‘The 3 spheres’ is a dynamic model and a theory for a better understanding of the individual musicianship and artists life in general. What it is built upon and how it evolves over time and changing circumstances.
The 3 spheres are: The Work Field. Life Circumstances. Artistic Drive.
The Work Field contains factors like: What is the job market like? How are the structures? What can you make money doing? How do you do that? What are the institutions? What is the non-institutional part of the work field?
Life Circumstances contains factors like: The family situation. Ones’ Wider family. Health. Financial background. Financial needs. Geographical situation.
Artistic Drivewould by some be considered the non-logical sphere or rather: it has it’s own logic. Relevant questions are: What do you need to work with? What tickles your interest? In what ways do you need to express yourself?
Each of the spheres can and will expand and retract several times during a lifetime. That means, that at certain times they will each take more or less time and more or less effort.
All of them will also increase and decrease in intensity. Intensity means How important are they and considers the emotional energy they take.
The spheres will overlap in different ways. Overlaps mean, that there is a coherence between them, they are easy to combine. At other times there is no coherence, they are 3 separate spheres, or maybe only two of them overlaps and the third seems distant. The desired overlap is different for each individual and over a lifetime.
At times it makes good sense that everything comes together. At other times and for other individuals it would be better to separate your spheres. The question is How much you want your personal life to be part of your professional life? You can also use your insight to consider How you can make a stronger overlap between your artistic drive and the way you are situated in the work field (that is: how you make your money.)
Part of learning to use the model of the three spheres is to discover them.What do they each contain? Now. In the next 5 years. This will help you understand how to navigate the opportunities and challenges that they present.
Sometimes Radical change happens. That is when the contents of a sphere change radically within a very short span of time.
In the Work Fieldwe saw this happen with the Covid19 situation.
In Life Circumstances radical change can be caused by for instance family situations, childbirth or illness.
In the sphere of Artistic Drive it is usually a slower transformation unless it is caused by sudden change in one of the other spheres. One might however experience a sudden lack of meaning if the two other spheres have changed radically.
The Essence of the model is that The 3 spheres must all be considered in the artist’s life and that the dynamics between them are important and that it is essential be able to navigate the spheres and the dynamics between them.
©Christina Holm Dahl, 2020