

Schön, Donald A. 1983. The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Aldershot, England: Arena.

– ©David L Page 28/02//2017

– updated @David L Page 30/04/2017

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 13a

Doctorate of Creative Industries Project 1

(Research 2017)

Precis

Continuing on from my previous blogs in this series, I find my self now in a process of reflective practice. In much the same way as described in my education & learning practice session blog (see Layer 10: Reflective practice following the learning practice), I am away from the site of that last reflective practice, with some considerable time – eleven (11) days -having lapsed post-my December reflective practice session. As a not uncommon occurrence of this second stage of reflective practice, I am experiencing a separation of the expected automated response that could be activated by reflecting on the practice of December’s reflective practice, that I find my self now engaging in. The amount of time expired between that actual practice session and this reflective practice session has allowed my mind to turn over the distinctions I gained in redeveloping my Charter of Values and Beliefs. I am finding that I have distilled out the less significant events, and now focussing on the more prominent and significant aspects of that development. The primary entry I find my self now focussing on is:

2d. Self & Practice: a complex multi-dimensional approach to practice

Research Study Project 1 music practice and my music practitioner self

As I continue with my music practice as part of my research study, I have observed that quite often I am distracted by my other forms of practice – either my research practice (researching, investigating, analysing or reflecting) or my education & learning practice (recalling processes I undertake in preparing for, and delivering my education & learning practice sessions – both of creative media learners, and of aspiring educator peers). I often find myself being drawn into these other forms of practice quite unexpectedly to my original intended focus of practice as scheduled.

I have observed these distractions – unexpected mindful wanderings – usually commences on-site and in practice. It often starts with my noting my thoughts and/or my feelings during practice. This reflection then often progresses into further reflection, where I find myself drilling down to illuminate possible reasons for such a distraction at that particular time or stage of practice. In doing so, the act of reflection effectively causes the practice to cease and therefore becomes on-site and on practice. Any ongoing engagement in this process generally has me wandering away from the site to continue reflecting on my practice. Whilst I outlined this process in my July 2015 Music Practitioner Part 3 blog, I expressed my concern of the disruption this subject/observer phenomena could have on the creative practice flow in my Research Practitioner Part 5 blog in the early stages of my Project 1 study. However, on the back of recently completing the update of my Charter of Values and Beliefs – a holistic guide of my self, life with application across the varied forms of my practice, I am now reviewing my perspective. Do I continue to see a disruption to one form of practice, for reflection or performance of another form of practice, as a disruption. The word disruption has an inbuilt negative connotation within my mind, having one’s focus or attention forced away from one form of practice, to another form of practice. But I am now less sure of my view of this disruption being a negative process, or actually part of a more holistic integrated process. A necessary attribute of a more holistic self and multi-dimensional practitioner self. A multi-facetted practitioner self that incorporates multiple aspects of our practitioner selves.

The multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner

Over the course of the past eleven (11) days, despite being on leave from my current primary income source of education & learning practice, with a very strict schedule outlined to develop my research study Project 1 – specifically the music practice creative component of a composition of my associative memories – I have observed that I have spent a significant amount of time reflecting on my last trimester of 2016 education & learning practice. Whilst this is in itself not a bad thing, I have found myself continually perplexed as to why it continues to happen.

I find central to this reflection is the self. I have noted that whenever I commence consideration of any form of practice I engage in, I find that the reflection process – planned or unplanned – progresses consistently back to the self. Having engaged in this auto-ethnographic study for just over a twelve month process to date, I have found that this occurrence is now predictable – if not predictably unpredictable. Perhaps not surprising, my values regarding professional practice and self include:

6a.Self & Professional Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my professional practice [Value].

6b. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value reflection – regular conscious interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my practice [Value].

6c. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my practice [Value].

6d. Self & Professional Practice: I value varied motives of practice such as:

- Discovery (to use music practice as a medium for exploring, attempting to do something which you haven’t done previously);
- Technically (to technically develop one’s skills);
- Social (to connect to others);
- Affectively (to express or connect to emotion);
- Aesthetically (for expression or engagement in something artistic or of beauty);
- Creatively (for action, just to do);
- Physical (for physical expression, for exercise];
- Commercial (for income generation purposes);
- Educational (to demonstrate specific practice to my students, live or in preparation);
- Cathartic (for self-development or intervention purposes. For me to connect with my emotions – to notice, to reflect, to acknowledge the emotion, and their significance, to work through that emotional experience – to deal with specific and/or significant events, and hopefully in doing so, move beyond certain emotions associated with these significant events, developing my self);
- Performance (to maximise my performance standard, and what others get to see of me/ practice);
- Nurturing (core to my Charter of Values is nurturing – nurturing of self and others. I demonstrate in my education & learning practice; nurturing of both others (eg when I am ‘performing’ either a} and myself in my creative practice; and nurturing of myself in my research practice).

6e. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value nurturing of my self and others – across my areas of my practice (family, music, education, research, practice) as appropriate [Value].

What I have found as a by-product of my twelve (12) month research study Project 1

I engage passionately in all forms of my multi-faceted practice, consisting of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice. After much observation, I now accept that the self informs my multi-faceted practice of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice – conceptually and literally. My multi-faceted practice of creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice in turn informs/contributes to the self, even if that contribution is only with increased clarity around that particular practice, which in turn increases confidence within the self. I have observed within the self, that this increase in confidence in turn informs and/or shapes my practice – irrespective of what practice I am about to engage in – my creative practice, my research practice, or my education & learning practice. Over the course of the twelve (12) month research study Project 1, I have observed this cycle of interdependency and commonality between the self – my self – and the various incarnations of my practice – creative practice, research practice, or education & learning practice.

DLPs Multi-faceted Practitioner.20170212.P4

Figure I – Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach (Page 2017)

Core principles of the multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner

I devote my time to all forms of practice, irrespective of what practice that is;
My weekly schedule outlines what I need to realise;
My self guides me to what practice I need to do at that moment in time;
My self informs all forms of my practice;
All of my multiple forms of practice inform my self;
This situation aligns to my Charter of Values – freedom

~DLP Pro Image 1.20141020

(DLP 2016)

7. I apply this approach to all forms of practice in my life:

- being spontaneous
- being flexible
- being proactive
- my self guides me to what I need to do, when I need to reflect, to research, to create, to practice, whatever I need to learn, what ever I need to become, what ever I need to realise……

8. I apply this approach to all forms of practice in my life, as evidenced by the past twelve (12) months whilst undertaking this research study, Project 1.

9. Whilst I am interested in all of my forms of practice, I am particularly focussed on observing how this cycle of interdependence can bring benefit to the central theme of this research study, my music practice. I therefore, by definition practice reflective practice across all forms of my practice.

10. In order to develop all forms of my practice, I therefore necessarily engage in reflexive practice across all forms of my varied practice. My belief is: since all forms of practice inform my self, which in turn can inform all forms of my practice – by developing any aspect of either my self, or any of my forms of practice, I am potentially, likely, to develop any and all aspects of my self and/or my practice. As Deming refers to it – constant, and never ending change.

