I find it important to note that this research extends far beyond its place as inspiration for a master’s thesis. I came to this work because of my passion for creating art related to place and my emotional connection to places. This work is inherently emotion-driven, and it will continue after the completion of this degree. Even as this piece of writing has grown and developed, I have continued with pieces focused on field recording, analysis, and repetitive structures (such as in the ensemble works say all before [2022], initial gesture protraction [2023], and good day sunshine [2023]) as well as expanding into other forms of interacting with place (such as with metal on wind on metal, a work for percussion and live-triggered electronics which will also be premiered in late April).
I acknowledge that there is much more to consider within this topic which cannot be fully explored within only two years of work. It’s important to note that this research mostly avoids the question of where place is transported and how it is presented in performance spaces; this is especially of worth given my work in both the United States and Europe during the course of this research, and the presentation of the included works in both places. How should place be translated from country to country, region to region, or even room to room? Additionally, many of these works also heavily lean on techniques within multimedia and electronic music. This is not a weakness, but it is worth noting that I intend to continue to press the boundaries of this research as well within the development of purely acoustic works, looking for solutions beyond just utilizing analysis-to-notation techniques.
In the fall, I will begin a Ph.D. in Music and Multimedia Composition at Brown University in the United States. As part of this program, I will continue my research on developing “sonic placemaking” as a synthesis of acoustic composition and multimedia and look to approach more of these aforementioned unanswered questions. From the standpoint of this multidisciplinary research degree, I intend to approach this with a narrower focus on artworks happening outside of fixed time (e.g. sound art and installation art) and performances existing in spaces outside those of the normative conservatory-or-university-centered experimental music community.
As much as I believe in this practice as a way to engage with my personal passion and create aesthetically interesting music, I firmly believe that placemaking in art has the potential to aid social change. Continually-oppressed members of our society, such as people of color and the LBGTQA+ community, are under assault today more than ever; I maintain that engaging with place as a concept and the act of creating place for and with others provides a blueprint in which we as artists can build safer and more inclusive spaces, as is our responsibility as artists to do. If anything comes from this research and its continuation, my main hope is that it brings me and my collaborators closer to succeeding in building these places with others.