Beyond Words: A case study in AI-assisted artistic evaluation

An example of using ‘beyond-words’ methods as evaluation in action

After a fruitful end of term reflection session of Music Garden – a 4-year training project funded by Youth Music – Sophie had the idea to use AI to summarise a lengthy audio recording of each person’s talking-with their artwork.

Our recording equipment created a transcript of the sharing part of the session. Sophie used AI to generate a summary of the key findings. Both of us were surprised by the insights produced by the machine.

Five key findings distilled by AI:

1. Gentle, Evolving Mentorship and Collaboration

- The mentoring relationship was described as slow, gentle, and organic, allowing time for mutual understanding and growth.
- Both mentors and mentees developed sensitivity to each other’s needs, learning to balance guidance and autonomy over time.

2. Personal and Professional Growth Through Reflection

- Participants reflected on personal transformation—from initial uncertainty and self-doubt to confidence and agency.
- Imagery such as the octopus, butterfly, and tree symbolised the process of managing multiple roles, growth, and becoming more grounded and capable.

3. Value of Openness, Trust, and Emotional Awareness

- Emotional honesty and shared vulnerability were central to the work.
- Trusting the process and acknowledging different emotional states (both in oneself and colleagues) were seen as essential to creating an authentic and responsive environment.

4. Creative Freedom and the Challenge of Non-Directive Practice

- The lack of strict rules or predefined roles initially created discomfort, especially for those used to structured environments.
- However, this openness fostered creativity, flexibility, and self-discovery—encouraging participants to take ownership of their practice and ideas.

5. The Space as a Living, Interwoven Community

- The group viewed the “Music Garden” as a woven ecosystem—a safe, magical, and nurturing space connecting artists, children, and families.
- Small, fleeting moments of connection (“pearls”) were seen as deeply meaningful, illustrating the subtle power of belonging, care, and shared creation.

Our conclusions on AI’s summary

These five key findings demonstrate the ways in which the ‘training’ aspect of Music Garden is meeting the outcomes set for the project. They show the unique ways that the Magic Acorns approach to training meets the needs of the mentees.

We have learned that the mentee-mentor relationship takes time to achieve mutual understanding and trust necessary to negotiate the guidance-autonomy balance for the relationship and for the mentee to feel the freedom to realise their own creativity and confidence to ‘own’ their practice authentically.

On the use of AI

Working with AI we were able to detach ourselves from the entangled reflective process in which we (Sophie and I) were both contributing artists and to ‘hear’ from an external analyst the key points from the discussion.

This was a helpful additional step that enabled affirmation of the impact that we had identified and ‘sensed’ through the process and was found to be inherent in the transcript and extracted by the detached AI ‘machine’.

Concluding comments

By making together there is a space created for ways of knowing the world that are facilitated by the making process. We consider the artefacts created to be important research-creations to help our understanding of creating and learning with very young children and as a collective of artists.

As well as helping evaluate our projects for our funders, this work in progress is becoming integral as we develop Magic Acorns community of reflective artistic practitioners.

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