(Self Reflection 2016)

Summary

As a person new to formal academic research studies, I have been surprised with the number of occasions that I have been confronted by a range of thoughts, feelings, observations, recollections – positives and learnings – and highlighted behavioural patterns over the course of my life, relative to my music practice. Over the past few months I realised that I did not have in fact, the clearest understanding of who I was as a creative practitioner at this moment in time. Therefore in order to try to anchor myself, I continue to develop my Charter of Values and Beliefs to maintain a valid contemporary values statement – a charter of values for both myself and my music practice at this time. In doing this, I am able to continue to gain new levels of understanding of my self and my practice, and start to apply them reflexively to my self and practice.

Engaging in this research study has allowed me to continue to develop my self, increase my self confidence, and develop clarity regarding my practice. It is my intention – through reflective and reflexive practice – to increase my confidence with this task at hand as a practitioner with my Research Study Project 1. In short, following such practice process has allowed me to become a more holistic and balanced practitioner; or as I refer to it, an expanded practitioner (see figure I above).

Next Step

I realise that as my Research Study Project continues and I gain more insight and greater clarity about my self and my practice, this document will require even more development. It remains a dynamic document that will continue to evolve, in line with my reflections and insights of my self interests, and my practitioner self interests.

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 17. It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

DLP 2016 image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 28th November, 2016

Page, David 2016 Research Practitioner Part 14 Accessed 28th November, 2016.

Page, David 2017 Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach Created 11th January, 2017

Research 2017 image courtesy of: Research Accessed 28th January, 2016

Self Reflection 2016 image courtesy of: Self-reflection-for-personal-growth Accessed 18th March, 2016.

Walton, Mary. 1988. Deming management method. London: Penguin.

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

Memory – Age 20 Part 2

(Kent 2012)

This is another in-situated recollection of what I consider to have been a significant event in my life, when I was Age 20.

Herein, after…..

Verse 1: What I knew has vanished all around

My world has turned inside out

there is over here, and here is over there

I am dizzy from the spinning

What’s this all about?

Verse 2: The oceans have parted, and sucked me in ….

I can feel it forcing its way down on top of me..

I have strained every muscle trying to withstand it

my chest is caving in, I can’t breathe

my down is up, and my up is down

(The Big Blue 1988)

Verse 3: Seconds pass like hours

my arms explode from the load

my chest gives in to the pressure,

the weight of a thousand houses hits me

I can see my own blood flow

Verse 4: I swallow an entire ocean

And start to float upward like seaweed

Fish swim past not knowing

who I am, where I have been

Whale shark

Verse 5: I can no longer feel a thing..

No breath, no sensation,

no pins or needles, no pain

a seahorse swims past not knowing

who I am, where I have come from

Chorus: something happened,

I am not aware of

my down is up, and my up is down

the sea swims past not knowing

who I am, where I have come from

Underwater Image.P2

(Peterson 2017)

I float like a leaf in a winter breeze

my time (in the after life) has just begun….

my world turned upside down

my down is up, and my up is down

my arms gave in, my chest gave out

my time (in the after life) has just begun….

Now my down is up, and my up is down

I float off now….

Never ….

to ….

be …..

found….

Page, David L. 2016. “Herein, after (passage to the afterlife)” ©David L Page 2016. This audio event represents a developed sense of my recollection of this significant event.

Whilst this the last blog in this Project 1 series chronologically, there is one more written. See here for Memory – Age 15.

The next blog in the Project 2 series is Memory – Age 21.

References

Big Blue, The. 1988. The Big Blue Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Celestial Galaxy image courtesy of: Celestial Galaxy Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Herein, after (passage to the afterlife) …. audio link courtesy of: David L Page Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Kent, Harry. 2012. Brett Whiteley’s Ghost Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Page, David L. 2017. Memory – Age 15 Accessed 3rd April, 2017

Page, David L 2014a David L Page’s About.me Accessed 16th October, 2014

Peterson, Allan. 2012. Underwater Cathedral Light image courtesy of: Allan Peterson Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Underwater Fish image courtesy of: Underwater scene Accessed 2nd January, 2017

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

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Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 11b

Doctorate of Creative Industries Project 1

(Research 2016)

Precis

Continuing on from my previous blogs in this series; as I am now at the end of my second year of my post-graduate academic research studies, I felt it is important to revisit and develop my Charter of Values and Beliefs v1 of goals, values and beliefs for both myself and my music practice.

I have taken the liberty to re-post my findings at the end of Year 1 as I have gained considerable more insight relative to the last post I made on the 25th April 2016.

(Self Reflection 2016)

Over the course of the seven (7) months of life, music practice and reflective practice, I have crystallised my thoughts and understandings, and gained fresh levels of clarity about my self and practice. The most notable development to the Year 1 (2015) Charter of Values and Beliefs v1 was over the last quarter of this year, in my efforts to balance full-time work and full-time research study commitments, and family responsibilities, I became quite stressed. In re-reading my Charter, I reassessed the order and priority of my item 1b. In the original 2015 description I had listed 1b as being:

1b. Self: I strive to be balanced, to be a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – mentally, physically, spiritually [Goal]. Whilst being very busy, I believe I have balance in my life. I believe I am a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – mentally, physically, spiritually [Belief]

However, over the last three months of 2016 I appraised my self as being anything but balanced. I have now reflected and found that this imbalance has come as a result of choosing to overlook the balance of my spiritual, physical and mental being.

In the 2015 listing, I had ordered the three areas of priority as being mentally, physically and spiritually. However, in reflecting on these areas, I realised that their priority was incorrect for me, and my priority was in fact the reverse order of this: spirituality was my highest priority, followed by physical, and then followed by intellectual – mental. In my addressing my imbalance, by focussing on the order of these in terms of spiritual, physical and mental I quickly returned to a greater degree of balance.

As I had essentially looked over the spiritual aspect in my original Charter, I recognised the oversight of this, and therefore I added some additional points in, including 1b for example.

1b. Self: In life, I value a spiritual approach to life – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance [Value]. I strive to maintain spiritual balance within my life – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance [Goal]. I believe we are spiritual beings, engaging in a human experience. I believe my human journey is to resolve the limitations, contradictions and inconsistencies of being human – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance – and to engage congruently within the physical world [Belief]. [see *Note above].

I remain surprised with the number of occasions that I have been confronted by a range of thoughts, feelings, observations, recollections – positives and learnings – and highlighted behavioural patterns over the course of my life, relative to my music practice. Over the past seven (7) months of embarking on my research study, I have increasingly developed a clearer understanding of who I am as a self, and as a creative practitioner. No doubt this view is likely to continue to develop as I progress with my research study, but given I was nearing the completion of Project 1, I felt it was timely to update my Charter of Values and Beliefs.

(DLP 2016)

DLP’s Charter of Values and Beliefs v2

Year 1 Research Study Part 1a – who I know I am now

1a. Self: In life, I value a holistic perspective [Value]. I strive to consider life from a global holistic perspective [Goal]. I believe I consider my life and varied forms of practice from a global holistic perspective [Belief]

1b. Self: In life, I value a spiritual approach to life – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance [Value]. I strive to maintain spiritual balance within my life – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance [Goal]. I believe we are spiritual beings, engaging in a human experience. I believe my human journey is to resolve the limitations, contradictions and inconsistencies of being human – to experience, to learn, and to develop respect and acceptance – and to engage congruently within the physical world [Belief]. [see *Note below].

1c. Self: In life, I value balance [Value].I strive to be balanced, to be a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – spiritually, physically and mentally [Goal]. Whilst being very busy, I believe I have balance in my life. I believe I am a balanced, functional human being – affective, expressive and communicative – spiritually, physically and mentally [Belief]

[*Note: though I became quite imbalanced over the last three months of 2016, by choosing to overlook the balance of my spiritual, physical and mental being. I am happy to report though, this balance has mostly returned by the close of the year].

