Research Catalogue

Conceived and co-organised by Emma Cocker, Alexander Damianisch, Cordula Daus and Lena Séraphin, this Society of Artistic Research Special Interest Group (SAR SIG) provides contexts for coming together via the exchange of language-based research. The intent is to support developments in the field of expanded language-based practices by inviting attention, time and space for enabling understanding of/and via these practices anew.

Documentation of preliminary steps and collection of musical material and related reflections during the first Term of the Master's Program in Improvisation and World Music. December 2022

The project 'Breaking Circles' is matriculated in the field of social design - an area within the design field that has renewed itself in recent years. Social design is user oriented towards vulnerable and exposed groups within society. Serving a sentence in prison is often associated with a range of penalties. Norway has only one penalty; denial of freedom. The inmates have the same rights as the rest of society, and are supposed to take part of it. The Norwegian Correctional Service’s unofficial slogan reads: ‘better out, than in’ meaning that rehabilitation overcomes penalty. The inmates have both the right and a duty to work, getting educated or attending amendment programs. The goal of their work is to qualify for working life after prison. Having to go to prison will without a doubt be a personal crisis for anyone, and can lead to loss of jobs, housing, personal economy and social network. Inmates could benefit from building professional networks to avoid seeking out old acquaintances in criminal networks after prison, heading into criminal relapse. Having worked with design projects in the western region of the Norwegian Correctional Service, I have seen the vast areas and systems within prisons and the service that are untouched by design strategy. Design has considerable potential to help inmates benefit from their surrounding systems, both within prison and outside. I aim to use social design to ease inmate’s transitions to becoming potential employees through their work within prison. To be able to do that, there are several problem areas to address: the content of inmate’s work in prison, inmate’s tools of sentence progress, barriers between prison and society and the lack of established professional networks to prevent criminal networks taking over after serving. Using graphic design and visual communication in social design can contribute to a dawning interest in design and creative practice to prevent recidivistic crime and social marginalization. Breaking Circles is a project with a strong emphasis on design experiments through field work in a real-life context: prison.

Throughout the history of China, from early dynasties into contemporary times, aspects of poetry, painting, and writing have been grounded in varied but deeply connected ‘rules of rhythm’. These ‘rules’ permeate in diverse yet identifiable and recognizable forms. The research in this project is aimed at both adopting and adapting these rules of rhythm or rhythmic patterns in an experimental form that reimagines a tradition of ‘lyric aesthetics’ in the context of the contemporary interplay between sound, image, and writing. In this sense, the investigation is at once one of ‘reclamation’ and extension. The basic ‘question’ in these experiments is whether it is possible to represent sonic patterns themselves — that is, by both visualizing sound structures and ‘sonifying’ visual forms (irrespective of textual content). The text focuses on the historical establishment of methodological approaches (as a way to identify their forms) and then transforming/translating these in combinations made possible by blending the sonic and visual. As a particular attribute of Chinese expression, these ‘rules’ or forms are cultural traits that have endured through many centuries and challenges and, more importantly in this case, can be (re)iterated in dynamic, fluid, and revitalized contemporary artistic configurations that aim at seeing sound, writing sound, and performing rhythm. Download Accessible PDF

