Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling (METADS) at the 14th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research
(2023)
author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold
published in: Research Catalogue
METADS stands for “Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling”. It’s a special initiative for furthering interdisciplinary arts thinking and production that is inspired by music. METADS’ history started in 2017 with Jeffrey Cobbold’s musically rich digital audio sermon album focused on his autobiographical story as a music educator. Included in the sermon are observational digital stories of various music students, which offer approaches to confronting fear through various modes of truth-telling.
In 2020 METADS was mastered by audio engineer Johnny O, who also sang on the song "JOURNAL PROMPT" on the METADS album. The album’s cover art was created by graphic designer Lauren Meyer. In 2021 METADS expanded into a visual art project through Cobbold’s invitation to Meyer to create visualizations for the digital audio sermon album into a comprehensive visual guide/coloring book. Meyer’s involvement in METADS has furthered its progression toward interdisciplinary arts thinking and production inspired by music and storytelling.
For the 14th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research, METADS makes an urgent appeal for music educators and musicians to tend to the stewardship of their relationships in music through the creation of their own autobiographical digital stories, offering them as artistic research in this sensitive area of our musical lives. This is an effort to improve professional practice through investigation of relational fears and the expression of rare relational truths that are often concealed or neglected. METADS also seeks to appeal to the non-musician at the conference who engages in personal storytelling inspired by music or other mediums with a concern for the moral fabric of their creative relationships.
From Problem Solving to Improvisation in Filmmaking
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Jackel Chow
connected to: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exposition provides the insight of indeterminacy during improvisation, as well as the reflection process of how I converted my problems-solving skills to planned improvisation during the adverse filming condition of my graduation feature film production.
I define Improvisation as a way to be adaptive and flexible in uncertainty, while problem-solving as a solution to overcome the obstacles faced.
I started from an ambitious goal by making a feature-length hybrid film for my graduation showcase in my two years of master study. Facing problems like lack of money, insufficient network to find talents and limited time to acquire local knowledge of the working styles in the country, I met a lot of challenges. When I solved the problems one by one within this filmmaking process, I gradually realized I relied quite a lot on improvisation. It does not only apply on the set when I worked with the actors, but also on scriptwriting, crew recruiting, locations scouting, shots creation, etc.
The turning point for me to change from coincidental (unplanned) improvisation (because it is needed with problem solving) to deliberate (planned) improvisation started from my second half of principal photography (or simply called production/filming) stage because more uncertainty emerged and I started to get used to such style.
At the end, I made two versions of the films with different levels of improvisational practice. I will reflect my whole filmmaking process and its connection with improvisation from my film products.