1d. Self: In life, I value diversity of orientation [Value]. I am very end product/goal-orientated with actions; and I also very process-orientated with expression and reflection [Goal].Being contrast orientated, I believe I have a great opportunity in life. I believe I am target-orientated and effective and efficient in realising personal goals: I believe I do not waiver from my focus. However along the journey, I believe I am process-orientated in my expression and reflection. I believe I immerse my self in the process [Belief] [see *Note above].

1e. Self: In life, I value physical connection [Value. I strive for physical connection in everything I do [Goal]. I believe I am a physical being – a tactile being, a kinesthetic being, a sensual being [Belief] [see *Note above].

1f. Self: In life, I value an open intellect/mindfulness [Value]. I strive to approach life with an open and inquiring mind [Goal]. I believe I approach most aspects of my life with an open and inquiring mind, applying thought and mindfulness [Belief]

1g. Self: In life, I value emotion [Value]. I strive to be emotionally connected [Goal]. I believe I am an affected being [Belief][see *Note above].

1h. Self: In life, I value joy [Value]. I strive to be connected to joy and happiness [Goal]. I believe I am a joyful being [Belief][see *Note above].

1i. Self: I value a sincere and deep level of engagement with others [Value]. I aspire to engaging with others in a sincere way, and to a deep level of engagement with others [Goal]. I believe I engage with others in a sincere way, and to a deep level of engagement with others – in a genuine and congruent manner [Belief][see *Note above].

1j. Self: I value nurturing as a human quality [Value].I aspire to be a nurturing soul [Goal]. I believe I am a nurturing soul [Belief] [see *Note above].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1b – who I know I am now as a practitioner

2a. Self & Practice: In my life I value self-reliance [Value]. I aspire to being self-reliant [Goal]. I believe I am able to be self-reliant in most aspects of my life, but choose to, or not to as I see appropriate [Belief][see *Note above].

2b. Self & Practice: I value a high standard of practice [Value]. I aspire to execute a high standard of practice [Goal]. I believe I operate at a high standard of practice in most areas of my life [Belief].

2c. Self & Practice: I value a high volume of post-training practice (10,000 hours) in order to develop a professional level of knowledge and skill in that practice [Value]. In any form of new practice I choose to learn, I set the goal on 10,000 hours of post-training practice in order to develop a professional level of knowledge and skill in that practice [Goal]. The forms of practice I have developed a professional level of knowledge and skill in, is the result of having invested 10,000 hours of post-training practice [Belief].

2d. Self & Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my practice [Value]. I am very end product/goal-orientated with actions; and I also very process-orientated with expression and reflection [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I believe I have a great opportunity in life. I believe I am target-orientated, effective and efficient in realising goals for my practice: I believe I do not waiver from the output focus for that practice. However within practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of practice with my expression and reflection [Belief] [see *Note above].

2e. Self & Practice: I value a complex multi-dimensional approach to practice [Value]. I aspire to execute a complex multi-dimensional approach within my practice [Goal]. I believe I execute a complex multi-dimensional approach within my practice [Belief].

2f. Self & Practice: I value spontaneity (being spontaneous = freedom for DLP) [Value]. I aspire to spontaneously – effortlessly, naturally – alter my practice as I see fit/appropriate [Goal]. I believe I operate in a spontaneous manner – effortlessly, naturally, within my practice [Belief].

2g. Self & Practice: In my life I value being prepared [Value]. I aspire to being prepared in all situations, facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others [Goal]. I believe I prepare thoroughly for my practice, facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others. I believe such preparation is an integral part of the practice process [Belief] [see *Note above].

2h Self & Practice: In my life I value appearing to be in a relaxed state [Value]. I aspire to appearing to be in a relaxed state in all situations, enabling the execution of what appears to be an effortless/natural/automatic high level of practice; in turn facilitating optimum engagement and maximizing the opportunity of an optimum experience for others [Goal]. I believe I prepare thoroughly for my practice, prior to practice, in order to be in a relaxed stated at the time of public practice (ie the performance). Being in this state in turn facilitates optimum engagement and maximizes the opportunity of an optimum experience for others. I believe such a relaxed state in public performance is a key element of the practice process [Belief] [see *Note above].

2i. Self & Practice: I value practice that provides opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to practice that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Goal]. I believe I engage in practice that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief][see *Note above].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1c – who I know I am as a practitioner

3a. Social and Cultural contexts: I value social and cultural diversity [Value]. I strive to live across a very wide and broad range of social and cultural contexts – countries and cultures in my life [Goal]. I believe I embrace a very wide and broad range of of social and cultural contexts – countries and cultures in my life [Belief].

3b. Social and Cultural contexts: I value equal opportunity for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Value]. I strive to provide equitable levels of service and practice for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Goal].I believe I assist people by providing equitable levels of service and practice for all – irrespective of gender, race, sexual preference, impairment [Belief].

3c. Social and Cultural contexts: I value opportunity for all for learning and development to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… (what I refer to as “community education”) [Value]. I strive to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community education”) [Goal]. I believe I assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community education”) [Belief].

3d. Social and Cultural contexts: I value opportunities in contexts that provide opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to practice in contexts that provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Goal]. I believe I engage in practice in contexts which provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1d – who I know I am as a music practitioner

4a. Music Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my practice [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my music practice [Goal].Being contrast orientated, I believe there is a great opportunity in my music practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my music practice, not wavering from the output focus for that music practice. However within my music practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of the music practice with my expression and reflection for creative benefit [Belief].

4b. Music Practice: I value social and cultural diversity of music style [Value].I strive to experience and be influenced by a very wide and broad range of diversity of music styles in my life [Goal]. I believe I am open to experience and be influenced by a very wide and broad range of diversity of music styles [Belief].

4c. Music Practice: I value the practice of music in a supportive environment or culture [Value]. I strive to practice music in a supportive culture and environment in my life [Goal]. I believe I practice music in a supportive culture and environment [Belief]

4d. Music Practice: I value the practice of music to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community music education”) [Value]. I strive to practice music to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community music education”) [Goal]. I believe the practice of music can assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community music education”) [Belief]. I believe I practice music to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community music education”) [Belief].

4e. Music Practice: I value the practice of music which provide opportunities for nurturing [Value]. I aspire to practice music which provides opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Goal]. I believe I engage in the practice of music to provide opportunities to nurture (both my self and others) [Belief]. I believe I practice music in a manner that is nurturing (of both my self and others) [Belief].

Year 1 Research Study Part 1e – who I know I am as a music practitioner

5a. Composition & Performance: I value diversity of orientation in my composition and performance practice [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my composition and performance practice [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I believe there is a great opportunity in my composition and performance practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my composition and performance practice, not wavering from the aim and objective focus for that practice. However within that practice, I believe I immerse my self in the process of the composition and performance practice with my expression and reflection for creative benefit. I believe I am in the moment during that practice [Belief].

5b. Composition & Performance: I value compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, appropriate to the music style [Value]. I strive to create compositions integrating a range of music and sonic textures into all of my compositions and performances, appropriate to the music style [Goal]. I believe I integrate a range of music and sonic textures into all of my compositions and performances, appropriate to the music style [Belief].

