Research Catalogue

Dorsal Practices is a collaboration between choreographer Katrina Brown and writer-artist Emma Cocker, for exploring the notion of dorsality in relation to how we as moving bodies orient to self, others, world. How does the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness and attitude shape and inform our experience of being-in-the-world? A dorsal orientation foregrounds an active letting go, releasing, even de-privileging, of predominant social habits of uprightness and frontality — the head-oriented, sight-oriented, forward-facing, future-leaning tendencies of a culture intent on grasping a sense of the world through naming and control. Rather than a mode of withdrawal, of turning one’s back, how might a back-leaning orientation support a more open and receptive ethics of relation? How are experiences of listening, voicing, thinking, shaped differently through this tilt of awareness and attention towards the back?

A 2-part module by the MA Transdisciplinary Studies of ZHdK, Department Kulturanalysen und Vermittlung. Held by Anna Rubi & Eirini Sourgiadaki. Autumn 2023-Spring 2024 Colour perception varies, so do the semantics of colour terminology, for both sighted and blind individuals. The questions around colour perception from ophthalmology or neurobiology perspectives to cognitive and artistic ones, are infinite: Is there a universal human experience of the blue sky, the green grass and the brown soil? How is colour perceived in the brain, how is it translated into a communicable concept and how does it affect our perceived world, our mental and physical state? What is the role of colour in synesthesia? And most importantly, does colour have to do just with vision? In this module we work with the generation of blue colour on print, using the major light source available, the Sun. The Island of Amorgos is often referred to as “Le grand bleu” after the famous french film was shot at location. Its ancient name is “Melania”. “Melani”, the Greek word for ink, (“Melano” for dark blue, cyan) as it is said that in ancient times the place was covered with dark green flora. Our investigation begins exactly with this deep tint. We pay a visit to the famous monastery and the water oracle, walk the trails to observe the sensual -not only vision-based- shades of blue. In the spring term, we participate in local activities such as beach clean-up initiatives of the remote bays by local fishermen and their boats. We visit bee-hives and herb-distilleries, we work with the most basic bits and pieces of the island to capture its essence.

Oversikt over utøvende virksomhet

The project “Echoes from the torn down fourth wall” aims to build bridges between contemporary-music-as-an-art-form and community singing within songs from the Danish songbook ‘Højskolesangbogen’. In a hybrid concert format created for the project, within the context of an abstracted approach to intense, improvised concert music, several passages with community singing occur, where the audience sings along in songs they know. The research process has investigated how to create a musical environment that might bridge the different positions (art music and community singing), how the idea of the listener/spectator can be negotiated within different art domains and how, from a genre perspective, the project can be narrated as a meeting between confirming and destabilising forces. What is being reimagined in the project is not so much the past itself, and not necessarily established narratives about the past, but rather possible current and future narratives of how we may reinterpret songs from the past – together. What is being revealed is not so much specific perspectives in the past but rather hidden potentials in how a majority cultural assemblage like Højskolesangbogen may be renegotiated. Abstract in Danish: Projektet “Genklangen fra den væltede fjerde væg” forsøger at bygge broer mellem kunstmusikken og fællesskabet, her repræsenteret ved den danske sangbog ‘Højskolesangbogen’. I et hybridt koncertformat, skabt til projektet, hvor en intens, abstraheret tilgang til det musikalske materiale er gennemgående, opstår i løbet af koncerterne adskillige passager med fællessang, hvor publikum synger med på sange de kender. Projektet har blandt andet undersøgt hvordan vi kunne skabe et musikalske miljø, der kan bygge bro over de forskellige positioner (kunstmusik og fællessang), hvordan ideer om lytterens/tilskuerens roller kan genforhandles indenfor forskellige kunstdomæner, og hvordan projektet fra et genre-teoretisk perspektiv kan opfattes som et møde mellem bekræftende og destabiliserende kræfter. Det, der bliver gentænkt i projektet, er ikke så meget selve fortiden og heller ikke nødvendigvis etablerede fortællinger om fortiden, men snarere mulige samtidige og fremtidige fortællinger om, hvordan vi kan genfortolke sange fra fortiden – sammen. Og det der opdages, er ikke så meget skjulte perspektiver i fortiden, men derimod skjulte potentialer i, hvordan en majoritetskulturel ’assemblage’ som Højskolesangbogen kan genforhandles. Samtidig nedbrydes barrierer mellem udøvende og lytter, og der etablere nye måder at opleve ny musik på. Og vi mindes om, at vi aldrig ved, hvordan vores kulturelle fortid bliver fortolket i morgen.

Although the bass guitar is a relatively young instrument compared to most other chordophones, its performance has often been confined by tradition, following near-dogmatic conventions of ‘what’ and ‘how’ to play. At the core of these tenets is its monophonic accompaniment role, primarily articulating melodic lines in the low-frequency range with rhythmic patterns. Portfolio presents eight compositions that explore the bass guitar beyond this paradigm. These original solo pieces are outputs of an artistic research thesis and constitute a thematic album centered on a polyphonic approach to the bass guitar.

The perception of the canon of post-war Western art music today is still strongly determined by a constructed dichotomy which keeps Western art music separate from evolutions and radical experiments in jazz and African-American music. The very extensive oeuvre and philosophical body of thought of the American composer Anthony Braxton, what he calls his Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct (TCTUC), can be seen as the metaphorical elephant in the room. This unique oeuvre has been largely ignored to this day within the repertoire, discourse and performance practice associated with the canon of post-war Western art music. This research project takes Anthony Braxton's TCTUC as a starting point to see how I, as an interpreter of Braxton’s music, can contribute to a broadening of this canon. My intention with this research is to provide artistic responses to the gaps within the existing discourse on post-war Western art music (see Braxton, Lewis, Piekut, Born, a.o.) by approaching a wide selection of Braxton’s compositions on his own terms. By putting these works as specific case studies on the agenda of relevant actors such as the conservatory, contemporary music festivals and concert series and through recordings and other media, I aimed to make a canon broadening possible through my practice as an interpreter. The results of this research, presented in the form of concerts, lectures, articles, workshops and recordings, are collected in this Research Catalogue website.