Re: [microsound] humorous beasts

[David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/4/06, Xdugef <info@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> --- David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I guess the issue I see with these types of projects is that
> democratizing a creative process to me generally waters down any good
> idea. But maybe that's because I have seen that happen in too many
> "commercial" projects with decisions being made by people who are
> anything but creative.
>
> Another issue is subverting ego and not letting one person dominate the
> collaboration. One possible aproach would be to assign roles and then
> alternate who does what until everyone has performed in each role.

These are very real issues, and learning to negotiate such problems is
precisely what makes this kind of artistic work truly "political" -
not in the artistic content, but in the manner of production itself.

However, I will say this - acoustic musicians who form ensembles,
necessarily have to deal with these types of issues all the timee. My
confidence that collaboration is possible, comes from my experience I
having worked in several groups, both successful and unsuccessful. It
is certainly true, that many collaborations fail, though hopefully
this also can provide important lessons.

Working in a group doesn't necessarily "water down" ideas, but it is
important that each group member work from their area of strength, and
that work is divided in a rational way according to the abilities of
group members. From my view, it's okay and even necessary for a person
to "dominate" (maybe a loaded choice of words) if they have a
particular area of expertise that others lack; but this should be
balanced by the ability of the group to provide input and take charge
of matters in other areas. Most importantly, group members have to be
able to share a common vision, or projects are doomed to failure from
the start.

~David

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