5c. Composition & Performance: I value compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, woven together in a holistic cohesive manner [Value]. I strive as a music practitioner to create and play compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, woven together in a holistic cohesive manner [Goal]. I believe as a music practitioner, I create and play compositions combining a range of music and sonic textures, woven together in a holistic cohesive manner [Belief].

5d. Composition & Performance: I value performing the instruments and musical parts I play, in and around other instruments, integrating/gluing all of the instrumental music and sonic textures together [Value]. I strive to perform the instruments and musical parts I play, in and around other instruments, integrating/gluing all of the instrumental music and sonic textures together [Goal]. I believe I perform the instruments and musical parts I play, in and around other instruments, integrating/gluing all of the instrumental music and sonic textures together [Belief]

5e. Composition & Performance: I value composing and performing music that is nurturing of both my self and others [Value]. I aspire to compose and perform music that is nurturing of both my self and others[Goal]. I believe I compose and perform music that is nurturing of both my self and others [Belief].I believe I practice music in a manner that is nurturing of both my self and others [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2a – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a practitioner

6a. Self & Professional Practice: I value diversity of orientation in my professional practice [Value].I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) with my professional practice [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I believe there is a great opportunity in professional practice. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals for my professional practice, not wavering from the aim and objective focus for that practice. However within that professional practice, I believe I believe I am in the moment. I immerse my self in the process of that practice with my expression and reflection, for great benefit to both my self and my practice. [Belief].

6b. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value reflection – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my practice [Value]. I aspire to being reflective – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my practice (family, music, education, research and management & governance) as appropriate [Goal]. I am able to be reflective – conscious, deliberate, systematic, interrogative introspection in order to consider, critically analyse and appraise my self and my practice (family, music, education, research and management & governance) as appropriate [Belief].

6c. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my practice [Value]. I aspire to ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my practice (family, music, education, research and management & governance) as appropriate [Goal]. I believe I am committed to ongoing development – constant and never-ending reflexive practice, in order to maintain proactive development of my self and my practice (family, music, education, research and management & governance) as appropriate [Belief].

6d. Self & Professional Practice: I value varied motives of practice [Value]. I strive to practice resulting from many varied motivations [Goal]. I believe I practice as a result of:

Discovery (to use music practice as a medium for exploring, attempting to do something which you haven’t done previously);
Technically (to technically develop one’s skills);
Social (to connect to others);
Affectively (to express or connect to emotion);
Aesthetically (for expression or engagement in something artistic or of beauty);
Creatively (for action, just to do);
Physical (for physical expression, for exercise];
Commercial (for income generation purposes);
Educational (to demonstrate specific practice to my students, live or in preparation);
Cathartic (for self-development or intervention purposes. For me to connect with my emotions – to notice, to reflect, to acknowledge the emotion, and their significance, to work through that emotional experience – to deal with specific and/or significant events, and hopefully in doing so, move beyond certain emotions associated with these significant events, developing my self);
Performance (to maximise my performance standard, and what others get to see of me/ practice);
Nurturing (core to my Charter of Values is nurturing – nurturing of self and others. I demonstrate in my education & learning practice; nurturing of both others (eg when I am ‘performing’ either a} and myself in my creative practice; and nurturing of myself in my research practice) [Belief].

6e. Self & Professional Practice: In my life I value nurturing [Value]. I aspire to be nurturing being – of my self and others – across my areas of my practice (family, music, education, research, practice) as appropriate [Goal]. I believe I am a nurturing being – of my self and others – across my areas of my practice (family, music, education, research, practice) – a social carer, an encourager, a coach, a mentor, an educator, a friend…. as appropriate [Belief].

(DLP 2016)

As I developed my Research Study through Project 1 in the second year of my doctoral studies, I developed my Charter of Values and Beliefs progressively, and updated the following as of 31st December 2016.

Year 2 Research Study Part 2b – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a music practitioner

7a. Self & Music Practice: As a contemporary music practitioner, I value the practice of music across all of the six (6) stages of music practice: performance, creation, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution [Value]. As a contemporary music practitioner, I strive to practice music across all of the six (6) stages of music practice: performance, creation, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution[Goal]. As a contemporary music practitioner, I believe I practice music across all of the six (6) stages of music practice: performance, creation, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution [Belief].

7b. Self & Music Practice: I value music primarily for its affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Value]. I strive to perform and compose music primarily for its affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Goal]. I believe I perform and compose music primarily for its affective, expressive and communicative qualities [Belief]

7c. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music motivated by a diversity of intentions – the majority of which are non-commercial [Value]. I strive to practice music motivated by a diversity of intentions in my life – the majority of which are non-commercial [Goal]. I believe I practice music motivated by a diversity of intentions – the majority of which are non-commercial such as:

Discovery (to use music practice as a medium for exploring, attempting to do something which you haven’t done previously)
Technically (to use music practice as a medium to practice one’s craft, and technically develop one’s craft skills)
Social (to use music practice as a medium for social interaction purposes, to connect to others [communicative])
Affectively (to use music practice as a medium to express or connect to emotion)
Aesthetically (to use music practice as a medium for expression or engagement in something artistic or of beauty)
Creatively (to use music practice as a medium for action, just to do [expressivity])
Physical (to use music practice as a medium for physical expression, for exercise]
Commercial (to use music practice as a medium for income generation purposes)
Educational (to demonstrate specific music practice to my students, live or in preparation)
Cathartic (self-development or intervention purposes. For me to connect with my emotions – to notice, to reflect, to acknowledge the emotion, and their significance, to work through that emotional experience – to deal with specific and/or significant events, and hopefully in doing so, move beyond certain emotions associated with these significant events, developing my self)
Performance (where my primary motive is to perform, and therefore all creation and creative development is built upon wanting to maximise my performance standard, and what others get to see of me/my art/my music practice
Nurturing (core to my Charter of Values is nurturing – nurturing of self and others. I demonstrate in my education & learning practice; nurturing of both others (eg when I am ‘performing’ either a} and myself in my creative practice; and nurturing of myself in my research practice) [Belief]

7d. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of listening to music on any of the three levels: holistic, associative, or critical and analytical listening [Value]. I strive to practice listening to music on any of the three levels: holistic, associative, and critical and analytical listening [Goal]. I believe I practice listening to music on all of the three levels: holistic, associative, and critical and analytical listening [Belief].

7e. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music of a range of cultural origins [Value]. I strive to practice music across of a range of cultural origins [Goal]. I believe I practice music across a range of cultural origins [Belief]

Year 2 Research Study Part 2c – who I am discovering/accepting myself to be as a music practitioner

8a. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music across a range of diverse technologies [Value]. I strive to practice music across a range of diverse technologies [Goal]. I believe I practice music across a range of diverse technologies [Belief].

8b. Self & Music Practice: Intuitively, I value physical instruments that emit vibrations and resonances, of a style and size I can physically embrace [Value]. I intuitively research across a range of physical instruments to play that emit vibrations and resonances, of a style and size I can physically embrace [Goal]. I believe I intuitively search for and play a range of physical instruments that emit vibrations and resonances, of a style and size I can physically embrace [Belief].

8c. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music in a range of diverse sites, where one site’s practice can influence and/or inform another form of practice in another site [Value]. I strive to practice music in a range of diverse sites, where one site’s practice can influence and/or inform another form of practice in another site [Goal]. I believe I practice music in a range of diverse sites, where one site’s practice such as live performance influences and informs another form of practice in another site such as studio performance; which in turn can influence and inform another form of practice such as live performance [Belief].

