A PHENOMENOLOGICAL CASE STUDY OF COMPUTER-BASED MUSICAL CREATIVITIES

This thesis offers a phenomenologically framed exploration of “computer-mediated” (Duignan, 2010) musical "creativities” (Burnard, 2012) and draws upon established creativity models to inform the development of a creativity framework that speaks specifically to the domain of computer-mediated musical practice. It is important to understand that the framework itself is not the focus of this thesis; rather, the aim of this thesis is to disclose transparently a method for developing a personalised understanding of my computer-mediated musical creativities as a template for other practitioners.

Drawing from contemporary literature on creativity from a sociocultural perspective (Amabile, 1996), this study implements a phenomenological (Van Mannen, 2007) approach in order to capture a detailed impression of how my creativity is informed by concrete (computers, technology) and conceptual (socio-cultural background, cognitive processes) contextual resources. More specifically, this research focuses on “little c” (Craft, 2000) creativity, the skills possessed by all individuals as evidenced in learning and development literature (Craft, 2000; Arvaja, 2007; Burnard & Younker, 2010).

This thesis offers a longitudinal case study of the sociological contexts of computer-mediated music creativities by focusing on myself as a subject for this work. Various types of data collection were collected, including: comprehensive written protocol (note-taking), audio excerpts of deconstructed musical materials; and audiovisual screen-capture of real-time creative practices. The creativity stages outlined by Sawyer in Explaining Creativity (2012) and Zig Zag (2013) were used as data sets for template analysis (King, 1998). Data that met these criteria were analysed and represented through structural mapping and analysis of the musical product, methods drawn from Collins (2005).

The findings demonstrate that the chronology and direction of my creative focus between stages is intuitive and context dependent. It was also found that the influence of concrete and conceptual resources can be observed and understood through metacognitive investigation. This guided the development of a framework for the understanding of my computer-mediated musical creativity. This thesis encourages digitally informed musicians to think critically about their own creativity and guides the exploration of sociocultural context as a mediating resource and inspiration.