an update on A and B

Remember them?

I finally had a chance to talk to B about the project and whether or not there would be any recognition of B’s (extensive, exemplary) work.

Well, as it turns out, my collaborators and I had nothing to worry about.  Evidently B is savvier than we guessed, and has insisted on being given credit!  There is still the weird little problem of how this was originally presented to us by A, but that’s minor compared to making this into a career-builder for B.

Yay for B!

The whole project, with all 11 of us, will be premiered on Friday.  Wish us luck!

(It occurs to me that if anyone involved with electroacoustic music in the Midwest reads this blog, they would now know exactly who I am, or at least what project I’m talking about.  It’s a small world.)

an interesting thing…

I am currently working with several other artists on a large project that will be premiered next month.  It became very clear yesterday that one of the artists (A) has been collaborating with someone else (B) on an aspect of A’s project.  This aspect is something A is interested in but lacks expertise.  B, on the other hand, is very experienced and sure-handed with this kind of work, and produces really lovely things.   A is a professor with some authority over B, who is a graduate student.

This part of the project was finished recently and I got to work with it for the first time yesterday.  It’s got B written all over it in terms of craftsmanship and style, and in fact A hadn’t even seen the finished product before B brought it to our meeting.

What’s interesting is that, to me and to the other people involved with the project, it seems that B should be brought on as an official collaborator (meaning that B will get credit for this work and can use this project as part of a portfolio).  However, there has been no mention of B’s input, either from A, B, or the organization that is funding this project.  I was talking with some of the other collaborators about this, and we are starting to think that we might have to say something to A and/or to the organization, to ensure that B gets credit for this work.  On the other hand, though, no one really knows who did the work but A and B.  There is a lot to be said for just keeping our mouths shut.  We are going to let it play out for a while–but we don’t want to stand by and let B get taken advantage of.