8d. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music across a range of diverse holistic work practice, including compositional songs and soundtracks [Value]. I strive to practice music across a range of diverse holistic work practice, including compositional songs and soundtracks [Goal]. I believe I practice music across a range of diverse holistic work practice, including compositional songs and soundtracks [Belief].

8e. Self & Music Practice: I value the practice of music across a range of diverse (micro) workflows [Value]. I strive to practice music across a range of diverse (micro) workflows [Goal]. I believe I practice music across a range of diverse (micro) workflows [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2d – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a music practitioner

9a. Composition & Performance Technology: I value a diversity of technology in the creation and layering of musical and sonic textures within the music practice of composition and performance – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices [Value]. I strive to create a diversity of technology in the creation and layering of musical and sonic textures within the music practice of composition and performance – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices [Goal]. I believe I use a diversity of technology to create and layer the musical and sonic textures within my music practice of composition and performance – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices. I have developed a diverse range of technology to create and layer musical and sonic textures within my music practice of composition and performance – analogue, digital or digital virtual devices [Belief].

9b. Composition & Performance Technology: I value both acoustic style instruments and their timbre, and the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative purposes [Value]. I strive as a music practitioner to integrate the initial primary focus of acoustic style instruments and their timbre, with the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative purposes [Goal].I believe as a music practitioner I attempt to integrate the initial primary focus of acoustic style instruments and their timbre, with the manipulation of at-the-time generated or pre-recorded sound sources for creative purposes [Belief]. I believe I developed my live/studio technology (my rig) to facilitate the manipulation and layering of sonic textures, and duplicate these irrespective of location – in both live and studio settings [Belief].

9c. Composition & Performance Technology: I value the manipulation and layering of sonic textures must be duplicable equally in live and studio settings. Therefore my rig must facilitate sourcing these sonic textures irrespective of site [Value]. I strive to manipulate and layer sonic textures and duplicate equally in live and studio settings. I strive to develop my live/studio technology (my rig) to facilitate sourcing these sonic textures irrespective of site [Goal]. I believe I manipulate and layer sonic textures and duplicate equally in live and studio settings. I believe I have developed my live/studio technology (my rig) to facilitate sourcing these sonic textures irrespective of site [Belief].

Year 2 Research Study Part 2e – who I am discovering/accepting my self to be as a music practitioner

10a. Creative Practitioner: I value diversity of orientation as a creative practitioner [Value]. I strive to exercise both a goal-orientation (product), and a process-orientation (process) as a creative practitioner [Goal]. Being contrast orientated, I believe there is a great opportunity as a creative practitioner. I believe my target-orientation allows me to effectively and efficiently realise goals, not wavering from the aim and objective focus of that practice. However, I believe I am in the moment as a creative practitioner, fully immersed in the process of my creative practice [Belief].

10b. Creative Practitioner: I value music practice with origins in, and for artistic expression, over music practice solely reliant on craft expression [Value]. I strive to practice music for artistic expression, over music practice solely for craft expression [Goal]. I believe I am now practicing music for artistic expression, rather that practicing music solely for craft expression [Belief].

10c. Creative Practitioner: I value a described music praxis – a framework that articulates the interdependent elements for consideration during the stages of one’s music practice [Value]. I strive to describe my music praxis – a framework that articulates the interdependent elements for consideration during the stages of one’s music practice [Goal]. I believe I have developed a considered music praxis – a framework that articulates the elements for consideration during the stages one’s music practice. These primary elements of my Music Practice Praxis v8i (see figure I below) are: listening, self, reflection/reflective practice, reflexive practice, motive, theme, song mood, decision to commence, music production approach, compositional approach, agreed reference track, music style, simple versus complex textures, technology, site, holistic work practice, micro workflow, aesthetic choices, time opportunity, and social network engagement [Belief].

DLP DCI Praxis v8i.20161231.P1

Figure I – Project 1 Research Study Developed Praxis v8i (Page 2016c)

10d. Creative Practitioner: I value independent self-reliant solo performers who aspired to create multi-timbral and multi-layered soundscapes in each and every performance, irrespective of motive, musical style or site [Value]. I strive to be an independent self-reliant solo performer who aspires to create multi-timbral and multi-layered soundscapes in each and every performance, irrespective of motive, musical style or site [Goal]. I believe I am an independent self-reliant solo performer who aspires to create multi-timbral and multi-layered soundscapes in each and every performance, irrespective of motive, musical style or site [Belief].

Significant Differences between my Project 1 end Year 1 Charter of Values and Beliefs v1, and my end Year 2 Charter of Values and Beliefs v2

In addition to the two areas I have already noted – 1b and 1c – I will now note some of the significant developments between my Project 1 end Year 1 Charter of Values and Beliefs v1, and my end Year 2 Charter of Values and Beliefs v2.

I added diversity of orientation. Whilst this quality could possibly be inferred from a number of items within my Year 1 Charter of Values and Beliefs, I believe I needed to make it more explicit given it was something that I observed had significant impact on my self and my practice. In pursuing my practice across Year 2, I noted on many occasions that I was both end product/goal-orientated, and process-orientated. These were quite often at odds with each other, and sometimes I considered them to be mutually exclusive. However, as Year 2 progressed, I realised that there were examples of my approach to practice where these two orientations sat very comfortably side by side in my orientation to practice. I believe this dual orientation affords me a great opportunity in life. My target-orientatation allows me to be effective and efficient in realising personal goals, not wavering from my focus. However within my practice, in the act of doing and being present within practice, I believe I am process-orientated in my expression and reflection. I believe I immerse my self in the process, and this orientation provides great benefit to both my self, and my practice. Given this positive impact on my self, my practitioner self, and my practice, I therefore added paragraphs 1d, 2c, 4a, 6a and 10a.

I also added nurturing as a human quality. Whilst this was present in my original Charter of Values and Beliefs as paragraph 6d, I observed this quality was missing in other aspects of my life and practice. I therefore added it into paragraphs 1j, 2i, 3d, 4e and 5e.

The five other additions to my Charter of Values and Beliefs v2 that were more practice-based focussed were:

2b. Self & Practice: a high standard of practice; 2c. Self & Practice: a high volume of post-training practice (10,000 hours); 2e. Self & Practice: a complex multi-dimensional approach to practice; and, 4d. Music Practice: the practice of music to assist people to gain an opportunity for learning and development – helping them to navigate their life – their dreams, desires, goals, directions, wants, wishes, in order to overcome their challenges, issues, hurts… – (what I refer to as “community music education”); 7c. Self & Creative practice: creating music and sonic narratives in the styles of narrative, prose or song lyrics.

Summary

As a person new to formal academic research studies, I have been surprised with the number of occasions that I have been confronted by a range of thoughts, feelings, observations, recollections – positives and learnings – and highlighted behavioural patterns over the course of my life, relative to my music practice. Over the past few months I realised that I did not have in fact, the clearest understanding of who I was as a creative practitioner at this moment in time. Therefore in order to try to anchor myself, I continue to develop my Charter of Values and Beliefs to maintain a valid contemporary values statement – a charter of values for both myself and my music practice at this time. In doing this, I am able to continue to gain new levels of understanding of my self and my practice, and start to apply them reflexively to my self and practice (see figure II below).

