Research Catalogue

Professional Doctorate in Arts + Creative is an educational pilot program in The Netherlands for an advanced degree in universities of applied sciences. The PD program at an university of applied sciences is developed to train an investigative professional. This portal is a platform for publishing artistic research generated by the PD candidates. Within the Professional Doctorate program, this portal will also be used as an internal tool for documentation.

neither fish nor fowl is an act of refusal, witnessing the growth of a NO toward Western industrial design from the point of view of a graduating student. By claiming, “I don’t want to design and produce anymore”, the discipline - known for being a problem-solving and sense-making practice - is called into question. This decision stems from the urgency to pause the relentless capitalist cycle of production and consumption of which design is a part. Consequently, a paradox arises to provoke thought: can we stand still in the midst of constant hyperactivity? The research highlights the process of this growth as the main focus of the project - the negative space normally overlooked in favor of an alluring outcome. It branches out through theoretical studies and an exercise-based practice of unlearning. Concepts such as nothingness, stillness, unproductiveness, un-functionality and no-senseness are explored in a space of co-creation and ongoingness.

'Diffracting the Copenhagen Interpretation: Toward non-local collaborative art practices' investigates the resonances of concepts from quantum theory in the realm of transdisciplinary practice-based artistic research. Throughout a series of protocols using diffractive methodologies, we intend to translate and embody concepts such as spacetime, entanglement, non-locality, uncertainty, indeterminacy, and superpositionality, and embed them as tools for our artistic practices. These concepts were chosen for their singularity in physics, but also for the ways in which they confront ontoepistemic pillars of ‘Modernity’, such as sequentiality, determinacy and separability. The research is carried out by a transdisciplinary non-local core ensemble formed by Søren Kjærgaard, Amilcar Packer, and Carla Zaccagnini. The cities we inhabit – Copenhagen, Sao Paulo and Malmö – have been our laboratories. Departing from tools and methods learned from each-other's disciplines, we have been creating scores that guide our simultaneous actions while walking on the street –interacting with public spaces and their characteristics– or while lying asleep –in the most private of spheres. On the one hand, in a practice we call ‘non-local walking’, scores conduct our collective experiencing of our cities, involving a diffractive methodology of reading and listening, and the entangled collecting of objects, words and other affections found in the urban terrain. On the other hand, the ‘entangling dream practice’ experiment is an attempt without aiming at success of meeting each other in our dreams. Both investigations are conceived as boundary-crossing transdisciplinary methodologies through which we create a relational, critical consciousness and sensing that stimulates unexpected outcomes, embracing failure. These scored performances have resulted in cartographies, drawings, moving sculptures, audio works and writings. Across these various materializations, unexpected connections, constellations, and coincidences e/merge, unveiling yet unheard polyphonies that give resonance to the urban and mental spaces, as potentized terrains awaiting (re)circuitry, and, as fields of forces that await to be (re)experienced.

One of the aspects Jimmie Blanton (1918–42), best known as Duke Ellington’s bassist between 1939 and 1941, has been most praised for is his tone, particularly its loudness, which has been characterised as “outsized,” “resonant,” “roaring,” and “huge.” While Brian Priestley (2009, 85) observed that tone is often “thought of as god-given,” I wanted to understand why and how Blanton’s tone was (perceived as being) different from that of his peers. I examined several possible impact factors, such as his performance technique and instrument, but found none differed significantly from those of his fellow bassists. Eventually, I (partially) found the answer by recreating Blanton’s music. In this exposition, I examine an experimental recording session by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and myself on bass in which we recreated the circumstances of a 1930s–1940s Ellington performance, both live and in the studio, in a historically informed way, for example, by using historically appropriate instrumentation, repertoire, location, recording set-up, and performance practice. The outcome revealed that specific changes in the orchestra’s seating plan were key to Blanton’s perceived superior tone. Using media samples, I review the preparation, recording process, and results, drawing on a combination of visual analysis of historical photographs, complete participant observation, comparative auditory analysis, and formal and informal (semi-structured) interviews with participants.

With this exposition, we share the creative process that led to the composition and performance of Stretch, a piece by a jazz quartet led by pianist Piergiorgio Pirro. We will show that introducing theoretical models and paradigms from spectralism as a “foreign body” into the workings of a small jazz band illuminates a complex network of factors at play in the band’s music making, leading to a thorough reconfiguration in which new instruments get built and played, old habits need to be unlearnt, uncommon interactions emerge and theoretical frameworks clash in practice.

This chapter will detail the evolution of a set of improvised performances that explored Empathic Speculation in both live and studio settings. As a means to elevate musical attunement in live performance based on an atmosphere of musical trust that ‘allows for creative risk-taking, which can result in the production of spontaneous musical utterances’ (Seddon, 2005: 58), Empathic Speculation (Bain, 2021) describes a further level of interaction that attempts to encourage another member of the ensemble beyond their perceived musical boundaries; or ‘comfort zones’.