Piano Apocalypse
(2022)
author(s): Eka Chabashvili, Nino Jvania, Tamar Zhvania
published in: Research Catalogue
"Piano music has come to an end and something quite different is coming. I sense it clearly: with the claviers made up to this time, there is nothing new to discover any more," declared Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1992. Truly, the piano, a brainchild of its era, has gradually been alienated by our epoch. Contemporary composers engage themselves less and less with the piano – particularly as a solo instrument. Though, we have to consider that a musical instrument is a musical chronicler with the structure, tuning system and performance techniques reflecting to certain extent the epochs it was created and employed in. Consequently, the main principles of music representative of every epoch lead to transformation of the instrument, its renewal, refinement, enrichment of performance techniques. Each epoch adapts the instrument to the principles of the corresponding musical thinking in order to make it capable of producing contemporary sound. Using our artistic imagination, we compare this situation to the Apocalypse, trying to find some ways of dealing with it. In this exposition we present some results of our experiments with the piano and its sound conducted within the artistic project "Has Piano Music Come to an End?". Methodology we employ is comparative and experimental. Analysis of piano music repertoire, its compositional and performance techniques and instrument's structure in various epochs led us to the reconsideration of the piano and inspired us to offer to you some new experimental options of its employment and modification, the latter resulting in a new instrument “ModEkAl”. Of course, no artistic research about music and a musical instrument could be conducted without making the research and its results public. Publicity is an inherent part of music which has to be performed and perceived in order to fully fulfill its purpose.
Find Me: Self-portraiture as a tool
(2022)
author(s): Silvia Diveky
published in: Research Catalogue
What kind of artistic research practices would enable us to reflect and respond effectively to the urgencies of our moment?
In my artistic research, I test my own limits as a documentary film-maker. Very often I feel unqualified to be the one to write about the documentary practices and so rather than write, I shoot. By creating a documentary self-portrat, I test the limits of my own capabilities to respond to the situations around me, to capture the essence of my own being as a human. I do not strive to capture "myself" but rather to explore the process itself. We tend to forget that although we consider ourselves "artists", we very often feel insecure, and this insecurity limits us from reaching beyond the safe margins of our abilities. But it is never to late to go further, never too early to find a new way of expression.
ASIA/ÄRENDE
(2022)
author(s): Vanja Hamidi Isacson
published in: Research Catalogue
ASIA/ÄRENDE: Kaarle Vihtori Turunen
Sound of Time - Tuning into the Norwegian Landscape and the Post-Industrial Soundscape
(2022)
author(s): Alexander Rishaug
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition is a non-linear, web based, poetic, personal, diary-like, essayistic, semi-fictional, experimental and reality-based approach to immerse into the reflection-mode and mind boggling universe of the project Sound of time - Tuning into the Norwegian Landscape and the Post-Industrial Soundscape, that took place in the time frame 2018 - 2022 at Academy of Arts, UiT Arctic University of Norway.
Through his field work Rishaug's been tuning in (and out), listening, recording and investigating a wide range of sites and places, their presence, their history, stories, acoustic qualities and psychoacoustic state. This resulted in site specific installations, various collaborations, a solo exhibition, an artist book and a field recording album.
With a growing toolkit of listening strategies, methods, techniques and technology Rishaug's been able to pick up, and record a variety of audible qualities of the Norwegian landscape such as vibration, resonance and electromagnetic waves. This not only highlights the physical presence of current sounds, but points towards the contemporary state of global economy and geo-politics and how this transforms the landscape.
Searching for possibilities - Exploring the potentials of my Qanun performance
(2022)
author(s): Shafeeq Alsadi
published in: Research Catalogue
Over the course of many years of playing the qanun; a trapezoidal middle eastern zither-like stringed instrument, I have noticed how often the instrument has been played within its modal traditional framework, leading me to a perception that the qanun and myself are prevented from discovering more techniques and new potentials. I, hence, have been attempting to explore the traditional manners of treating the instrument with regard to timbre, playing techniques, and different harmonic orientations - while trying to maintain its true qualities and not losing sight of its traditional soul. My aspiration, as well as my method, is to be open to what one can do with the instrument rather than to take a specific approach. The qanun had shown an untapped capacity for expanded techniques and a broader range of sounds that enrich and revitalize the instrument's sounds library. This research has enabled me to stretch my boundaries and explore unknown possibilities, which has helped in the expansion of my own self-expression as a composer. It also paved the way for me to investigate further unexplored potentials of the instrument as this research emphasizes to show the qanun’s enormous capabilities that have yet to be realized.
Discovering the Altera Forma Urbis of Rome through a site-specific project and performance at Garbatella district, Rome. 12-9-22
(2022)
author(s): Andrea Moneta
published in: Research Catalogue
The research enquiry involved experimental research and case study using location-based digital technologies (Geo-Blog) and perception mapping as a further methodological development of Scenarchitecture, a trans-disciplinary methodology developed by Moneta (2012) for reading and interpreting the Genius Loci. It was based on recent work of Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Lugli and his son Pier Maria Lugli (2006) about the ‘Altera Forma Urbis’ of Rome, which investigates the hidden, ‘secret’ structural urban form of Rome in the shape of a ‘Star’. The research was aimed at uncovering old and recent past history of Garbatella district and XI Municipality, as the place in which exists a concentration of urban modifications of Rome, through its connections with Lugli’s studies. Using a hermeneutic phenomenology approach with a focus on making meaning of experiences as they are lived, the research revealed both physical and intangible connections between the Altera Forma Urbis of Rome and its contemporary urban structure within the area of study. Findings evidenced that extending the shape of the ‘Star’ from the original 1st mile radius of the Ancient Rome to 5-mile radius of contemporary city limits, there is a correspondence between the area of study’s main monuments and landmarks with the Star’s generating axes. Evidence of the originality of the findings were an exhibition (Segni Percorsi) commissioned and funded by ‘Urban Centre - Municipio Roma XI’, and a sited performance (Tramandala) commissioned and funded by Festival Teatri di Vetro 3, a renowned Festival of performing arts, and Fondazione Romaeuropa, one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in Europe. Feedback collected during the exhibition and after the performance evidenced the engagement of the audience with the themes and methods of the research. The dissemination of the work included the authored book Scenarchitettura (2012), article on journal Hortus (2009) and research report on Zenodo (2022).