Norwegian University of Science and Technology
About this portal
By interweaving arts, science, and technology we create collaboration that is new, interdisciplinary, and different.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU covers a wide range of academic subjects, including the arts. Our artistic research contributes significant perspectives to reinforce NTNU’s interdisciplinary strength in addressing society’s complex needs, as well as recognizing that art has an inherent value on its own.
Interested in a PhD in artistic research?
NTNUs PhD-programme in Artistic Research gives you the opportunity to specialize in the creative and performing arts such as music, fine art, architecture, design, theatre, and film.
In this portal you will find PhD-results, published research expositions by our staff and documentation from conferences. Read more about artistic research and development at NTNU, including our PhD-programme, via the url below.
contact person(s): Anja Johansen
url: https://www.ntnu.edu/art
Recent Activities
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Expanding horizons - ensemble improvisation on 20th-century classical music (video article)
(2024)
author(s): Peter Knudsen
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Research Catalogue
This video article presents two pedagogical applications of the artistic research project "Expanding Horizons" for ensembles with adult music students of diverse musical backgrounds. The project is centered around practical explorations of applying improvisation to repertoire from 20th-century Western classical music, in combination with qualitative methods such as autoethnography, participant-observation and semi-structured interviews.
The examples in the video demonstrates how approaches that are developed in the project can be applied to pedagogical situations, based on ensemble workshops with musicians of different musical orientations enrolled in music performance programmes in Sweden, one with university-level students in a bachelor programme and another with students at a folk high school.
Two pieces were selected and adapted for these situations: Lili Boulanger’s Cortége (1914) and Maurice Ravel’s String quartet in F, movement II (1903). During the workshops, these pieces were then re-worked in a collaborative manner, with an emphasis on mutual exploration and musical expressivity through improvisation. The main pedagogical considerations were: selecting the appropriate repertoire, adapting materials for diverse learners, and fostering agency among performers. Although the improvisational approaches presented are rooted in jazz performance practice, the examples demonstrate how improvisational frameworks can be adapted for music students across musical genres, showcasing the potential for creativity, collaboration and interdisciplinary learning in music education.
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Det som er mellom
(2024)
author(s): Gyrid Nordal Kaldestad
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Research Catalogue
I doktorgradsprosjektet Det som er mellom har eg søkt etter å finne ein samanheng mellom dei ulike uttrykka eg som kunstnar gjennom åra har arbeida med. I dette arbeidet ligg det også eit forsøk på å plassere mitt arbeid i ein kontekst og eit forsøk på ein refleksjon om korleis og kvifor det kunstnariske arbeidet blir til, og korleis enkelte av kunstnarane eg gjennom åra er blitt inspirert av kan være med på å plassere mitt eige arbeid i ein større samanheng og kontekst.
Slik eg ser det er alt eg gjer på ulike måtar ein respons på noko, ei oppleving som ein tar med seg vidare inn i det kunstnariske arbeidet og som kan være inspirert av kunstverk og kunstnarskap, landskap, minner om landskap, minner om musikk og stader, menneske ein møter og minner om menneske ein har møtt. Tittelen på prosjektet fungerer for meg som ein referanse til det at eg som kunstnar kjenner at eg befinn meg mellom ulike utrykk, noko som har blitt tydelegare for meg gjennom desse snart fire åra som kunststipendiat. Snarare enn å definere meg som det eine eller det andre, bør eg kanskje godta at eg befinn meg i dette mellomrommet, at det ikkje er så viktig å definere seg sjølv, at behovet for å definere seg også ligg i noko utanfor ein sjølv, i støtteordningar, i visningsstader eller i akademia.
Det å arbeide med samspelet mellom ulike kunstformer er nok for meg ein måte å søke etter ein form for poesi i det eg arbeider med, og at alt eg arbeider med spring ut frå eit fokus kring det sanselege, og i minna knytt til det sanselige både i lyd, lys, tekst og i det å etablere eit rom for ei kunstoppleving. Inspirert av kunstnarar som mellom andre Janet Cardiff, Yoko Ono, Verdensteatret, David Lynch, Joan Jonas, Manos Tsangaris, Jana Winderen, Verk Produksjoner, Siri&Snelle, Klaus Lang, Evelina Dembacke, Marte Huke og Olafur Eliasson tenkjer eg at det som er felles for alle desse, slik eg opplever dei, er at dei er i kontakt med det sanselege og det poetiske på ulike plan.
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The Relevance of Point of Audition in Television Sound: Rethinking a Problematic Term
(2024)
author(s): Svein Høier
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
There are good reasons to consider point of audition (POA) as a problematic term when writing about sound. This essay addresses the different challenges one meets when using the term and discusses different alternatives for future use of this terminology within the field of television sound. The motivation for rethinking the term is the analytical and descriptive problems raised when writing about recent trends in television sound in drama, sports, news, documentaries and other television genres. The argumentation refers to the flexible and creative uses of television sound today and discusses how various production examples can be better accounted for by refining the term point of audition. All in all, four categories of point of audition are suggested for analysis: observational, active, individual and personal POAs.
