The present study presents a process evaluation of a performance psychology intervention for transitioning elite and elite musicians. The goal of the intervention was to provide participants with an amalgamation of evidence-informed principles, aimed to improve their quality of practice and performance preparation. The intervention consisted of an educational session followed by four workshops. In total, eight transitioning elite and seven elite musicians participated. Process measures included quantitative and qualitative workshop evaluations, monitoring logs, and semi-structured interviews. Overall, the intervention was evaluated positively by the participants. However, differences were present between the groups, with the elite musicians typically evaluating the intervention more favorably compared to the transitioning elites. Specific positive outcomes included an increased awareness and re-examining of current practice strategies, more structured and goal-directed practice, increased practice efficiency and focus, a more proactive approach to performances, and increased attention for the physical aspects of playing. Moreover, a number of contextual considerations and implementation challenges became evident. Important implications for performance psychology interventions and practitioners in music are discussed.
The New Aesthetic and Art: Constellations of the Postdigital is an interdisciplinary analysis focusing on new digital phenomena at the intersections of theory and contemporary art. Asserting the unique character of New Aesthetic objects, Contreras-Koterbay and Mirocha trace the origins of the New Aesthetic in visual arts, design, and software, find its presence resonating in various kinds of digital imagery, and track its agency in everyday effects of the intertwined physical world and the digital realm. Contreras-Koterbay and Mirocha bring to light an original perspective that identifies an autonomous quality in common digital objects and examples of art that are increasingly an important influence for today’s culture and society.Influenced by a diverse range of figures, ranging from Vilém Flusser, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, David Berry, Lev Manovich, Olga Goriunova, Ernst Mayr, Bruce Sterling and, of course, James Bridle, The New Aesthetic and Art: Constellations of the Postdigital doesn’t just propose a description of a new set of objects but radically asserts that New Aesthetic objects analogously function as organisms within a broader digital-physical ecosystems of things and agents.
In many fields within management and organizational literature there is considerable debate and controversy about key theoretical concepts and their definitions and meanings. Systematic metaphor analysis can be a useful approach to study the underlying conceptualizations that give rise to these controversies and putting them in perspective. It can help identify the different ways a theoretical concept is structured and given meaning, provide insight into the way these different conceptualizations relate to each other, and show how these conceptualizations impact further theorization about the concept. This article describes the procedure for a systematic analysis of the metaphors used to conceptualize key theoretical concepts. To examine its usefulness, the authors apply the approach to the field of social capital, and in particular to the concept of ‘relationships’ in organizations. In the metaphor analysis of three seminal articles on social capital, the authors identify seven metaphoric concepts for relationships. The metaphors are illuminated as important for providing imagery that adds specific meaning in the process of authors theorizing about social capital like ‘tie’, ‘path’ and ‘bridge’. They add dynamics and controllability to the concepts by attributing an array of verbs like ‘to move between’ or ‘to use’ relationships. In addition, the metaphors allow for the attribution of specific characteristics to the concept of relationships that can be used as variables in theory construction, such as the strength of a relationship or the ‘distance’ between people. These insights are useful in exploring and reconciling differences in social capital definitions.
