Performance as Device for Disorientation
(2024)
author(s): Jennifer Torrence
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
By its very nature, performance is precarious—there is always the chance that everything might fall apart. In an attempt to mitigate the discomfort of this unpredictability, many musicians develop strategies in the hope of holding the reins on the proverbial cart. But what if one chose not to maintain control and instead embraced the wild nature inherent to performance? What kinds of knowledge and aesthetic experiences might emerge in the inevitable moments of collapse? Drawing on her recent research in the project Performing Precarity, an extended collaboration with composer Simon Løffler, as well as concepts by Jack Halberstam and Sara Ahmed, percussionist/performer Jennifer Torrence meditates on the notion of performance as a device for disorientation—that is, performance as an embodied practice of rupture, of getting lost, and of undoing the order of things.
Reiterate, rerun, repeat
(2021)
author(s): Michael Duch, Jeremy Welsh
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
Repetition plays a central role in many musical styles and genres. Repetition, rhythm and patterns also play an important part in the visual arts. Here we will show, examine and discuss repetition as a method and main musical element, as well as their correlation with moving images, in a series of audio-visual works we have been working on together since 2016.
Accumulator is one such project and will be the main focus here, where not only repetition, rhythm and patterns appear as musical and visual elements, but is used as an artistic method in itself when repeating performances of a similar material, documenting each one of them and adding the individual performances as layers creating a dense audio-visual orchestral solo performance.
As well as temporal repetition, Accumulator repeats in the spatial dimension, where the staging of a performance features the live performer multiplied, as he is accompanied by pre-recorded video images of himself. According to the spatial characteristics of the given performance space, this repetition of the performer may be frontal / two dimensional, or may extend across several surfaces, creating a surround projection in which the live performer is contained.
Anarchiving (in) Ben Patterson's Variations for Double-Bass
(2018)
author(s): Christopher Williams
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Here I employ techniques of anarchiving to explore the dynamics of notation, improvisatory performance, and analysis in Fluxus artist Ben Patterson's Variations for Double-Bass (1961). Coined by process philosophers Erin Manning and Brian Massumi, the concept of the anarchive refers to "a repertory of traces of collaborative research-creation events. The traces are not inert, but are carriers of potential." Variations' proto-anarchival qualities drive the structure of the exposition, which includes superimposed video documentation from my own performances, as well as brief analytical texts and performance instructions for the reader. I hope that this meta-anarchival process both sheds light on Patterson's work, and shows how documentation and analysis in the spirit of the anarchive can propel experimental (musical) practice forward in unexpected ways.
Tactile Paths: on and through Notation for Improvisers
(2017)
author(s): Christopher Williams
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
published in: Research Catalogue
Tactile Paths is a native digital, media-rich PhD dissertation. It aims to articulate and expand the nexus of notation and improvisation in contemporary and experimental music. The project interweaves direct artistic experience with insights from improvisation studies, the social sciences, philosophy, and various scholarship in the arts to reveal methodological connections among diverse artists such as Richard Barrett, Cornelius Cardew, Malcolm Goldstein, Lawrence Halprin, Bob Ostertag, Ben Patterson, and the author. By focusing on how notation is used, rather than on what it represents in an abstract sense, the author shows how written scores emerge from and feed back into ongoing improvisational processes. Thus, it is argued, they are not fixed texts whose primary purpose is to prescribe and preserve, but rather tactile paths in the improviser’s ever-crescent musical and social environment. This practice-based approach aims to lay the conceptual groundwork for theorizing and broadening the creative relevance of work whose importance to practitioners belies its marginal presence in academia and institutions.
Misuse as Creation in Electronic Music - A History and Practical Suggestion
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): August Norborg
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this thesis the author explores the term ”misuse” as a methodology of composition, but also proposes to view it as an informal tradition within the history of electronic music. The author explores the possible definitions of the term ”misuse”, proposing to view it as an inherently destabilizing practice, where the practitioner must reject the defining of a strict identity. The author also highlights the shift away from mastery of technology to a more equal, exploratory relationship that occurs within the practice, as well as its ability to chart the materiality of said practice. The author proposes that this tradition re-occurs historically as both a technical, aesthetic and philosophical phenomenon, serving as a progressive force within the wider genre of electronic music and often as part of a consciously rebellious practice. The author explores how this methodology can be applied within their own contemporary compositional practice using the software Ableton Live, chronicling their own explorations of generating sound via different misuses of the software, including sound examples. Finally, the author evaluates the applicability of this method on their own artistic practice through 2 attached compositions, and gives testimony to their experience and insights working with the material.