Because of Knurl’s development, playing or practicing music became an opportunity to test and explore artistic ideas without traditional constraints. My cello practice became a sort of laboratory, encouraging myself to be much more engaged and peticulous towards music making. I became responsible for each sound material from its materialization to its final representation.
Playing Knurl while developing its features, values and mission has not only allowed me to be connected to a dynamic process of cycles, but also taught me to perceive my musical practice as a combination of vertically integrated skills and perceptions. Applying music in this way has allowed me to get closer to a desired artistic expression. As a composer, I always aimed for a musical performance as an end result of a research cycle. With this project, I learned to iterate performances and find strategies to test things on Knurl to achieve a long term goal. Each performance was part of a testing cycle and not a final result. With this in mind, I learned to collaborate, to give time for what was needed and to see problems in a wider perspective.
In the coming subchapters I will present a few practices and its findings derived from my music concepts along with the feedback I encountered from Knurl’s development. The key findings are presented in a section with their related artworks and performances.
