The Space Between | Royal Academy of Music

Overview

Researcher: Saurabh Shivakumar

I am investigating how collaboration shapes who we are as artists. Through the process of creating new music with composers and performers, I want to understand what occurs in the space between us, and how our creative relationships have an influence on not just the work we make, but how we see ourselves within it. I am particularly interested in how collaboration reveals questions of authenticity and belonging. When two artists work together, who owns the ideas that emerge? How do we negotiate creative agency? What happens when our artistic voice is entangled with someone else’s?

My creative practice involves work as a composer, performer, improviser and electronic musician. In this project, the guitar will serve as the focal point for my exploration. It forms a site where hybrid identities and liminal spaces are allowed to become something that is more tangible. The aim is to examine three distinct composer-performer partnerships (with me at the centre as both performer and composer), documenting not just the finished work, but the process of making music.

This research treats collaboration as a method for discovering embodied knowledge that might otherwise remain unspoken. Ultimately, I hope to better understand how the relationships that we form fundamentally shape the art we create.