Umberto Eco’s notions of the ‘open work’ and the ‘field of possibilities’: New perspectives on music therapy and co-creation?

Abstract

Umberto Eco’s ideas and philosophy have proven to be a profound inspiration to the research team dedicated to the recently completed qualitative interdisciplinary research project ‘RHYME: rhythm & rhyme; co-creation through tangible interaction’, in which both of the present authors participated. The idea of RHYME is that ordinary objects in the home environment – a pillow, carpet or toy, for example – if they should become both musical and interactive, might afford meaningful, joyful and even health-promoting moments of co-creation in the everyday lives of families with a child with disabilities. This article develops the central RHYME notion of co-creation further by introducing it to music therapy. From our experiences with interactive and musical media from RHYME, and inspired by Eco and his notions of ‘open works’ and ‘fields of possibilities’, we have developed an understanding of music therapy as a configuration of possible events or interactive structural forces. Music, then, becomes one of many possible media in music therapy. Through a reflective synthesis which also includes the discussion of empirical RHYME data, we will address the following research question: Can Eco’s notions contribute something new to our understanding of co-creation in music therapy, and, if so, what and how?