OUTRO

Creating this Artistic Research project has been a revelation, especially as it is my first major independent artistic research project. I consider myself a music producer with a basis in artistic practice and a small foothold in the academic world. Without formal academic training or standard practices in artistic research and project development, I dived deeply into a specific area of music production with my prerequisite knowledge and a willingness to explore and learn about undertaking artistic research.

Throughout this journey, I've had to meet the requirements outlined in my project description and adhere to my own standards of artistic quality. I have also reflected extensively on my artistic practice and the works of art and my dissemination has been peer reviewed.

Artistic Research, as defined by various art schools in Denmark, provides a foundation for understanding my approach. My institution, RMC, defines Artistic Research as “a multifaceted and diverse field of knowledge fundamentally rooted in artistic experience and insight, carried out by artists. This emphasizes the importance of individual artistic practice as a source of new knowledge about art and society”. Similarly, the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen describes Artistic Research as “a process where artists' investigations through their practice are made accessible to others through documentation and critical reflection”. It is a knowledge-producing activity, where new knowledge is created in the artwork’s materiality and in the technical and theoretical knowledge that underpins it.

These definitions highlight that Artistic Research is artistic practice with reflection on both the process and the outcome. Despite the criticisms my project has faced during presentations, development, and reviews, I maintain that it seems that there is still a conflict between academic research and what constitutes artistic research. My experience is that there are many tacit rules or ‘you should have’ in the expectance of what is a good and thorough artistic research project even though there are criterias established locally at my institution. 

So I hope my work in this project will be evaluated as coming from a researching artist, not as an academic ‘artist’. And I know I make it very difficult for myself, since I work with intangibles as aesthetics, emotions, intuition, meditation... This makes some of the criticism challenging to apply, as it often stems from different research traditions or perspectives not traditionally important in art creation.

A key aspect of my work involves the concept of the unconscious. While central to my work, discussing this concept within an academic framework is challenging due to its deep psychological and subjective implications. My project leans more towards my strengths in artistic practice than academic training, leading me to prioritize artistic practice over academic rigor. 

Every new door this project has opened has presented numerous opportunities for exploration and investigation. This applies to the dissemination of the project as well: there are no limits to what can or should be explained in a given project. Choices made in defining the project’s products, arguments, investigations, and communication will always be subject to critique. Additionally, with limited budgets, I have had to set limits on every element or facet of the research project. While some elements might seem relevant or obvious to dive into, I have chosen to keep the focus on the creation of art itself and reflecting on the process and the results.

As this is my first major project, I acknowledge that I am a novice in the field and am eager to learn. I pay close attention to the questions, considerations, and suggestions for expanding the project and incorporate relevant critique critiques into future projects. Since this research project provides insight to the creative practice and considerations of a music producer in an autoethnographically way, I have considered that it could form a more central approach in future research projects.

A significant perspective I've encountered in the dissemination of the project but also during the process of the project is the lack of focus on the music itself from people ‘far’ from the project. The musical products (my artistic practice) are central to the research project but are hardly addressed. This seems to bypass the most relevant distinction between artistic and academic research. The project’s independent premise and my effort to acquire knowledge during its development receive little attention. As a colleague at RMC says, we must insist that some of the knowledge created in the making of works lives within the works themselves, not outside them.

Inspired by my own and others' practices as music producers, I aimed to explore how types of the music producer's artistic co-ownership are negotiated and expressed in collaborative music-making processes. My interest revolved around how these negotiations of co-ownership occur in collective processes, focusing on the music producer's various roles and tasks, and the underlying arguments and desires/aspirations of those involved.

I hope the project has inspired you and that my work will provide guidance and thoughts on what the field of music production entails.