Figure II – Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach (Page 2016d)

Engaging in this research study has allowed me to continue to develop my self, increase my self confidence, develop clarity regarding my practice, and increase my confidence with this task at hand as a practitioner with my Research Study Project 1. In short, it has allowed me to become a more holistic and balanced practitioner – an expanded practitioner (see figure III below).

creative-practitioner-graphic_more-holistic-balanced-practitioner-20161231-p2

Figure III – Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach (Page 2016e)

Next Step

I realise that as my Research Study Project continues and I gain more insight and greater clarity about my self and my practice, this document will require even more development. It remains a dynamic document that will continue to evolve, in line with my reflections and insights of my self interests, and my practitioner self interests.

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 15. It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

DLP 2016 image courtesy of David L Page. Accessed 27th November, 2016

Onion image courtesy of: Onion Layers Accessed 28th March, 2015

Page, David 2016a QUT KKP622 Mid-Project 1 Research Study Progress Report submission draft Accessed April 24, 2016.

Page, David 2016b Research Practitioner Part 6 Accessed 27th November, 2016

Page, David 2016c Project 1 Research Study Developed Praxis v8i Created 27th November, 2016

Page, David 2016d Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach Created 27th November, 2016

Page, David 2016e Project 1 Research Study Developed Approach Created 27th November, 2016

Page, David 2015 QUT KKP603 Project Development in the Creative Industries submission DLP DCI Project Brief Accessed 22nd April, 2016.

Research 2016 image courtesy of: Research Accessed 28th January 2016

Self Reflection 2016 image courtesy of: Self-reflection-for-personal-growth Accessed 18th March, 2016.

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

Microphones Part 13 – Other

This blog is a continuation of a series. See here for the previous blog.

(AE Project Studio 2015)

Current stock

My current studio and live microphone stocks a modest range of dynamic microphones, dynamic ribbons, condensers, tubes and contact microphones. The range of microphones include: Shure 57s, 58s, Beta52As & SM7Bs; Electro Voice RE20s; Sennheiser e935s, e945s, e906s & MD441Us; MXL 550s & 551s; Rode NT-USBs, NT1s, NT3s, NT5s, NTRs, NT4s & NTKs; Audio Technica AT2020; AKG C414XLIIs, P420s & CGN523Es; Mojave MA101FETs, MA1000; Neumann TLM193, OPR87C, OPR87I & OPR84s; Royer 121s; RCA77s; DPA 4099s; IK reference mic; a Zoom H6 XY and MS mic; Sony lapel mics; and a range of contact mics. This stock allows for versatility in most recording scenarios that have been presented to me; of course coupled with great instruments, amplifiers,outboard processing hardware, interfaces, consoles, and of course artists. But sometimes, in certain scenarios, even these are not enough.

Current Research Study Project

In my current doctoral research study project, I have designed a composition requiring me to source sonic samples of significant aspects of my life. Water is one of the most significant and influential elements in my life and my life partner’s lifestyle [see blog or Media Use Part 1], I felt a need to be able to record water samples across a range of contexts which I have experienced. The ocean, rain, waterfalls, swimming pools, and domestic water use. However, this needed to occur without causing damage to my current range of microphones. Ready and portable – armed with my Zoom H6 -my research project would not be complete without the range of real water samples – out in the environment. However, I also felt a need to record sonic samples of water from a submersed perspective. Of my current stock of microphones, there were none that allowed me to record in a submersed scenario, without needing a further layer between the microphone and the element of water, such as by using plastic bags or tubs, duct tape and silicon. I therefore felt an alternative solution was needed.

Hydrophone H2a-XLR

I researched my options, exploring what other audio engineers have used to gather some water-based samples. I finally decided to purchase a fully submersible microphone, and I now received what will be the latest microphone to add to my stock of studio and live microphones: an Aquarian Audio Products Hydrophone H2a-XLR microphone.

A hydrophone microphone is designed to be immersed in water – natural or salt water – multiple times without degrading from excessive water damage or corrosion.

The Aquarian Audio hydrophone microphone is quite compact, measuring just 25mm wide, but 46 mm long. It weighs just 105 grams.

It is a condenser microphone, requiring 48v power in order to charge the electro-static transduction process. As such it is extremely sensitive, with minimal extraneous noise. “The hydrophone sensor is cable of picking up sounds from below 20Hz to above 100KHz” (Aquarian Audio Products 2016). Designed for deep water where maximum microphone bandwidth can be achieved, the Aquarian Audio Hydrophone apparently boasts an operating depth of up to 80 metres. However, the model I purchased came with a 9 metre cable, a length I thought was more than adequate for the sample events I am looking for.

Using a Hydrophone – Context

Having just received the microphone, I am still yet to venture out into a deep water environment where I can test the microphone to its full capacity. However, I was keen to immediately test the microphone to get an idea of how sensitive it was going to be, how accurate it was going to potentially be in capturing the original sound source, and how much noise it may or may not inherently have. Using my Zoom H6 with this hydrophone to gather a number of preliminary samples, I considered the options I had immediately around me. I chose the 60,000 litre salt water fibreglass swimming pool found in our front garden as my first test environment. A place where my partner and I have spent considerable hours over the past two decades, it is surely a significant part of our lives, and therefore somewhere I am going to need to gather sample events for my composition. In saying that, embarking on this test I acknowledged there would be some limitations of using this test environment to trial the functionality of this condenser microphone. Namely, the structure of the pool – the pool is 4 metres wide, 9.5 metres long and 1.9 metre deep (reducing to about 1.4 metres in the shallow end) and made of a fibreglass shell with the sides and bottom curved into one continuous surface. Due to this particular environment, the hydrophone microphone would likely display a narrower bandwidth than what it would optimally have in deeper waters; and the captured sound source was likely to include the original sound source and a number of reflections off the hard surfaces of this domestic swimming pool. Irrespective, as I was going to need samples of this environment eventually, I considered it a useful initial test environment.

Using a Hydrophone – Part 1

The first 5 sample events I believe demonstrate the sensitivity this condenser microphone has in underwater situations. I was surprised how sensitive the microphone was, despite the large amount of water residing between/separating the subject and the microphone capsule during these recordings. As indicated above regarding the reflections, the captured sample events demonstrates a cacophony of sonic textures resulting from a fusion of both the intended sound source and its’ multiple reflections.

Note also the frequency range of each sample event relative to the micopphones’ depth and proximity to either the surface, the bottom, or the sides of the swimming pool. I have been reminded that in a shallower water environment: there is likely to be less fully developed low frequencies due to the shorter distance between any surfaces. Additionally, in calm water conditions the sound waves under the surface are likely to rebound back off a flat water surface, phase cancelling the original signal below it. This phenomena of a varying frequency range is particularly noticeable in Using a Hydrophone – Part 2 sample events 7 and 8 when the condenser microphone capsule is being bounced up and down at variable depths under the surface, and then breaches the surface of the water. Listen and compare the frequency range and the sonic texture of each sample event as the condenser capsule moves through the water.

Sample Event 1 (click to access audio)

In the first sample, the hydrophone was submerged in the swimming pool to a depth of about 1.5 metres. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level was set to 6 (of 10). My friend (the subject) was in the pool and approximately 2 metres away from the hydrophone, facing it and blowing bubbles under water in the direction of the microphone. The reverberations off the nearby pool surfaces are quite noticeable from about 1/3 third into the sample event, providing a minor delay of the original signal until the end of the sample event.

