Everything and the Kitchen Sink; or, Towards an Understanding of a Creative Practice, "Codex Symphonia," Metamodernism, and Rhizomic Composition (open access)

Everything and the Kitchen Sink; or, Towards an Understanding of a Creative Practice, "Codex Symphonia," Metamodernism, and Rhizomic Composition

Creativity is not a hierarchical, but an intertextual, rhizomic process, pulling from a vast array of interests, experiences, and influences. These feed into each other, to inform and motivate artists as creating persons in an ongoing process we call the creative act. Anytime an artist sets out to make something, they are experiencing a dynamic yet concentrated moment of energy in the chaotic cloud of creativity. To demonstrate this, I explore several ideas that inform my piece, Codex Symphonia, including musical influences, but also visual art, film, literature, philosophy, social theory, and politics. In this document, I show that the act of creating a musical work is a deeply personal process that relies heavily on the experiences and vast network of influences on the composer. With this document I look to the contextual structure(s) that point to the possibilities that a work might exist. That is to say that the composition Codex Symphonia is a specific result of an extensive network of ideas and influences not coming from a single origin—it is, in fact all of them together at the same time in a metamodernist act of reconciliation.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Reeder, Kory
System: The UNT Digital Library