Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• Listening as artistic practice (2025) author(s): Halldis Ronning published in: Research Catalogue
  In this essay Halldis Rønning looks at conducting and musical performance through the lense of extended listening. She elaborates on how extended listening is the basis of her artistic practice and how a focus on different listening modes can inform and expand the roles, methods, structures and expressions within a conductor-orchestra relationship. Her listening practice opens up the traditional symphonic roles of conductor and orchestra, by giving space for creative collaborations, flexible leadership, fluctuating agency, transdisciplinary work and an exploration of the performing body as an expression in itself.
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• Salmo Trutta (2025) author(s): Riikka Maria Talvitie published in: Research Catalogue
  This page is linked for a text "Salmo Truth"
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  Becoming Soundscape – Listening, Perceiving and Acting (2025) author(s): Max Spielmann, Daniel Hug, Andrea Iten, Catherine Walthard published in: Research Catalogue
  At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we, in our role as lecturers, conducted hybrid workshops with design and art students from ten partner institutions on five continents. Our goal was to explore soundscapes from different viewpoints, and we were deeply impressed by the outcome. The recordings and their accompanying images and conversations dissolved geographical borders along with social, cultural, and structural differences. We found that a re-sonance or con-sonance emerged from this collective work, in which sounds became manifestations of presence and agency; the sociality and simultaneity of the space we shared together remains with us today. With becoming soundscape, we attempted to bring the social resonance we had experienced in the workshops into the lecture hall.
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• Dispositions of Being-With: Redistributing Heterogeneity among the Concert Audience (2025) author(s): Kelvin King Fung Ng published in: Research Catalogue
  The concert setting, as standardised through the worldwide prevalence of Western Classical music, offers a unique condition in which audience members from various backgrounds coexist in the same time and space, and are prompted to act and interact, restrictedly yet often intensely, by attending and orienting themselves to a medium frequently marked by its intangibility and ineffability. Despite such a richly layered social practice, existing musical works that aim to bring about divergent models of communion tend to eschew this listening convention, rather than harnessing the aforementioned characteristics to unleash new forms of togetherness. My artistic research seeks to instigate such novel social configurations by creating musical works that articulate previously unexposed relationships among concert audience members. Through factoring in their differing preconditions relative to the performance, my works aim to redistribute what can be sensed by whom (Rancière 2004). Grounded in a pragmatist view of music-listener co-articulation, I introduce the concepts of circumscribed and preferred affordances. Their dynamics at work are examined through pieces that resonate with my approach, including und als wir (1993) by Mathias Spahlinger and Quadraturen V (2000) by Peter Ablinger. These help illuminate my strategies in redistributing the sensible while motivating intersubjective awareness, as exemplified in D!V£R#!M&NT! (2024) and Brief Version of Seoljanggu (2021–), which configure heterogeneous sets of affordances in relation to individual and cultural differences. Knowledge and experiences generated through this endeavour aim to deepen our understanding of the intricate intersubjectivities of listening, while also opening new routes for broader reflections on the social dimensions of human relations.
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• Big Resonators and Earpieces (2025) author(s): Eléonore Bak published in: Research Catalogue
  With the big resonators and earpieces (écoutoirs) that were created in 2022 as part of the exhibition “Esprits des lieux” for the Chapelle de l’Observance in Draguignan, I try to look into a hitherto invisible landscape and to deal with new perceptions and gestures. The reality of this landscape eludes frontal observation and emerges through a kind of sensory, sensual immersion. My personal idea of empathy and exploration comes to the fore: not to be inspired by the place or nature, but to lose ourselves in them in order to find out what still needs to be searched for, explored and built. In my lecture and the subsequent sound presentation, I will focus in particular on the question of togetherness and mutual awareness of space and research, space and art.
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• Passive Listening: Exploring Interpassivity in Ambient Music (2025) author(s): David Chechelashvili, Alan Brown published in: Research Catalogue
  The landscape of ambient music presents unique challenges for critique and classification due to its wide range of subgenres, functions and goals. Often defined by its atmospheric and immersive qualities, ambient music is traditionally seen as providing a backdrop for relaxation or as a means to block out the harsh reality of the outside world. This dominant theory, while valuable in certain contexts, tends to oversimplify the multifaceted nature of ambient music and ignores the potential for more nuanced listening experiences. The proposed alternative theory of interpassivity challenges existing understandings of ambient music production and consumption modes. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, aesthetics and media studies, interpassivity suggests that, under certain circumstances, audiences can choose to delegate the experience of enjoyment to the music itself. This delegation involves a passive surrender of agency that allows the music to shape the listener’s experience without direct, conscious participation. To illustrate this, we contrast ambient music with more conventional music styles. Exploring both compositional and audience perspectives, we examine how ambient music’s intentional lack of participation distinguishes it from active and attentive music listening practices. By understanding the interplay between the compositional choices of musicians and the passive role assumed by the audience, we may gain a deeper understanding of the various expressions of the genre. We examine the modes of listening commonly associated with ambient music as a means for interrogating the interpassive nature of the genre. Scholars argue that ambience in the arts is an active and complex force that shapes our perception and understanding of sound and that it should not be dismissed as passive or inconsequential, but rather be seen as a dynamic element that demands critical engagement. In contrast to an emphasis on active engagement, our perspective accommodates instances where listeners engage in a more passive experience. We advocate for an expanded view of the listener’s role in ambient music, recognising the potential for aesthetic experiences that may emerge from the intentional relinquishment of involvement. This nuanced perspective aligns with the complexities inherent in the genre and enriches the discourse surrounding ambient music, offering a broader framework for its classification and appreciation.
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