MDPE.12:2 - Solution
Use an observation-and-comparison unfolding. It is a teaching order for obtaining the result, not a level stack and not a claim that all witnesses operate sequentially. Several observations can be made at once; cultural observations can require later Work and longer time spans.
MDPE.12:2.1 - Start from the decision and the claim
State:
- the creation, performance, capability, production, receiving-use, teaching, practice-development, continuation, or forecast decision;
- the Agent who will use the result and the authority or permission boundary when it matters;
- the subject and the claim to be observed;
- an alternative observation that could change the next move;
- the time span and evidence cost justified by the decision; and
- the point at which more observation is unlikely to change it.
If no plausible observation can change the decision, state that fact and return to the decision frame.
MDPE.12:2.2 - Separate the subject, indication, and judgement
The subject is what exists or happens in the world: a performance occurrence, artifact, movement relation, rhythmic structure, performer capability, partner interaction, recognition response, transmission event, or continuing practice relation.
An indication is something used as evidence: a detected onset, force trace, coded movement, report, count, recording, review, or archive record. The indication is not automatically the characteristic inferred from it.
A judgement says what the observations mean for the current decision. Name the practitioner or other capable Agent making that judgement.
Examples of observation families include:
| Observation family | What it can support | What it does not establish alone |
|---|---|---|
| technical indication | timing, pitch, kinematics, contact, latency, code state, or another bounded characteristic under stated conditions | performer experience, partner meaning, artistic value, recognition, or uptake |
| performer report or behaviour | control, effort, attention, fluency, comfort, surprise, or expression for this task and configuration | transfer to other contexts or audience response |
| partner or participant response | readability, timing, connection, consent, safety, or engagement for these participants and conditions | whole-population recognition or stylistic legitimacy |
| practitioner judgement | an interpretation by a capable musician, dancer, teacher, judge, curator, or historian for one use | authority over every affected participant or evidence of prevalence |
| recognition observation | discrimination or identification by a named population in a stated task | selection, adoption, value, causal effect, or retention |
| cultural observation | transmission, copying, teaching, event use, amplification, persistence, transformation, or loss in a named practice and period | project authority, universal prevalence, or intervention effect |
The rows are kinds of observation, not levels of one stack and not mandatory steps.
MDPE.12:2.3 - Choose capable observers, instruments, and direct Methods
For each claim, ask:
- Who or what can access the relevant phenomenon?
- Which capability is needed to discriminate it?
- Which direct Method preserves the timing, embodiment, interaction, medium, population, or historical relation on which the claim depends?
- Is the observer also performer, teacher, judge, organiser, affected participant, platform operator, or practice-developing Agent, and does that position change interpretation?
- What report, trace, coding guide, instrument, corpus, interview, comparison task, or field procedure returns the observation?
Use ordinary useful names: listener, dancer, partner, teacher, judge, coder, researcher, sensor, or inference
software. Use SystemRole terminology only when classification or assignment changes the claim.
MDPE.12:2.4 - Choose a representation that preserves the needed structure
Representations support different operations and hide different relations:
| Representation | Useful for | Frequent blind spot |
|---|---|---|
| audio or acoustic features | timing, pitch, timbre, onset, balance, alignment | movement, effort, partner relation, experienced meaning |
| video or movement coding | path, geometry, visible articulation, coordination | pressure, proprioception, attention, some contact and effort |
| motion or force sensing | kinematics, contact, force, timing, repeatability | artistic interpretation without an argued bridge |
| notation, choreography description, or code | declared structure and version comparison | what performers enacted and participants encountered |
| interview, report, rating, or commentary | experienced meaning, control, judgement, recognition, reasons | recall, framing, demand, competence, and population limits |
| corpus, event record, platform count, or archive | availability, distribution, recurrence, and lineage clues | actual use, recognition, selection, value, and undocumented practice |
A rhythm is not its notation, onset list, interval vector, or geometric diagram. Those are representations of selected rhythmic structure. Use inter-onset intervals when the relevant event has a suitable onset and the operation needs intervals; they do not by definition capture brush continuity, weight arrival, partner-readable pressure, or every other rhythmic carrier.
State the performer configuration, task, venue or medium, comparator, population, period, and access condition whenever changing one could change the observation.
MDPE.12:2.5 - Obtain observations before interpreting them
Preserve enough provenance to answer:
- what was observed;
- by whom or by which instrument;
- through which Method and representation;
- under which conditions and time span;
- what direct indication or report was returned; and
- what source or artifact lets another practitioner revisit it.
Record practitioner interpretation separately. A teacher can say that a movement became more readable, but the supporting partner reports, video, comparison conditions, and competence should remain recoverable when the claim matters.
MDPE.12:2.6 - Compare without inventing one universal score
Combine values directly only when the comparison relation is meaningful. Timing error can be compared across trials under one definition. Partner readability, performer effort, safety, novelty, access, and cultural value usually require several criteria, a trade-off, or a veto rather than one average.
Keep differences that change action visible. Examples:
- audible onset, weight arrival, perceived beat location, and partner-readable pressure can disagree;
- a movement can be feasible for one body or prosthesis and unavailable to another;
- experts and new social dancers can recognize different distinctions;
- platform visibility and practitioner reproduction can move in opposite directions; and
- rhythm can persist while melody, movement, medium, teaching, or social meaning changes.
MDPE.12:2.7 - State the result’s epistemic status
State what supports each claim and how it was obtained. These descriptions can apply together: a bounded study, for example, can combine direct observations with practitioner judgements.
- direct observation — a person or instrument recorded the stated indication under named conditions;
- practitioner judgement — an identified capable practitioner interpreted observations for one use;
- bounded study result — a study supports the claim for its population, task, Method, and period;
- expert estimate — the best available informed estimate when stronger evidence is not readily obtainable;
- open hypothesis — a useful explanation to test through observations that could count against it;
- unsupported claim — a required subject, observer, Method, representation, population, or source is absent.
An open hypothesis can guide a cheap, reversible probe. For costly, irreversible, potentially harmful or
population-wide action, compare what attainable further evidence could change with its cost and delay
(C.11.DUA). Consider a smaller step, narrower use or stop when uncertainty makes the proposed action
unacceptable. Applicable authority and binding conditions still govern the action.
MDPE.12:2.8 - Return the comparison, not the later choice
Return the decision and claim, subjects, conditions, observers or instruments, direct Methods, representations, observations, separate judgements, comparison, uncertainty, missing evidence, non-use boundary, and update condition. Use the result in the pattern or direct Method for the next decision. The comparison supplies grounds for that choice; authorization to act remains separate.