Thursday 21 March
Registration - informal networking
Pre conference introductory session to the EPARM and its work
Presentation Projects from the Academy of Music University Ljubljana
Opening event
Keynote speech - What is artistic research about? - Rui Penha
Rui Penha – Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (Porto, Portugal)
Moderated by Sean Ferguson (EPARM WG)
What is artistic research about?
Long gone are the days when artists working in academia were forced to circumvent their artistic practices in order to be regarded as proper researchers: nowadays, artistic research is, for all intents and purposes, an established paradigm. But if that is so, then why are we still routinely called upon to explain and to defend it, both to governing agencies, other researchers and even to fellow artists working outside academia? Why are we still writing books and presenting conferences with positional stances on what is — and what isn’t — artistic research? I am convinced that one of the reasons for that resides in the fact that the epistemological grounds of artistic research are yet to settle. We are still in need, I believe, of a clear, concise and elegant answer to a central question: what is artistic research about? We need an answer that is not only accepted by artistic researchers, but can significantly broaden the understanding of the relevance, scope and aim of the artistic research endeavour.
My proposal is to ground artistic research in a relational ontology, albeit one that seeks to establish a clear distinction between what constitutes a relation and what would be best described as a link or a connection. Within such a conceptual framework, the answer to the question above can be a very concise one: artistic research is about the creation and dissemination of relational knowledge. Relational knowledge is not knowledge about the kinds of relations that we establish with things, but knowledge of the ways in which we can and do relate to things. Even if we use words as an artistic material, in relational knowledge we do not use them to speak about the world, but instead to speak with the world, and each form of artistic creation enables a very specific way of speaking with the world. In this presentation, I will strive to: (1) clarify what constitutes relational knowledge, (2) show how artistic research provides the ideal environment to create and disseminate relational knowledge, (3) explain how this conceptual framework can narrow the gap between traditional artistic practices and academic artistic research and, finally, (4) present some practical consequences for an artistic research that is focused on the pursuit of relational knowledge.
Rui Penha
Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (Porto, Portugal)
Composer, media artist, and performer of electroacoustic music, Rui Penha was born in Porto in 1981. He completed his PhD in Music (Composition) at the University of Aveiro. His music is regularly recorded and played in festivals and concert halls around Europe and North America, by musicians such as Arditti Quartet, Peter Evans, Remix Ensemble, Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble or the Gulbenkian Orchestra. He was a founder and curator of Digitópia (Casa da Música, Porto) and has a deep interest on the relationship between music and its technology. His recent production includes interfaces for musical expression, sound spatialisation software, interactive installations, musical robots, autonomous improvisers, and educational software. More recently, Rui has focused his attention on the problems of defining and guiding artistic research in music. He taught at several Portuguese institutions, in both music, art and engineering faculties, and is currently an associate professor at ESMAE, where he also serves as Vice-president for research, and is an integrated researcher at CESEM.
Coffee break
Parallel Sessions I
The Methodology of Historicized Composition in Gvul (Border) and Tshuvah (Return): Historical Dialogue in Negative Space – Daniel Peter Biro – The Grieg Academy – Department of Music (University of Bergen), Bergen (Norway)
Danza Imaginaria Nº2 – A Transcultural Approach to Composition/Performance –Huayma Tulian and Helena Marinho – University of Aveiro, Aveiro (Portugal)
From Communities of Innovation to Commoning – Examining modes of collaboration in interdisciplinary artistic research at the KreativInstitut.OWL – Samuel Johnstone – KreativInstitut.OWL, Hochschule für Musik Detmold, Detmold (Germany)
Break to allow room change
Parallel Sessions II
The Post-Pastoral in Contemporary Composition – Building a practice centred around the entanglements between humans and nature. – Electra Perivolaris – University of Oxford, Oxford (The UK)
Beyond genre: Towards new compositional paradigms; inclusion and consideration in contemporary music.
