In Search of the Artistic Moment: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and “The Space Between” from an Australian Female Composer’s Perspective

The Artistic Moment is a state of being that goes beyond time and personality in creative practice. It is the liminal space where an artist loses their sense of separateness and becomes one with their collaborators. It is the moment where the conditions allow optimum creativity in collaboration, and provide a meeting point; where all the elements come together to bring about a transformative experience. Listening, respect and trust are the vital pre-requisites. The threads of this artistic cogency are based in a colourful organicism that is beyond the rulebook of any pre-determined theoretical constructs. They are radical spontaneous impulses, which can become manifest in a quickening of artistically dangerous moments, such as the practice of improvisation where there is no safety net—only an ongoing vigilance to the revelatory moment of here and now, honouring the intangible connections between collaborators, which I consider to be the source of a sacred potency. In many ways, the experience of the Artistic Moment goes beyond words—and in order to articulate it and attempt to unpack its nuances, I have come to view it through the Japanese concept of Ma or “the space between.”