Arts for infancy: searching for new tools to study new topics of research

In the last years there has been an increase of interest on music and arts for infancy. In Portugal (and probably in Europa, too) the amount of artistic and musical productions addressed to the youngers has dramatically increased after Edwin Gordon’s music learning theory begun to be disseminated in the country. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies concerning music for infancy which data have been collected in ecological contexts such as artistic performances and music participation events.
In this lecture we will demonstrate how “Afinação do Olhar” (a set of video excerpts collected during artistic performances addressed to babies and their families available online through GerminArte project) can provide new insights on infants’ psychology, music acquisition and on social dynamics concerning arts attendance. We will raise research questions on the topic of arts for infancy arguing that new topics of research require new methodological approaches.