Research Catalogue

This dissertation considers performed silences in composed music and suggests that musicians often use markers to communicate the dimensions of silence. These markers may shape, summon, or impose silence. Markers are signals or cues that may be visible, audible, or multimodal. This research consists of an archive of examples from the author's pianistic practice, as well as three case studies drawn from works of Beethoven, Cage, and Antheil. Full title: "Performing Musical Silence: Markers, Gestures, and Embodiments"

15 documented artistic works performed by Ellen Ugelvik et al. (solo/chamber/sinfonietta/orchestra)

This exposition documents my explorations of pondering with pine trees. Tämä ekspositio dokumentoi yritykseni miettiä mäntyjen kanssa. Den här ekspositionen dokumenterar mina försök att fundera med furor.

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.