Sample Event 2 (click to access audio)

In the second sample, the hydrophone was maintained in the swimming pool at a depth of about 1.5 metres. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level was set to 7 (of 10). The subject was in the pool and approximately 3 metres away from the hydrophone, facing it and blowing bubbles. The overall levels are softer in this second sample event while she was mimicking what she had done previously – with the exception of when the hydrophone capsule got knocked by something (tall volume spike midway) – despite the gain level being increased marginally. See image i below. The reverberations off the nearby pool surfaces are quite noticeable from about one third into the sample event, providing a minor delay of the original signal until the end of the sample event for the second third, but then decays and releases back to mainly the original signal in the final third of the sample event. As a result of the decaying signal, the amplitude reduces. With the return to the original signal in the final third, there is greater clarity of the signal.

Image I – Pro Tools 12 Sample event 1 (top) and Sample Event 2 (bottom)

Sample Event 3 (click to access audio)

In the third sample event, the hydrophone was submerged in the swimming pool to a depth of about 1.5 metres. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level was maintained at 7 (of 10). The subject was in the pool and approximately 3 metres away from the hydrophone, facing it and trying to talk underwater. I note that despite her being farther away from the hydrophone capsule than she was in the first sample event, as she was trying to talk loudly under water toward the microphone capsule, the audio is louder than both sample events 1 and 2. As you can see in image ii below, the overall mass of the wav file is exponentially greater in this third event than both the previous two sample events, with the subject’s speaking voice producing far greater mass and density than she did when blowing bubbles underwater. This mass and density represents increases in sound pressure levels, and reverberant signals, resulting in a cacophony of sonic textures. Had I included a longer sample, you would observe, as per the sample event 2, at a certain point the signal decays and releases back to mainly the original signal, with reduce amplitude, but greater clarity.

Image II – Pro Tools 12 Sample event 1 (top), Sample Event 2 (middle, Sample Event 3 (bottom)

Sample Event 4 (click to access audio)

In the fourth sample event, the hydrophone was submerged in the swimming pool to a depth of about 1.5 metres. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level was maintained at 5 (of 10). The subject is in the pool and approximately 0.5 metres away from the hydrophone, facing it and blowing bubbles. Sonically, this fourth sample event demonstrates a cacophony of sonic textures, resulting from excessive sound pressure levels due to the close proximity of the transducer relative to the sound source, and the accompanying reverberant signals from the multiple surfaces of the pool. The inherent distortion results from excessive sound pressure levels, with an over-gained signal. For non-audiophiles: note the clean flat line along the top of the wav form indicating a form of dynamic limiting. Given that no dynamic processing was used to achieve this limiting of the audio signal, the limiting effect indicates acceptable gain levels for the equipment were exceeded, resulting in what is referred to as digital (signal) clipping. See image iii below (top wav form).

Image III – Pro Tools 12 Sample event 4 (top) and Sample Event 5 (bottom)

Sample Event 5 (click to access audio)

In the fifth sample event, the hydrophone was maintained at a depth of about 1.5 metres. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level is reduced to 5 (of 10). The subject was in the pool and approximately 0.5 metres away from the hydrophone, facing it and trying to talk underwater. As you can see in image iii above (bottom wav form), the overall mass of the wav file is exponentially greater in this fifth event than the previous sample events, with the subject’s speaking voice producing far greater sound pressure levels than she did when blowing bubbles underwater. Sonically, this fifth sample event is heavily distorted due to the excessive sound pressure levels due to the close proximity of the transducer relative to the sound source. The digital recording is therefore clipped given the amplitude far exceeded the specified gain levels of the equipment. For non-audiophiles: in this example the cleaner flatter line along the top of the wav form – relative to the previous example – indicating extreme limiting of the audio signal. Again, as no dynamic processing was used – it similarly indicates excessive sound pressure levels at unacceptable gain levels for the equipment, resulting in severe digital (signal) clipping across almost the entire length of the audio wav file. It is also worth noting the very thin sound of this sample event as a result of the absence of low frequencies in the shallow depths; and yet as per sample event 4, there is a cacophony of sonic textures given the multiple reverberant signals arriving from the numerous surfaces of the pool.

Using a Hydrophone Part 2

In the following examples, I gathered a number of sample events using the hydrophone closer to the surface of the water line. I hope the sample events further show how sensitive the hydrophone microphone is, effectively capturing sonic qualities of very subtle movements.

Sample Event 6 (click to access audio)

In the sixth sample event, the Zoom H6 track 3 gain level was set at 6 (of 10). The hydrophone was being dragged along the surface of the swimming pool at a relatively slow walking pace. The sound of rushing of water is the wake of water that the small condenser capsule (25mm wide, but 46 mm long, weighing 105 grams.) is creating and capturing as it breaches the surface of the water. I think you will agree that this confirms both the sensitivity and low noise levels of this particular microphone. The deeper frequency you hear (boomy quality) in the audio file is when the transduction surface of the microphone capsule is re-submersed under the surface of the water.

Sample Event 6wp (click to access audio)

Sample event 6wp indicates that it is the same sample as sample event 6, but with post-production audio processing added. In the studio – following recording the sample – I chose to add two (2) reverb processing devices – a Eventide and a Lexicon reverb – to the initial audio file. While doing this, and listening to the altered sonic textures of the audio, I am imagining the many applications that I could use such an effect in my sonic compositions and sound design.

Sample Event 7 (click to access audio)

The seventh sample event is a similar execution as sample event 6, with the hydrophone being dragged along the swimming pool at a relatively slow walking pace, but being bounced in and out of the water in an approximately 30 centimetre arc. The popping and gurgling sounds are occurring as the capsule breaches the surface of the water (popping), then followed by the re-submersion (gurgling). It is a similar but more exaggerated version of sample event 6, with the sample event’s frequency varying dependent on where the condenser microphone capsule is relative to the water: being just under the surface, at depth (only about 30 cms in this example), breaching the surface, or above the surface of the water.

Sample Event 8 (click to access audio)

The eighth sample event is a similar execution as sample event 7, with the Zoom H6 track 3 gain level remaining at 6 (of 10). The hydrophone was being dragged along the surface of the swimming pool at a relatively slow walking pace, but being bounced in and out of the water over a much larger arc – approximately 1.5 metres. This is a more exaggerated version of sample event 7, with the popping and gurgling sounds associated with the breaching and re-submersion are relatively deeper in tone due to the greater depth, speed and height the capsule was dropped from, back into and under the water. Sonically, you may hear what sounds like wind noise in this audio sample event. I noted at the time that this was due in combination to both the faster movement of the capsule above the surface of the water after breaching; but also partially due to the wind in our local area picking up nearing the end of the test. You will also note that near the end of the sample event you can hear a voice – talking, describing my actions. This voice was captured by the microphone capsule after it had breached the surface of the water, with the speaker’s mouth about 2 metres away.

