AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) 2023
‘Upbeat: Futures of Artistic Research in Music’
Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen (Denmark) and online
30 March – 1 April 2023
Call for proposals (Deadline 1 January)
The European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) is an initiative of the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC), acting as a resource for artistic research in the specific context of Higher Music Education: sharing knowledge, insights and outputs; promoting and developing the discourse around artistic research; incubating new ideas and developments; and offering support and inspiration to AEC members.
The 10th EPARM conference welcomed music researchers, educators, performers and composers to a three-day exploration of artistic research in music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark.
EPARM supports a pluralistic vision of artistic research, recognizing different possible definitions, methods, and forms of dissemination. Nonetheless, at the core of all such research is the artistic practice itself, which functions not only as an object of study, but as a source of significant questions and a means of pursuing original insights. It is an expectation that presentations at EPARM will include performance or the presentation of original work.
The 10th EPARM conference took the title Upbeat: Futures of Artistic Research in Music and, while presentations relating to any aspect of artistic research in music were welcomed, the peer review panel prioritised presentations that gave some consideration to one or more of the following:
• How we can better prepare emerging artists to conduct AR;
• The place of AR in the curricula of Higher Music Education;
• The future impact of technology and digitalisation on AR;
• How we can learn from artistic researchers in other disciplines;
• How AR can create productive critical encounters that drive change.
To reflect the centrality of performance and musical creation in artistic research, the EPARM conference included a special programme of performances and artistic presentation. Proposals were welcomed for short performances of a maximum of 30 minutes, which were themselves the outcomes of artistic research. Such performances were selected for a programme called L8Nite Performances, with performers contributing to a moderated audience discussion following immediately after the performances. Proposals for the L8Nite Performances followed the specific requirements below.
To support the development of excellent artistic research at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels, doctoral students and early career researchers opted to participate in a facilitated session with a dedicated respondent offering feedback on the presentation and actively leading the discussion. Participants opting for these sessions needed to submit the text of their presentations, together with any relevant audio or video materials, by 1 January.
For the submission the template provided in the Documents section were used.
Proposals for parallel sessions
Proposals for a 20 minutes presentation (including any performance or examples) followed by 10 minutes facilitated audience discussion addressed a clear question or questions that were rooted in practice.
Proposals were sent in Word format and included the following:
• Name of the presenter/s
• Institution
• 150-word biography
• Title that effectively summarised the presentation for a general audience
• A subtitle that gave the research question/focus area
• 350-word description of the presentation, including:
o A clearly articulated research question, issue or problem, relevant to artistic practice in music
o A clearly articulated and appropriately documented relationship between the artistic practice and the research
o Evidence of a critical approach to method
• For doctoral students and early career researchers: an indication that you wished to participate in a facilitated session with respondent.
Relevant additional audio or video materials were welcome when appropriate.
Proposals for L8Nite Performances
Proposals for a 20 minutes performance followed by a 10 minutes facilitated audience discussion clearly addressed the relationship between the proposed performance and the artistic research of which it was an outcome. Performance may be live or, if appropriate, presented by means of high-quality video.
Proposals were sent in Word format and included the following:
• Name of the performer/s
• Institution
• 150-word biography
• Title that effectively summarised the performance for a general audience
• A subtitle that gave the research question/focus area
• A one-page note on the performance, which was the basis of the peer-review process and written in a form suitable for distribution to the audience. In addition to introducing the performance, this note :
o Clearly articulated the relationship between the performance and the artistic research of which it was an outcome
o Indicated the key questions with which the performance engaged
All proposals for performances included a relevant recording (audio or video) of the proposed performer/s.
Performance spaces contained a grand piano, music stands, and an A/V system with screen and PA. Limited additional equipment were provided on request, such as a mixing desk, stereo speakers, and microphones.
For the submission the template provided in the Documents section was used.
Peer Review
A peer review panel composed of the EPARM working group members selected those submissions that were featured in the EPARM conference. The panel sought additional expert input when necessary.
Timetable
The timetable for this process was as follows:
- 21 November: Circulation of call
- 1 January 2023: Deadline for submissions
- 23 January 2023: Results communicated to the applicants (who were required to confirm participation by 27 January 2023)
- w/b 6 February 2023: Publication of the final programme of EPARM 2023 and registration launch
- 30 March 2023: Start of EPARM 2023
Proposals were submitted in Word format using the provided template and sent to AEC Events Coordinator Beatriz Laborda at the following email address: beatrizlaborda@aec-music.eu.
Any submissions that did not follow the guidelines above were not considered.
N.B: Selected applicants were required to register as participants and therefore pay the corresponding fee according to the price category (Representative of an AEC member institution / Representative of a non-AEC member institution / Independent researcher – not affiliated to any institution)