The utilisation of styles and techniques found in modern electronic sub-genres, as a method of promotion and inclusion; highlighting issues of social importance – Julia Mahon – TU Dublin (Ireland)
Moving Towards Resilience – Joint Creation through Music & Movement for Local, Refugee and Immigrant Children – Georgia Nicolaou – Royal Conservatoire Antwerp , Antwerp (Belgium)
Open Space - Themed discussion chaired by Stephen Broad (EPARM WG)
Concert
Reception
The Place – Plečnikov trg 1, 1000 Ljubljana
Friday 22 March
Information Forum
Coffee Break
Round Table - Repertoires as reservoirs
Panelists:
Lies Colman – Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, The Hague (The Netherlands)
Johannes Kretz – mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (Austria)
Gregor Pompe – University of Ljubljana Academy of Music, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Matthias Hermann – EPARM Working Group
Moderated by Lina Navickaite-Martinelli (EPARM WG)
Higher music education has long been characterised by a strong focus on Western canonical repertoires, mainly consisting of works enshrined in scores. Text-based musicological and music-theoretical approaches have been central to the interpretation, performance and consolidation of these repertoires. In recent decades, spurred by authors such as Jonathan Dunsby, Carolyn Abbate, Nicholas Cook, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and many others, openings have been created in classical music studies for research into music as performance, and for performers to play a crucial role in this as artistic researchers. Artistic research questions the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of musical repertoires old and new: are they to be found in fixed musical products such as scores or recorded performances? Or, by analogy with oral music traditions, should repertoires be conceptualised as the ever-changing reservoir of embodied and aural knowledge that must be performed to stay alive? And what role can artistic researchers play in the disclosing and articulating of repertoires in contemporary music culture?
In this panel discussion, researchers from different disciplines discuss how artistic research can shed new light on the co-creative role of performers in the transmission and ongoing transformation of musical repertoires. In addition, they discuss how different conceptions of repertoire in musical disciplines such as early music, jazz, electro-acoustic music and ethnic music cultures, can lead to new and promising interdisciplinary exchanges.
In addition, they discuss how different conceptions of repertoire in musical fields such as early music, jazz, electro-acoustic music, and non-western music cultures, can lead to new and promising interdisciplinary exchanges.
Lunch
The Place – Plečnikov trg 1, 1000 Ljubljana
Not-the-L8Nite-Performances I
Flung me, Foot trod. Multidimensional Performance in the Post-Humanism – Henrique Portovedo – University of Aveiro, Aveiro (Portugal)
“Oscillations”: An ekphrastic take on Schubert-Müller’s Winterreise – Juan Sebastian Vassallo – University of Bergen, Bergen (Norway)
Embodying harmony – Adapting Clare Fischer and Keith Jarrett to the accordion – Rik Cornelissen – Leuven University/Orpheus Institute, Leuven/Ghent (Belgium)
Break to allow room change
Parallel Sessions III
Cultural Heritage as a Source of Creativity. Exploring the Intersection of Tradition and Creativity in Artistic Music Practice – Sophie de Ruijter – Fontys Academy of the Arts, Tilburg (The Netherlands)
The Insider Experience of Improvisation. Reaching new audiences for classical music through the ’improvisatory approach’ concert model
Pauliina Haustein – Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London (UK)
Expanding horizons – A jazz exploration of 20th century classical music – Peter Knudsen – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim (Norway)
Coffee break
Not-the-L8Nite-Performances II
The creative process and performing xylophone solo and live looping: Affordance and sonic expansion – Helvio Mendes – University of Aveiro and Inet-MD, Aveiro (Portugal)
From Stria to Metastasia – fantastic proliferations of a revived algorithm – Destruction and creation of algorithms as a creative dichotomy and artistic research procedure to explore interpretative space within computer music repertoire – Dustin Zorn – mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Vienna (Austria)
Performing in the 21st century Salon. Reactivation of (Lost) Sociability – Ivana Jelaca – Orpheus Institute/KU Leuven, Ghent/Leuven (Belgium)
Break to allow room change
Parallel Sessions IV
‘Curating the score’: stimulating the creative evolution of a repertoire-based art form. Creating an osmosis between tradition and innovation in classical music performance through a base model for creative-performative practice. – Lies Colman – Royal Conservatoire The Hague, The Hague (The Netherlands)
Circular composition experiments and the Great American Songbook:
Artistically researching the relation between older repertoire and contemporary creative practices through notation.
