The E(c)lect(r)ic Guitar in The Mechanical Forest
(2023)
author(s): Vidar Schanche, Per Zanussi, Jonas Howden Sjøvaag
published in: Norwegian Artistic Research Programme
Abstract
The E(c)lect(r)ic Guitar in The Mechanical Forest is my investigation into how to expand my improvisational palette as an electric guitarist, by working with compositional techniques and concepts used in composed contemporary western art music. In my work, I have focused on incorporating movement, microtonality, as well as multimedia composition techniques and application of technology, both in the performance as well as in the creative process. A key focus of my artistic practice has been exploration of the transcorporeal nature of my relationship with the guitar. This has resulted in creative work which has grown from a deep focus on the materiality of the guitar and the visual, tactile (touch) and kinetic (movement) aspects of sound production.
Research Questions
1 How can I use compositional techniques and concepts from contemporary composed western art music to expand my palette as an improvising guitarist?
2 How can I transfer musical techniques and concepts, which often are used in a strictly predetermined environment, to a musical situation where improvisation is an important element in the performance.
3 How can I reconfigure/extend the electric guitar, and how can the reconfigured/extended guitar reshape the way I create and perform music?
Repurposing Rage (or Rage Re-Boot)-- How Audience’s Outrage Supports Generative Processes in Theatre Making
(2023)
author(s): Nina Marlow
published in: Research Catalogue
This thesis explores process driven creation of new work over five months (April 2023 - August 2023) in Finland. Process included meditation in nature and performances of OUT RAGE, which asked audiences to participate by sharing a concern –outing a rage– with an eco-punk astral messenger. Final products were audience inspired potential products that integrated the overall process, including performance observations and reflections. As a theatre maker with an interest in social and environmental justice, I am invested in creating new work that speaks to the current human condition of our lack of agency on a dying planet. Embracing the certainty of global warming on a human scale, acknowledging anger in society without inciting violence, and then creating new work informed by a collective of participants are at the core of this thesis.
ECOGNOSIS: Ecological Awareness in Multimedia Composition
(2022)
author(s): Richard Hughes
published in: KC Research Portal
This paper is concerned with ecological awareness in multimedia composition often with the use of data as a compositional tool. It covers the philosophy of ecological awareness I wish to represent in my work and the aesthetic principles used to portray it. The philosophy is largely based on Timothy Morton’s Dark Ecology with influence from other writers and artists. The reader will be guided through my methodologies of multimedia composition (acoustic, electronic and visual), in four different works. The motivation behind this research has come from wanting to engage with environmentalism not just through writing and individual actions but through art and how understanding the importance of perception of the environment can change our behaviour to it.
No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine
(2022)
author(s): Sean Bell
published in: KC Research Portal
Sean Bell
Student number: 3230643
Master Early Music Voice
Research supervisor: Dr. Inês de Avena Braga
Title: No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine
Research question: How can I create a stage performance combining and connecting my two sound worlds/style identities as a performer?
Summary of the results of the research:
In this research I have explored the creative development of a stage performance, combining operatic music by Handel with contemporary performance art. Through this I have explored how I can combine my duality as a performer: the early music singer and the contemporary performer and creator. This project and its connected research are a part of my artistic development as a musician, creator and performer, and the urge to explore this music and questions grew out of previous projects and ideas.
I have created and developed my project through following a consequential progression of artistic choices, and through this space that has unfolded I have come to find an essential identity of myself as a performer and creator. By being honest towards myself through the critical reflection, I have been able to investigate my process, my preferences, inspirations and my distinct personal style. Through this I have been able to strengthen my artistic identity and the artistic tools I use, bringing forth a more complete performer.
Short biography:
Sean Bell is a countertenor and performance artist from Oslo. His studies centre mainly on chamber and sacred music and opera, yet also includes a focus on new ideas and methods of interpreting classical and contemporary repertoire. Through sonic imaginations and arrangements, he explores this repertoire in new ways. This has led him to a series of collaborations and solo performances on the border line between classical music and performance art. Bell also works with contemporary music and has premiered several pieces for countertenor. He is an active improviser, plays baroque guitar and engages in instrument building and music electronics.
