Research Catalogue

Joining the Forces - Methodologies of Sustainable Transcultural Artistic Research Johannes Kretz (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) Today, many traditional musical practices are threatened with imminent extinction for various reasons, such as the loss of (indigenous) languages, or the pressure coming from an imbalance of power vis-à-vis a more or less globalized music industry. Even contemporary academic composition can be counted among the endangered traditions, even if it is still somehow "artificially kept alive" to varying degrees in different countries. Therefore, the idea of joining the forces of creativity could be meaningful, to support the solidarity between (artistic) minorities in the widest sense, to gain importance in a world of strongly commercialized cultural life, and to redefine aesthetic and social categories. Since 2007 through various projects and initiatives new formats of transcultural artistic research have been developed at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna by Johannes Kretz, Wei-Ya Lin and Hande Sağlam. The collaboration between members of the indigenous community of the Tao on Lanyu island, Taiwan and composers, musicians and ethnomusicologists from Austria within the project “creative (mis)understandings” developed new transcultural approaches of inspiration (seen as mutually appreciated intentional and reciprocal artistic influence based on solidarity). “Confusing Inspiration” is a teaching format, confronting students of composition and improvising instrumentalists with places, communities and music practices outside of their comfort zone to widen the perspective of their artistic and intellectual concepts and to establish forms of understanding and collaboration. The underlying concepts of both projects aim to encourage communities to engage in unexpected alliances. Beyond that – with regard to sustainability – one has to ask, whether some impulses of this collaborations will continue and propagate in the respective communities. And: can these concepts of transcultural artistic research be extended to a making-with and becoming- with (in the sense of Donna Haraway), which can include – in a similarly mindful and respectful reciprocal way – not only humans from – very – different communities, but also non-humans? In times where climate change and environmental destruction are obvious threats to everybody on this planet, can (local) knowledge holders of indigenous and non-indigenous communities together with artists and researchers contribute sustainable approaches by questioning the demarcation between culture and nature?

This project combines artistic and anthropological research on spontaneous gardening in open public space, predominantly in Brno, CZ. The team, mostly comprising recent graduates and graduate students of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Brno University of Technology, chose gardens and plantings which were, in most cases, rather exceptional. Unlike most typical front gardens, the ones in this study are somehow peculiar, due to their location, their composition and planting schemes, their scale, or methods of those who garden there. The anthropologists on the team analyzed a Facebook group dedicated to street gardening and conducted several interviews, while the artistic team responded to particular places with which they interacted. Some results of this research have been presented to the public in the form of an application comprising an audioguide and an interactive map; this exposition in the Journal of Artistic Research documents some of these findings. The team Barbora Lungová is a visual artist and has taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology since 2007. Her field of practice is painting and art projects focusing on plants, gardening, and queerness. She is the coordinator of the Partisans with a Hoe project. Lucia Bergamaschi is a visual artist working across the media of photography, sound, and installation. She earned an MA in Fine Art at Università Iuav di Venezia and an MA in Law at Università di Bologna. She is currently finishing her MA studies at the FFA BUT. Nela Maruškevičová combines painting, installations, and glass in her artistic practice. She is a 2023 graduate of the FFA BUT. Kateřina Konvalinová is a visual artist interested in the overlapping spaces of art, communal life, farming, and ritual. She earned her MA in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and is currently a doctoral student at the FFA BUT. Iva Balcaříková is a graphic designer and a member of the team behind the curated audio walks created by Galerie Art in Brno. She is currently finishing her MA studies at the FFA BUT. Hana Drštičková is a visual artist and a social anthropologist interested in environmental and queer topics. She graduated with an MA in Fine Arts from the FFA BUT in 2022 and with a BA in social anthropology from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Masaryk University and is currently a doctoral student at the Gender Studies Department of Charles University in Prague. Anastasia Blokhina is a social anthropologist who graduated with an MA tfrom the Faculty of Social Sciences of Masaryk University in 2022. Polyna Davydenko is a photographer and a video artist who documents social and environmental issues in her work, most recently those connected with the war in Ukraine. Filip Dušek is a media artist who studied at the Department of Photography at the FFA BUT. The project was conducted under the Specific Research FaVU-S-23-8441 Program.

The aim of this artistic research project is to create an illustrated VR documentary experience that narrates the story of a time witness from the second world war in Bodø, Norway. The project explores questions concerning visual storytelling and ethics in the encounter between the VR-audience, interviewed subjects and the audiovisual spatial design. Artistic and qualitative research methods have been employed to explore how different visual modes and contexts alter the experience of narrator(Time witness) and narrative in a media format characterized by its ability to place the viewer in a state of immersion, intimacy, and a sense of presence. Theoretically, this study is situated in an artistic landscape connected to media theory, journalism, ethics and visual communication. Concepts such as media witness ethics, with the so-called risk of improper distance and considerations around the term distant others, are relevant for the reflection associated with the project.

Music has always been a crucial element in films. In fact, a scene can have absolutely different meanings depending on the music. In this research project I tried to investigate to what extent these differences rely on the use of musical parameters such as instrumentation/timbre, melody, harmony, rhythm and tempo among others. I focused on 4 different emotions: Tension, Sadness, Rejoice and Nostalgia. The goal was to find out how these parameters can be used in order to maximise the depiction of the specific emotion being portrayed in each scene. The main source of information was the analysis of cues from various movies portraying different emotions in combination with interviews with film composers, some of them being the authors of the analysed films. All this led to the composition of new cues putting into practice what I learned. As a result, there are findings that suggest that to maximise the depiction of these different emotions the most important musical parameters to manipulate are tempo, harmony and instrumentation. As a research outcome, I composed music for cues for films such as Blood Diamond (2006), Luna de Avellaneda (2004) and Big Fish (2003).

During the past decade, there has been a surge in the literature about crossmodal correspondences, consistent associations our minds establish between stimuli that are perceived through different senses. Correspondences between sound/music and flavour/taste have received particular scholarly attention, which has lead to a variety of practical applications in the form of food and music pairings, mostly examples of so-called ‘sonic seasoning’, a way to use sound to enhance or modify the tasting experience. This thesis aims to explore the pairing of food and music from an artistic perspective. Its goal is to find tools that would allow to present both music and food as components of coherent live performances in which neither of them is a mere ‘seasoning’ to the other. Through the description and exploration of different ‘mediating elements’ between them (such as crossmodal correspondences, but also structure, ritual, narrative, and others), a wide range of possibilities is presented to whoever wants to match food and music in a truly synergistic manner. Readers interested in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary artistic practices of any kind might find the outcomes of this research useful for their own work.

The Archeologist’s Gaze presents and reflects on a project on the restoration of ancient tapestries, following the award of a research grant to TAMAT (Museum of Tapestry and Textile Arts, Tournai, Belgium) in 2020-2021. After immersing herself in the museum's restoration workshop, looking for images, words, materials and gestures, Paternostre turned her attention to the reverse side of the tapestry. Studying the scraps of thread that had fallen to the floor, her vision of the tapestry was turned upside down, and the little bits of thread that gradually was picked up from the ground became the focus of the research. These details bore traces of many hands that had restored and repaired the tapestry over the centuries and told a story of care and attention, the inseparable opposite of monumental tapestries and mythical tales.