Research Catalogue

WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER WITHDRAWING THE PERFORMER is conceptualized and conducted collaboratively by Charlotta Ruth (SE/AT) and Jasmin Schaitl (AT). The starting point are two artistic practices based on methods of mindfulness and game/play; Performances for the Mind and Choreographic Clues. These two individual perspectives on participation emerge from the project leaders’ ongoing artistic research and merge in their common artistic curiosity in the creation of immaterial material. Accompanied by neuroscientist and performer Imani Rameses (US/AT) the research asks: How does immaterial material perform within participatory situations? What role does participatory setting play and how does participation differ if situations are communicated as a workshop, a treatment, a practice or a performance? How can neuroscience support how immaterial and participatory art practices are developed and described? What relation exists beyond involvement and how can a participant become the performance rather than being part of a performance? What has to occur in the mind and body for this to happen? Through practice and dialogue conducted with experts in the fields of contemplative sciences, sound art, choreography, game art and somatics, the research explores how input from participants (e.g. memory, thought, emotion) can be placed at the centre of a flexible yet framed performance situation. “Withdrawing the Performer” collaborates with the Angewandte Performance Laboratory, and will present its research outcomes in a public series of participatory events. In the course of the project, various participatory performance formats will be exchanged within the Angewandte e.g. at the Center for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education, as well as in external art institutions. Collaborating expert practitioners and dialogue partners are: Philipp Ehmann (AT), Nikolaus Gansterer (AT), Mariella Greil (AT), Margarete Jahrmann (AT), Dennis Johnson (US/AT), Anne Juren (FR/AT), Krõõt Juurak (EE/AT), Imani Rameses (US/AT), Christian Schröder (AT), Lucie Strecker (DE/AT).

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Each technology exerts a change in the acoustic environment. The development of mobile phones has expanded the space-time limits of sound and the ability to interfere in the forms of socialization and relationship with places. In addition to reproducing the voice, these devices promote multilayer listening that adds ringtones, notifications, alerts, and any sound generated by applications or accessible through the Internet. This research aims to study contemporary listening mediated by mobile phones, analyzing the disruptive effect generated by their sounds and listening through loudspeakers or buzzer speakers, technical means that articulate sonorities, and acoustic perceptions that limit information and add noise. The methodology used is hybrid. It focuses mainly on Arts-Based Research with experimental practices that explore techniques, materials, and media, as well as qualitative methods that provide points of view and opinions, fieldwork recording sounds, and pedagogy toward designing strategies that encourage other listening perspectives. The results materialize in pieces and panels in the form of installations that show different models of mobile phone loudspeakers, highlighting their aesthetic, technical, and symbolic aspects. The panel contains loudspeakers placed on sound-absorbing acoustic foam, and the listening sound soundscapes as maps that connect to the idea of the typical sound diversity of these devices (activated by sensors or buttons). Among other topics, the work deals with the archeology of the media and the precarious sounds that extend low-fidelity listening.

The following research observes the artistic creative process of a cross-disciplinary theatrical dance and percussion performance, called “Inseparable”. It discusses and analyses the process and methods behind the creation of the piece; the pros and cons of dance-percussion collaboration, and of working as a team of performer-creators; the involvement of a director; the creation of the final performance with a technical crew (light & sound); and the emergence of a mutual artistic language. The cast includes Zaneta Kesik and Matija Franjes - two dancers (doubling as choreographers), and Joao Brito and Kalina Vladovska - two percussionists (doubling as composers), creating the narrative, dramaturgy, choreography and (some of the) music on their own. The director, Renee Spierings, was invited to be an external coach. Teus van der Stelt and Maurits Thiel - light and sound artists - took care of the final presentation. The four performances took place during and thanks to Muziekzomer Gelderland 2023 and were produced by Jarick Bruinsma. Furthermore, in the research I discuss the social impact of the project's themes – technology addiction and human communication - and I examine a number of reactions and feedback from audience members. The chosen form of presentation is a research exposition.

This exposition examines the curatorial project "Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation," held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2017. The project is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” “Clew” proposes a framework for curatorial dramaturgy and asks: What is the potential of a dramaturgical approach within an open-ended exhibition structure? Who, or what, is the curatorial dramaturg? How do materials and time contribute to unfolding exhibition narratives? [This exposition corresponds to Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the printed dissertation.]

How can one learn to improvise convincingly within the context of the nineteenth-century piano repertoire? And why is it important to improvise on this repertoire in the twenty-first century? Taking the music of Robert Schumann (1810−56) as a departure point, Playing Schumann Again for the First Time proposes an answer to these questions through methods towards a pianistic practice that is driven by experimentation and strives to continually find more layers where improvisation can take place, both in sounding musical practice and in notation. These practice-based methods are contextualized by a discussion of the presence of improvisation in Western classical musical practice in the nineteenth century. They are then substantiated by an argument to use improvisation as a tool for rethinking the current performance practice of nineteenth-century music. Improvisation itself and the concepts driving this term will also be addressed: improvisation in musical performance will be described as a process guided by a feedback loop between mimesis and morphosis with which the practitioner engages using his or her individual cognitive and embodied approach to listening, forgetting, and conceptualizing; the results of which bear his or her own sonic signature. The knowledge gained in this project lies within the realm of what will be described as improvisation as practice, a category of improvisational behavior that circumvents the need to be presented as art and is rather intended for the development of one’s own music-making.