Research Catalogue

Beröringspunkterna mellan språk och musik har intresserat många genom historien och i denna exposition står sambanden mellan muntligt berättande på dialekt och musikalisk interpretation samt komposition stå i fokus. Ann Elkjär är flöjtist och doktorand i musikalisk gestaltning, och i doktorandprojektet utforskas en nyfikenhet på muntligt berättande: Vilka musikaliska element går att hitta i muntligt, dialektalt, berättande och hur kan de omformas till kompositoriska och interpretatoriska redskap? Frågorna utforskas i ett samarbete med tonsättaren Ida Lundén, och expositionen bygger på en analys av videodokumentation av den kollaborativa kompositionsprocessen. Arkivinspelningar av värmländskt berättande utgör ett centralt material, där fragment av äldre berättares röster processas och spelas upp med rullbandspelare i dialog med soloflöjtstämman. Genom rullbandspelarna ges möjligheter att skapa loopar som även återspeglas i flöjtstämman, och på detta vis utforskar verket hur element i muntligt berättande kan omformas till musikaliskt material. English: The intersections between language and music have long intrigued scholars, and this exposition centers on the relationship between oral storytelling in dialect and musical interpretation. Ann Elkjär, flautist and PhD student in musical performance, explores the reflective spaces that emerge in the interstice between language and music. The research questions guiding the PhD project are: What musical elements can be identified in oral storytelling in dialect, and how can these be transformed into compositional and interpretative tools? To investigate these questions, Ann Elkjär collaborates with several composers. This exposition presents the collaborative compositional process between Elkjär and composer Ida Lundén. Archival recordings of storytelling in the Värmland dialect serve as a central material, where fragments of an elderly narrator’s voice are processed and played back via reel-to-reel tape recorders in dialogue with the solo flute part. The use of tape recorders enables the creation of loops, which are mirrored in the flute part, thereby exploring how elements of oral storytelling can be transformed into musical material.

This exposition or archive is a work in progress, under construction, for gathering material of encounters with junipers.

Exploring methods of connecting thinking to space and embodiment in a research that looks at the connection between mental images, language and the body through felt experience.

Against the Compulsive Urge to Interpret By Dorian Vale In this incisive essay, Dorian Vale issues a direct challenge to the modern compulsion to interpret everything—especially art that resists it. Against the Compulsive Urge to Interpret dissects the psychological, academic, and cultural forces behind overexplanation, and reveals how this reflex can become a form of violence. Rather than a celebration of ambiguity or mystique, the essay makes a precise philosophical argument: that some works—especially those grounded in grief, ritual, trauma, or the sacred—must be approached through presence, not penetration. Vale argues that relentless interpretation disfigures the very things it claims to illuminate, replacing witness with possession and flattening mystery into content. This piece is both a manifesto and a moral warning: not all silence is an invitation to speak. Sometimes, to interpret is to intrude. And in such moments, the most radical act of criticism may be restraint. Vale, Dorian. Against the Compulsive Urge to Interpret. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17075900 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, interpretation in art, overinterpretation, ethics in art criticism, restraint in criticism, art and silence, witnessing art, aesthetic theory, non-extractive writing, trauma and interpretation, philosophical aesthetics, contemporary art theory

(NO) "Tryllespel – å utforske, spore av frå og spinne vidare på det improviserte førespelet på hardingfele" er eit doktorgradsprosjekt i kunstnarleg utviklingsarbeid, innan norsk folkemusikk, gjennomført ved Norges Musikkhøgskole i perioden 2021-2025. I prosessen som har utfalda seg gjennom prosjektet, har hardingfelespelar Gro Marie Svidal fletta saman element frå sin eigen hardingfeletradisjon med idear henta frå møter med utøvarar og komponistar i andre tradisjonar. Med improvisasjon som metode, har ho søkt etter å skape musikk med ein folkemusikalsk individualitet og ein personleg identitet. Nøkkelen har vore å ta utgangspunkt i førespela på hardingfele. (EN) "Tryllespel - To explore and remodel the Hardanger fiddle music’s improvised preludes" is an artistic research project, situated in the Norwegian folk music field, and carried out at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2021 to 2025. During the process unfolded through the project, Hardanger fiddle player Gro Marie Svidal has combined elements from her own Hardanger fiddle tradition with ideas gained from meetings and collaborations with a selection of performers and composers from other traditions. Using improvisation as a method, she has searched for making music with a folk-musical individuality and a personal identity. The key has been to start from the Hardanger fiddle music’s preludes. The exposition is written in Norwegian.

The Custodian of Consequence: Reframing the Role of the Critic By Dorian Vale In this philosophical essay, Dorian Vale redefines the role of the critic—not as interpreter, judge, or analyst, but as custodian of consequence. Rooted in the doctrines of Post-Interpretive Criticism, the work challenges the traditional posture of critique as commentary and repositions it as a form of ethical stewardship. Vale explores how every act of writing about art either preserves or distorts the original encounter. Through sharp theoretical analysis and poetic argumentation, the essay exposes the critic’s unseen power to shape memory, public reception, and even the afterlife of a work. The true critic, Vale contends, is not the one who explains most eloquently—but the one who bears the most moral proximity to the wound. This piece is a foundational rearticulation of what it means to “respond” to art—offering not just a new lens, but an entirely new ethic. Vale, Dorian. The Custodian of Consequence: Reframing the Role of the Critic. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17075493 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, art criticism ethics, role of the critic, aesthetic responsibility, non-interpretive writing, witness-based criticism, philosophy of criticism, contemporary art theory, moral proximity in art, language and power, poetic criticism, ethics of response, conceptual art critique