Tutustuminen koillisen Siperian alkuperäiskansojen musiikkiin on ollut koko musiikillisen ajatteluni käännekohta. Se ei ole ainoastaan vaikuttanut kuulemiseeni vaan myös kyseenalaistanut ymmärrystäni musiikista. Muutos ajattelussani alkoi kenttämatkoilla koilliseen Siperiaan, Sahaliniin, Kamtšatkaan ja Tšukotkaan vuosina 2004–2019, jolloin tutustuin paleosiperialaisten alkuperäiskansojen lauluperinteeseen, musiikkiin, jollaista en koskaan aikaisemmin ollut kuullut, mutta joka outoudestaan huolimatta lumosi minut. Mielenkiintoni herätti erityisesti tšuktšien henkilölaulu, joka kuuluu arktisten alkuperäiskansojen kulttuuriperinteeseen. Siinä musiikki ei ole vain ihmisen aikaansaama tuotos vaan osa hänen identiteettiään. Tohtorintutkintoni Kuulokulmia koillisen Siperian alkuperäiskansojen musiikkiin koostuu viidestä taiteellisesta osiosta ja kirjallisesta osiosta. Kirjallinen osio Kuulokulmia tšuktšien henkilölauluun – Säveltämällä kuuleminen taiteellisen tutkimuksen menetelmänä on musiikillinen tutkimusmatka tšuktšien henkilölauluun. Taiteellisen tutkimukseni peruskysymyksenä on, mikä tässä musiikissa koskettaa minua niin voimakkaasti, etten voi sitä sivuuttaa. Kuulokulmat tutkimukseni otsikossa eivät merkitse vain kuuntelemista, vaan häilyväisen ja usein hyvin ristiriitaisen kuulemisen ja musiikin tekemisen vuorovaikutuksessa syntyvää ymmärrystä. Kuulokulmat on tutkimusprosessi, jossa säveltäminen on toiminut tutkimukseni menetelmänä. Sen avulla olen taiteellisia osioita työstäessäni pyrkinyt ymmärtämään, kuinka tšuktšien musiikki käyttäytyy. Taiteellinen tutkimukseni on kuin kalastusretki. Viitekehys on kalaverkkoni, jonka punoslankana on muusikon hiljainen, kokemuksellinen tieto. Siitä on kudottu verkon solmut: kenttämatkojen kokemukset ja kohtaamiset tšuktšien kanssa. Näihin yhdistyvät aiempi etnomusikologinen tutkimus, fenomenologia, musiikin perusolemuksen filosofia ja luonnon äänimaailma. Tutkimus jakaantuu kolmeen osaan. Ensimmäisessä osassa tutustutaan tšuktšeihin ja heidän kulttuuriinsa, josta he itse kertovat äänitettyjen keskustelujen ja matkapäiväkirjojen muistiinpanojen välityksellä. Toinen osa keskittyy tšuktšien laulukulttuurin ominaispiirteisiin, joka ovat avautuneet kuuntelemisen, muistiinkirjoittamisen ja musiikin tekemisen kautta. Esittelen niitä runsaan 30 nuotinnoksen ja niihin liitettyjen äänitysten avulla. Kolmas osa kertoo säveltämällä kuulemisen prosessista työstäessäni taiteellisia osioita Ulitan kävely, Ääni vastaa ääneen, Musiikin virta, Henkilölaulua etsimässä ja Polar Voices. Jupik-vanhimman Asikongaun laulun sanoin olen usein ihmetellyt: Kuinka saan kalan vedettyä ylös vedestä? Saaliiksi on tullut paljon kaloja, joita monet muut jo ennen minua ovat kalastaneet. Mutta myös muutama uusi kala on tarttunut verkkoon. Niitä ovat horisontaalinen harmonia, sattumanvaraisuus ja hiljaisuus musiikkina, tai kun ihminen on musiikin kanssa kahden. Ne ovat uusia kuulokulmia siihen, mitä musiikki minulle on. Getting to know the music of the indigenous people of north-eastern Siberia has been a turning point in my perception of music. It has not only influenced my hearing but has also made me question my understanding of what music is. The change in my thought process began with the fieldtrips that I carried out in north-eastern Siberia, specifically in Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Chukotka between 2004–2019, when I became acquainted with the musical traditions of the Paleo-Siberian indigenous peoples. Never before had I encountered music like this, yet despite its strangeness it enchanted me. My interest was particularly awakened by the Chukchi Personal Song, which belongs to the cultural traditions of the indigenous people of the Arctic. Music is not just an outcome of human activity but is part of their identity. My Doctoral degree, Aspects of hearing the music of north-eastern Siberia consists of five artistic components as well as a thesis. The thesis, Aspects of hearing the Chukchi Personal Song – Hearing through composing as an artistic research method is a musical expedition into the Chukchi Personal Song. The question at the root of my artistic research is: What in this music touches me so strongly that I cannot pass over it? The title of my research – Aspects of hearing – does not only mean listening, but rather the understanding created by the interaction of ambiguous and often contradictory hearing and music making. Aspects of hearing is a research process in which composing is used as a research method. Through composing I have tried to understand how the music of the Chukchi behaves. I would compare my artistic research to a fishing trip. The theoretical framework is my fishing net, which has been woven from the thread the tacit knowledge and the experience of a musician. From this fibre the knots of the fishing net have been woven. These are my experiences from field trips when I lived with the Chukchi and from earlier ethnomusicological research, phenomenology, the philosophy of the essence of music and the soundscape of nature. The thesis is divided into three parts: Part one introduces the Chukchi and their culture, as they speak themselves in recorded conversations and through the notes in my travel diaries. The second part concentrates on the characteristics of the Chukchi singing tradition that have revealed themselves through my listening, notation and composing. These have been presented by over 30 notations and their attached recordings. The third part concentrates on the process of hearing as I composed the artistic components: Ulita’s Walk, Sound answers Voice, The Flow of Music, Seeking the Personal Song and Polar Voices. In the words of the song of the Yupik Elder, Asikongaun, I have often wondered “how to pull the fish out of water”. I have caught a lot of fish, which are the same species that many fishermen before me caught. However, there are also new fish that have been have caught in my net, such as horizontal harmony, music that one hears randomly or in silence, or indeed when a human being is alone with music. These are the new aspects of hearing which reveal what music is for me.

This artistic research exposition unfolds the shared work between Australian composer Liza Lim and Swedish violinist Karin Hellqvist, from the viewpoint of Hellqvist as performer and co-creator. Together, the artists have created the violin solo work One and the Other (Speculative Polskas for Karin) (2021–22). The Swedish folk music tradition that Hellqvist has carried with her since her childhood, and especially the polska dance, serves as their point of departure. This tradition resides in Hellqvist’s body and performance practice as embodied knowledge – a term introduced by Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1962), and it becomes their main path of research. A central concept in the reflections is the ‘artistic palette’ – a concept created by Hellqvist to conceptualise the skills and abilities used in creative work. Hellqvist’s embodied knowledge connected to the tradition is woven into the work through explorations of elements as the specific pulse of the polska and its ornamentation. Furthermore, those embodied skills are explored as decoupled in the third movement, capturing indeterminate aspects. The main question addressed is how the embodied knowledge of Hellqvist’s artistic palette serves as resource and inspiration in the shared process and how it affects the ontology of One and the Other (Speculative Polskas for Karin). Topics of distributed creativity, shared work as mycelial structure, instrument-building, ownership, and temporal ecology are being unpacked in the light of the artistic palette. The artistic research exposition unfolds a compositional process whereby the performer is participating actively, thus problematising the view of where creativity may be located in compositional work. It comprises written reflections, audio examples, pictures, and video material from the creative process as well as a video of the whole work. The research context comprises historical and aesthetic perspectives, as well as recent research on performer creativity and embodiment. Download Accessible PDF