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Seeding Actions
(2022)
author(s): Polina Golovátina-Mora, Sunniva Skjøstad Hovde, Tone Pernille Østern
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
The exposition shares the collaborative multispecies journey and addresses the issue of art, art-based research and of art-based research publishing. The three processes are seeing as intra-activity between multiple species, materials, media. It does not have a goal as destination but is driven by curiosity and care for and with each other. This ever-expanding becoming creates ever new world and possibilities and so the new knowing-being. The exposition is a map that combines different tracing and it is up to the reader to follow any direction they prefer at the moment.
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Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes
(2022)
author(s): Håkon Magnar Skogstad
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Research Catalogue
Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes is an artistic research project undertaken at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in Artistic Research. The project’s reflection work takes the form of an exposition, which includes texts, videos, annotated scores and the artistic results.
In this artistic research project, Håkon Magnar Skogstad uses an extreme form of imitation to embody and recreate the historical recordings of Catalan-Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) with the aim of evoking a romantic performance tradition in classical music. Ricardo Viñes was one of the leading pianists in Paris around 1900 and premiered several compositions, including a substantial part of the piano works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. In his recordings, we hear a tradition of romantic performance practice, which Skogstad claims is not heard in modern-day performances. Furthermore, Ricardo Viñes’s close relationship to the works of Debussy and his recorded performances have the potential to challenge performance practice norms in impressionistic music.
By analyzing, studying and recreating the historical recordings of Ricardo Viñes, Skogstad sets out to research, experience and through this to gain an understanding of of Viñes's playing style on a fundamental level as a performing artist. The method of recreating recordings is carried out by imitating and playing alongside the originals to the point where the recreated performances can be superimposed onto the original historical recordings – achieving a sort of artistic “synchronization”. Skogstad believes that by committing to such extreme imitation, it is possible to extract unique artistic knowledge from these old recordings. In order to examine the performance practice in context, the playing style of Ricardo Viñes is compared to selected and equally thoroughly recreated recordings by contemporaneous pianists Sergei Rachmaninov, Ignacy Friedman and Jesús María Sanromá. Finally, four recordings of pieces by Claude Debussy played by Ricardo Viñes are recreated with the purpose of examining the influence of Viñes’s playing style in the music of Debussy.
In the film Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes, which is one of the artistic results of the research, Skogstad records five of Ricardo Viñes’s original recordings in a “historical recording environment”, approaching that which Viñes encountered in 1930. The aim of this is for Skogstad to expose himself to a similar recording environment to what Viñes experienced – including recording one-off takes without any possibility of editing. The performances are rough, imperfect and on-the-fly - played in a “high-risk” manner just like Viñes's – in contrast to the perfectionism of music production standards today.
Håkon Magnar Skogstad (b.1989) is a prize-awarded diverse pianist and composer holding degrees in classical performance from Trondheim (NTNU, Department of Music), Oslo (Norwegian Academy of Music) and New York (Manhattan School of Music). He has performed in ensembles and as a soloist throughout Norway and played concerts in the U.S., Argentina, Germany, Austria and Sweden. Skogstad released three recordings with critically acclaimed ensembles in Norway, as well as his debut solo album Two Hands to Tango and Visions of Tango, featuring his original Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra with Atle Sponberg and the Trondheim Soloists. Both albums have received numerous outstanding reviews and the latter was nominated in the Norwegian Grammy Awards for best classical album.
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FolkImproV
(2015)
author(s): Andreas Aase
connected to: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
published in: Research Catalogue
Can pieces of dance tunes from Nordic folk music, organized according to principles from jazz, provide source material for building an improvisation language?
Scandinavian folk music traditionally used for dancing consists of melodies, organized in a limited amount of measures and sections (typically two or three eight-bar sections, played with repeats). The organizing principle in ensemble playing is for every musician to learn the melody first, and to let each following contribution be dictated by it. Variations in arrangements occur frequently in modern-day interplay, with harmony parts, chord changes, counter rhythms and dynamics meticulously employed in order to avoid monotony. But interpretation of the melody remains the main activity.
The ability for creativity on the spot is big among folk musicians, though it is seemingly framed by the strategies discussed above. I have yet to come across a methodical investigation of using material from traditional tunes as a musical vocabulary for improvisation. Consulting supervisors from the folk and jazz genres, I try to use source elements from the folk repertoire while employing organizing principles from jazz. As I present these ideas on several instruments, and over rhythmic foundations in a slightly modernized folk idiom, I'll try to encourage the use of these ideas in contexts not necessarily associated with traditional music. The project seeks to encourage participation, and may possibly work as tutorial material.
This exposition focuses on portions of a Pd.D.-level project I finished in 2009. The original three-year undertaking was supported by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, hosted by NTNU, and was supervised by John-Pål Inderberg and Geir Egil Larsen. The current version was supported by HiNT University College.