Nostalgia
(2019)
author(s): Saman Samadi
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition represents a collection of Saman Samadi's multimedia compositions, incorporating electroacoustic music and video art, evolved from various nostalgic states of the author. This project was presented at "Lethal #7" from the "Last Saturdays Salon" concert series of new music, hosted by Concrete Timbre, in Manhattan, New York, on the 19th of November, 2016. An album consisting of the audio recordings of these compositions has been published on digital music platforms on the 7th of December 2018.
U-Turn
(2019)
author(s): Saman Samadi
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition represents a collection of Saman Samadi's electroacoustic works composed between 2010 and 2014.
IN - The creation of an immerive music performance
(2017)
author(s): Jonathan Bonny
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Jonathan Bonny
Main Subject: Classical Percussion
Research Supervisors: Gerard Bouwhuis, Fedor Teunisse
Title of Research: IN – the creation of an immersive music performance
Research Question:
How can immersive performance concepts be used to create a better connection between a musician and his audience?
Summary of Results:
In my research, I reflected on several aspects of a concert and how I want to communicate with my audience. Throughout the research I realised that finding ways to immerse an audience is easier said than done. My belief in immersion as a tool to guide listeners towards a certain atmosphere, attitude or interpretation is nevertheless still as strong as before. More than ever, I am convinced that this is the way for me to perform. This is particularly the case for contemporary music where inexperienced listeners might appreciate some guidance. This paper aims to inform (performing) readers of the possible (positive and negative) consequences of creating an immersive performance. Creating an immersive performance is difficult. It takes a lot of time, something musicians often do not have. In addition to learning the music, the performer needs time to brainstorm about the kind of immersion that supports the musical idea and does not distract from it. The line between the two is very thin. Once the immersion concept is established it often takes a lot of preparation to execute it. To bring elaborate ideas to fruition musicians will need the help of technicians, engineers, other artists etc. This explains why immersive performances are often organised by ensembles that rely on a bigger production team and budget. The danger here lies in the fact that those teams are often too far removed from the actual content of the music. Realising this made me think about other ways to connect with an audience. I concluded that besides immersion, also attitude and mindset are very powerful tools to decrease the distance between a performer and the audience. Low-tech solutions like literally performing very close to or surrounded by them are very effective to emotionally connect with the audience. Because of the reflective character of the topic I chose to write my dissertation in the form of an essay. My goal is not to present 'the ultimate truth' but to inspire myself and other musicians to create a personal (contemporary) performing identity.
Biography:
Jonathan Bonny (°1992, Bruges) studied classical percussion at the School of Arts in Ghent, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He is actively building towards a music culture that knows no distinction between genres and he is consistently looking for innovative ways to present contemporary arts to a bigger audience. He co-founded Headliner (adventurous music collective), Kunstenfestival PLAN B (contemporary arts festival) and IHEART (band).
Extra-musical Systems in Music: their implementation in contemporary music in the context of multimedia
(2016)
author(s): Andrius Arutiunian
published in: KC Research Portal
The purpose of this research is to define methods of applying extra-musical and data-based systems in multimedia music works. The first part of the paper concentrates on the outline of the motivation and reasoning for using extra-musical systems from a composer's or sound artist's perspective and gives a historical precedent context. Parallels are drawn together with contemporary art and art critique examples. The second part of the research outlines the possible modes of the data-based systems application by analysing multiple multimedia works by composers or sound artists written in the last two decades including a piece by the author of the paper. The types of multimedia and its connection to sound are discussed, the conceptual deconstruction and its semiotic implications of the data used are analysed. The given conceptual and semantic context is applied for analysing the musical parameters and data's usage in sound control. Each of the pieces discussed outlines a particular mode of the conceptuality towards the extra-musical system usage and functions as a primal device for further conclusions drawn. The final part of the research consists of the general overview of the conclusions drawn and attempts to establish a general outline of the motivation and the resulting outcome behind the usage of the extra-musical systems in multimedia works.
