A Common Method? Distributed Creativity in Composition and/as Practice Research

This chapter examines compositional agency, practice research, and collaboration in some recent projects. It employs a socio-semiotic model, derived from Actor Network Theory (ANT) and similar to that taken by Rosalind Krauss in her exploration of Sculpture in the Expanded Field, to demonstrate and explore the collaborative and other relationships in these projects. This reflection intends to show how the multiple roles that I, and others, enact in collaborative projects overlap, and considers which relationships and contexts have been most fruitful to my practice research. I have worked as a composer in all of these situations, although my research as a whole also comprises “traditional” (written) research and performance, which also intersect with these projects. While the labels “musicologist”, “composer”, “performer”, or “improviser” might easily be applied to individuals at various points during the projects described, this chapter contends that these describe aspects of those individuals at a particular time, but should not necessarily be used to divide the practices of individuals into discrete sets of activity. This observation has implications for the expectations of individuals when they collaborate, as I will discuss.