Moraitis, E
2019,
Symbiotic synergies : adaptive framework for polydisciplinary collaboration in performance practice
, PhD thesis, University of Salford.
Abstract
What are the implications of collaboration between practitioners of distinct creative disciplines, and what approaches can enhance such engagements? This inquiry is investigated through Practice Research with project-based and iterative methodology aiming towards developing a novel framework for organising collaborative environments.
Presented here is the thesis that investigates modes of interaction between disciplines and practitioners in collaborative projects. They are nested under the rubric of polydisciplinarity, with a particular focus on the interaction between sound and movement through consumer digital tools. The conceptual basis of this investigation, distinguishing its contribution to thinking and making in its creative field, is informed by symbiosis, a phenomenon describing close and persistent relationships between organisms of different species, where the organisms establish a means to overcome the limitations posed by their environment through augmenting their biological traits. This research contends that symbiotic traits can be identified within practices between practitioners of distinct disciplines, and interprets these into a set of strategies and precepts that can facilitate effective synergies between collaborators. The practice conducted as part of this research concerns collaborations between the author’s sonic arts approaches and practitioners using physical movement as their predominant expressive medium. The knowledge borne out of this practice, as well as existing models of interaction between disciplines and practitioners, are investigated through a conceptual debate with knowledge acquired from the field of biology.
The research contributions combine practice and theory; the body of practice concerns performance works created as part of the collaborators’ professional engagements, as well as a number of studio-based experiments testing and activating the theoretical underpinnings, concentrating on an adaptive approach in collaboration. Then these collaborative engagements and experiments lend pathways to findings, a theoretically describable set of efficient and distinctive modes of collaboration. The practice-led contribution focuses on a framework for collaborative engagement, arranged in respect to the three types of symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Identifying distinct modes of hierarchy, stages in process, and direction of active influence between practitioners and expressive medium, the framework posits an adaptive approach in collaborative engagement, with the potential to facilitate collaborations within the wider field of performance practice.
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