Virtuositas noster qui es in Parnaso
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Susana Castro Gil
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This virtual exposition partially concentrates the experimental works developed during the doctorate in musical performance. Based mainly on the theory of transcreation of Haroldo de Campos (1962-2003), the topic of virtuosity is approached from artistic gestures trying to raise the discussion on what it means to be a virtuoso in the contemporary musical world. Paradoxically, iconic piano technique studies were chosen as the main material,this transcreationist interpretation allows traditional material to be permeated not only by contemporary means and aesthetics, but also questions that reflect on the tradition that made the emergence of these studies possible.
Burning bridges is not my way
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
I'm half and half
I connect 2 worlds
I'm red and white with lots of flowers
Pyrashky & guacamole
Shekasteh Mouyeh
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Saman Samadi
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Radif – or, the traditional repertoire of Persian classical music, consisting of more than 200 short melodic motions (gusheh), which are arranged into seven principal modes (dastgāh) with five secondary branches of these modes (āvāz) – is the oldest documented version of Dastgah music, developed by Mirza Abdollah in the 19th century. This exposition represents the confrontation of these microtonal modes with and within electroacoustic music material and techniques, and the problematisation of the results along with objects of video-art and visual effects, creating a set of compositions that would exhibit novelty; furthermore, the assemblage of them for and through a live performance utilizing improvisational methods as an attempt to expand timbral possibilities in a contextual relationship with Western contemporary classical music. The aim of this artistic research is producing a syncretistic multimedia work of art that could serve in assimilating two perspectives of Eastern and Western into a new coalescence towards the grail of a universal totality of classical forms.
Rasch 15-22 : transposition not exhibition
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Lucia D'Errico, Paulo de Assis
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Rasch interventions in DA TA rush, Vienna, May 2016
From Singer to Reflective Practitioner: Performing and Composing in a Multimedia Environment
(last edited: 2016)
author(s): Aleksandra Popovska
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exegesis comes as result of performing, composing and researching in a multimedia environment over
the past few years. I started working on my projects with the following question in my mind: how can I
improve my own practice?
Asking this led to identification of the problems related to making a live media performance, as well as prompting discussions about the types of knowledge necessary for producing a work of art that includes more than one medium.
Rather than attempting to draw definitive conclusions regarding topics as broad as live media
performance, I summarize and reflect upon the creation process as I experienced it, elucidating my personal
contemplations regarding my experience and practice in multimedia environment.
I will present three projects: ’Bukefalus’, ’Tribute to Morty’, and ’Every. When’, all designed as electroacoustic pieces with video displays. I shall take a
closer look at how the pieces were developed, discuss their cross-disciplinary character, and good and
bad practices involved in them. Finally, I shall focus my attention on how things go in practice when
one is composing and designing an interactive piece using improvisation and different media. In all three
projects I have been involved in different roles, as a performer, composer or designer, and in all of them
collaboration played important role. I made particular choices, sometimes blending my roles and the roles
of the participants.
I hope that my experience as a musician, having passed through both classical and technology-based
educational systems and participating in them in different roles – as performer, concept designer, composer, producer and teacher – will be useful for all creative people coming from the conservatory and wanting towork in the field of multimedia performance.
With this exegesis I would also like to make my own contribution to reflective practice and living theory
(Whitehead, 1998), by exploring improvisation and experimenting in my projects. I will write about how
it has enhanced my own identity as performer, composer and designer, and why and how I have been
committed to sharing its transformational potential with people I collaborate with. Its claim to originality
is that it arrives at a living concept of knowledge transformation through multidimensional reflection; as
a singer who is a composer, as a composer who is a researcher, as a student who has been a teacher, as an
artist who has lived in an imaginative world creating her works, and as a researcher dealing with institutional
policy and educational change. “I am my own informant into different perspectives, and will try through
these personae to have a dialogue between several positions and arrive at a concept that is tested and lived
from several perspectives.” (Spiro, 2008, p. 29)