Semi structured interviews or recall sessions were conducted with fourteen individuals as a part of the research data gathering. These people had either participated in other video recorded observation activities or had been involved in significant creative activities with me in the recent past. The included Mary, a long time musical collaborator, Allan, Eric and Anne, former music technology students who had also worked with me on professional projects outside the university setting, members of Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, Mark and Kat, with whom I had worked extensively on several productions and who use my music in their own theatre practice, and five students from my classes, who were working with me on non-assessed projects.

Not all these interactions were able to be recorded, and indeed some of the the most valuable in terms of content were quite informal in nature, resulting in a few sentences "plugged in" to this document. In all cases, the informants had previously been initiated into the informed consent process and were fully aware that their insights and observations were being sought for the purposes of the research. The social and cultural context of these interviews or discussions varied but I tried to ensure that in each case the setting for the discussion was similar to where our working collaboration took place. This helped to reflect the rapport that the reflection required and enabled a recursive questioning model that was conversational rather than interrogative (Minichiello, Arani, Timewell, & Alexander, 1995).

These interviews served a number of purposes. In two cases, they provided an opportunity for stimulated recall (Heath & Hindmarsh, 2002; King & Tuckwell, 1983), where I was able to view and discuss a situation that had arisen in a previous recording¹. The interviews with collaborators allowed discussion and specific questions about working methods and interactions, where shared experiences could be referenced from memory. While the mode of analysis differed, with some providing empirical data for later objective analysis, all the interviews also gave an opportunity for observing verbal and non-verbal communication styles, if only because I was hyper-vigilant about these factors in the course of the interaction. The observations gleaned from these interviews have been vital in forming the insights around interactions in social and musical situations, and are referred to in numerous posts throughout the Insights section of the dissertation.

1. see Watch Yourself, and Eric and Emma [?]

Related Posts

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2. Self Observation: A brief explanation of the position of SSO within the methodology
3. Recruiting: Apart from finding suitable participants for surveys, interviews and the like, recruiting participants takes on new meaning when writing about one's self, as there are those who are implicated by association.
4. Video Complexities: People are much more complex than I thought possible.
5. Expectations and Understanding: Communication can sometimes be easier if neither party expects it to be easy.
6. The method - overview: An overview of the methodology including a short animation explaining the major methods employed and their relationships.
7. Rationale: The Rationale deals with the specific questions and sub-questions addressed by the research, as well as outlining the expected benefits to interested parties.