I notice that I am getting caught in the linear trap of Oost's way of asking questions today. The topic area's, theories, and facts bit is difficult to answer without a systemic way of connecting the different angels on my research. In addition, without a clear picture of what I want to do, or achieve, it seems likely that exploring theories will slowly drag me too far form target.

So I switch to aphoristic mode now, and will return to Oost later.

Now what do I mean by aphoristic mode? It is a mode of play and freedom, of beauty and of improvisation. Making this decision, and running through the woods with the dog, made the following thoughts emerge:

What will I DO in the research? How can I capture the core business of the dissertation in as little words as possible?

How does the inspiring story of Kind of Blue translate into the dissertation? How does it translate into the committee jam session in January? What would a committee meeting based on the design of Kind of Blue look like?

Might my concept paper, at the stage of the first committee jam session still be sketches of themes that we will improvise upon? In the Kind of Blue recording session for example, the first take was of Freddie Freeloader. This song ended up as the second tune of the album. It was taken first because it is a typical warm up theme for jazz musicians without too much complexity. The other Kind of Blue songs were complexer and were therefore recorded later.

How does a PhD dissertation jazz jam session start? What do scholar use to warm up?

And who plays what instrument in a dissertation committee meeting?

These are some of the questions which I will work on in the next few wiki pages.