Sample Event 9 (click to access audio)

The ninth and last sample event had the hydrophone submerged in the swimming pool to a depth of about 1.5 metres held stationary. The Zoom H6 track 3 gain level remained at 6 (of 10). The subject was approximately 2 metres away from the hydrophone drop point, swimming up and down the pool in freestyle form. The low frequency plop occurred every time the subject kicked her feet, with training flippers on. The bass frequency was pronounced, reverberating off the surfaces of the pool, producing a sound somewhat similar to a deep tom sonic boom after the skin had been struck. And yet, the hydrophone microphone still clearly captured what sounds to be running water – the sound of the subject’s hand and arms entering and breaching the surface of the water with each and every stroke. Again, I am imagining the many applications that I could apply some processing to this sample event, and use such an effect in my sonic compositions and sound design.

Summary

The Aquarian Audio Products Hydrophone H2a-XLR microphone is an extremely sensitive fully submersible condenser microphone, with minimal extraneous noise. It is well designed and constructed to be impact resistant, using sturdy materials. Whilst it is designed to be submersed in a far greater depth than I have tested to date, I believe I have made a good purchase with this hydrophone, something that will complement my current stock of studio and live microphones. I believe this microphone will allow me even greater versatility in a range of recording scenarios that I can foresee me being presented. I daresay I will probably now go searching further afield, exploring less predictable outdoor terrain, and feeling the need to be less mindful than I usually would taking my more expensive studio microphones. I am looking forward to progressing my sonic compositions and sound designs using water samples across the range of contexts which I have experienced in my life – the ocean – including boating, body surfing, snorkelling and scuba diving – rivers, waterfalls, natural pools, and domestic water use – in order to capture specific sample events that represent significant events and memories. I look forward to this next chapter in my creative practice.

It is intended for this series of microphone-related blogs to continue.

References

AE Project Studio Microphone Case image courtesy of: DLP Pinterest site Accessed 28th August, 2015

Aquarian Audio Products. 2016a. H2a-XLR Hyrophone Users Guide http://www.aquarianaudio.com Accessed 17th November 2016

Aquarian Audio Products. 2016b. http://www.aquarianaudio.com Accessed 15th November 2016

Hydrophone images courtesy of: Aquarian Audio Products Accessed 16th November 2016

Page, David. L 2016. Soundcloud. DLP Soundcloud Accessed 17th November 2016

Pro Tools 12 Sample Event Images courtesy of: David L Page Accessed 16th November 2016

Zoom H6 image courtesy of: Sound on Sound Accessed 16th November 2016

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David L Page

Educator, Mentor, Songwriter,Musician, Engineer….

Research Study

Abstract

(Page 2015a)

Preamble

Continuing on from my previous blogs (Page 2015b) in this series….

In the beginning……

My doctoral research study……

Research Study – 1st Observation:

I acknowledged that I approached my music and sound-making practice in terms of the outcome – the finished product. I was not considering the process in which I was music and sound-making, any more than with a cursory glance. My music and sound-making practice was product-driven.

(Page 2017a)

I recognised that I approached my music-making with physical instruments in a different manner to my approach to music and sound-making using virtual technologies (using my laptop to make music and sound for example). In drilling down I determined that much of this was how I viewed both devices.

Research Study – 2nd Observation:

My eyes were starting to open.

(Page 2017b)

Project 1 Pilot Study – 3rd Observation:

(Page 2017c)

My music praxis (v4) had six (6) elements listed: self, motive, music style, location, technology and workflow.

(Page 2015b)

Project 1 Pilot Study – 6th Observation:

(Page 2017d)

(Page 2016a)

(Page 2016b)

I realised my music praxis was in fact very circular, with reflective and reflexive practice occurring constantly at any point in time. ­

(Page 2017e)

(Page 2017f)

This blog series is planned to continue next month with Research Practitioner Part 25 (Page 2017g). It is intended for this blog series to continue on a regular basis as I progress through my doctoral research project.

References

Onion image courtesy of: Onion Layers Accessed 28th March, 2015

Page, David L. 2017g. Doctoral Pilot Study – Part 25 Accessed 3rd January, 2018

Page, David L. 2017f .17th Observation image courtesy of David L Page DCI Project 1 Research Study Holistic Model of an Authentic Practitioner. Created 9th June, 2017

Page, David L. 2017e. Praxis v9k image courtesy of David L Page. Created 20th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017d. 6th Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017c. 3rd Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017b. 2nd Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2017a. 1st Observation image courtesy of David L Page. Created 17th May, 2017

Page, David L. 2016b. Praxis v8i image courtesy of David L Page. Created 29th, November, 2016

Page, David L. 2016a. Praxis v5b image courtesy of David L Page. Created 15th April, 2016

Page, David L. 2015c. Praxis 4 image courtesy of David L Page. Created 1st December, 2015

Page, David L. 2015b. Doctoral Research Study – Part 3 Accessed 1st December, 2015

Page, David L.2015a. image courtesy of David L Page. Created 14th September, 2015

Wiley, Norbert. 2010. “Inner speech and agency.” In Conversations about reflexivity, edited by Margaret S. Archer, 17-38. New York: Routledge

– @David L Page 27/12/2017

– updated @David L Page 03/01/2018

Copyright: No aspect of the content of this blog or blog site is to be reprinted or used within any practice without strict permission directly from David L Page.

(Page 2017a)

Me, myself, I – the multi-facetted/multi-dimensional practitioner

“All of my practice informs my self; and my self informs my practice – irrespective of the industry, the field, the discipline, or the site”(Page 2017c).

(Page 2017g)

A broad definition of me, myself, I – the creative practitioner

Engagement with particular creative media platforms for particular purposes

(Page 2017d)

(Page 2017e)

(Page 2017f)

Engagement with particular creative media mediums dictates what cultural productions I engage in

(AE 2015a)

1. 4 different listening behaviours I exhibit:

(Pink Floyd 1973)

(Buckley 1972)

(Olsen 2017)

2. 4 different visual arts and design viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: traditional art – physical paintings, etc – I do like to see in an art gallery, particularly a curated art gallery with a theme, or an artist’s works.. I like taking time to wander around in a relaxed stated;

eg 2: In saying that, I usually also like to have copies of my favourite works electronically (desktop pictures, pinterest, etc) to see and remind myself of that experience in the art gallery;

eg 5: virtual creative, artistic design is ok on most modern mediums (laptop, desktop, etc). However in saying this, I tend not to view on smaller virtual devices such as iphones, as images gets lost/loses visual impact for me being so small, etc.

3.4 different film viewing behaviours I exhibit:

(Entertainment, Castle Rock. 1994)

eg 2: Certain movies eg (original) “Point Break”, “Star Wars” are a cinematic experience, and lose a great detail of impact for me when not watched in cinema, but on my home TV system;

eg 3: Where I want to view a trailer to see if I am interested in watching it in full, I am happy to watch them on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop

eg 4: Certain movies eg “Blair Witch Project” I believe benefit from being watched on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop as this smaller – more intimate? individual? secretive? -medium lends itself more to the intent of the narrative in my opinion.

4. 3 different animation viewing behaviours I exhibit:

(Disney 1994)

eg 3: Where there are short animations (3 minute Pixar), I am happy to watch them on alternate mediums such as a laptop or desktop, just to entertain myself for a short moment to lift my mood, distract me, etc.

5. x different games viewing behaviours I exhibit:

eg 1: No contribution possible. mes not a gameboy!!!

Conclusion

The mediums one chooses to access media through, could therefore dictate what media you actually engage in.

How do you access creative media?

How does this inform what cultural production – what cultural artifact – you choose to engage in at any point in time?

References

I realised my music praxis was in fact very circular, with reflective and reflexive practice occurring constantly at any point in time.