As I compose less and less of the material I work with in and favour of creating systems for others to devise within, and leave decisions on structure until we meet as a group in the rehearsal room, I realise my colleagues actually know me well and contribute to the work to make it so much greater than the sum of its parts. Together we play, meet as equals and self-organise.

""Creative Acreage"" is a fundamental idea to my research and a name I have given to a means of blurring the lines between composer and performer, thereby questioning the notion of sole authorship. “Creative Acreage” may be the bringing of an idea, a concept, period of working time or space, or opportunity which one (or more) person brings to another person (or more) and invites them to work, play and create within. The originator may establish a starting point, limitations, freedom, control, and responsibility all to varying degrees with the view to making a piece of work together that each member experiences ownership of and approaches as co-creator rather than (simply) performer, adviser, or interpreter. Within this space, I note that people have fun, take control, and feel heard, things that are perhaps not always present in the conventional composer to performer relation.

I will share from my research at Norwegian Academy of Music and projects in various stages of completion with a variety of makers and performers from Music and Theatre as well as from my family. I will outline key advantages that have presented themselves through making work this way and what others may emerge. Through using this process for making the artistic product, maybe new forms will come about in which to present it and new ways to receive it.