Birgitta Flick – mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Austria)
The Social Experience of Collaborative Classical Improvisation: Group Flow, Wrong Notes and Magical Moments – Lindsey Fillingham – Guildhall School of Music and Drama , London (The UK)
Break to allow room change
Not-the-L8Nite-Performances III
Eco-Concerto for Piano, Eco-Piano ModEkAl and Prometheus-Cave. How music may be restored to its primitive, natural essence? – Eka Chabashvili and Nino Jvania – Tbilisi V. Sarajishvili State Conservatoire, Tbilisi (Georgia)
Chinese Whispers: An Understanding of ‘Neo-Chinoiserie’ in Contemporary Piano Compositions from the West – Ke Ma – Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London (The UK)
Re-voicing the text: Echo as an improviser – A choral practice of text-based improvisation – Miriana Faieta – Conservatoire L. D’Annunzio of Pescara, Pescara (Italy)
Guided tour of the academy (optional) - Meeting point: registration desk
Dinner
The Place – Plečnikov trg 1, 1000 Ljubljana
Saturday 23 March
Parallel Sessions V
Approaching an Understanding of ‘Historically-Informed Ecological Sound-Art’ – A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time as Case Study for a Nonmodern Ecological Art – Benjamin Tassie – Royal Birmingham Conservatoire , Birmingham (The UK)
The Problems of Piano Accompanying. Characteristics of Work and Well-being of Piano Accompanists at Different Levels of Music Education – A Pilot Study in Slovenia – Miha Haas -University of Ljubljana Academy of Music (UL AG), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Composing for Intercultural Instrumentation: music notation as a mediation between composer and performers – Marcelo Chacur Politano – Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre , Tallinn (Estonia)
Break to allow room change
Parallel Sessions VI
Sonification of movement as a creative interface in Swedish folk music. – Olof Misgeld – Royal College of Music , Stockholm (Sweden)
Citation as musical creation – Reimagining The Mulliner Book in composition and performance – David Gorton et al. – Royal Academy of Music, London (The UK)
Musical-Gestural Processes – Teaching Artistic Research through embodied experiences – Winnie Huang – Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Cologne (Germany)
Break to allow room change
Not-the-L8Nite-Performances IV
Incomplete Subjects (a SoundsTheatre performance) – On the unpredictability of artistic processes – Vahid Hosseini – Conservatorio G. Verdi, Milan (Italy)
Caprice Reimagined – Finding new voices for the natural horn through new commissions and exploring their relationships with old instrument and repertoire – Isaac Shieh – Royal Academy of Music, London (The UK)
Filming Music. The dialogue between performance and camera – Ivan Moshchuk – Royal Academy of Music, London (The UK)
Coffee break
Parallel Sessions VII
Some not-so-fully-written scores. Early 19th-century fantasias as an artistic research laboratory and the case of Maria Szymanowska’s F-major Fantasy – Luca Chiantore – ESMUC, Barcelona (Spain)
Forgotten Tones, Old Instruments, New Music – Invoking 16th-century tonality and investigating historical instruments as a basis for musical invention – James Batty – Royal Academy of Music, London (The UK)
An Experiment in Spectral Jazz – Investigating the inner workings of the jazz band through improvisation and unfamiliar theoretical models – Piergiorgio Pirro and Maarten Stragier – Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, Brussels (Belgium)
