Research Catalogue

'Diffracting the Copenhagen Interpretation: Toward non-local collaborative art practices' investigates the resonances of concepts from quantum theory in the realm of transdisciplinary practice-based artistic research. Throughout a series of protocols using diffractive methodologies, we intend to translate and embody concepts such as spacetime, entanglement, non-locality, uncertainty, indeterminacy, and superpositionality, and embed them as tools for our artistic practices. These concepts were chosen for their singularity in physics, but also for the ways in which they confront ontoepistemic pillars of ‘Modernity’, such as sequentiality, determinacy and separability. The research is carried out by a transdisciplinary non-local core ensemble formed by Søren Kjærgaard, Amilcar Packer, and Carla Zaccagnini. The cities we inhabit – Copenhagen, Sao Paulo and Malmö – have been our laboratories. Departing from tools and methods learned from each-other's disciplines, we have been creating scores that guide our simultaneous actions while walking on the street –interacting with public spaces and their characteristics– or while lying asleep –in the most private of spheres. On the one hand, in a practice we call ‘non-local walking’, scores conduct our collective experiencing of our cities, involving a diffractive methodology of reading and listening, and the entangled collecting of objects, words and other affections found in the urban terrain. On the other hand, the ‘entangling dream practice’ experiment is an attempt without aiming at success of meeting each other in our dreams. Both investigations are conceived as boundary-crossing transdisciplinary methodologies through which we create a relational, critical consciousness and sensing that stimulates unexpected outcomes, embracing failure. These scored performances have resulted in cartographies, drawings, moving sculptures, audio works and writings. Across these various materializations, unexpected connections, constellations, and coincidences e/merge, unveiling yet unheard polyphonies that give resonance to the urban and mental spaces, as potentized terrains awaiting (re)circuitry, and, as fields of forces that await to be (re)experienced.

Documentation of preliminary steps and collection of musical material and related reflections during the first Term of the Master's Program in Improvisation and World Music. December 2022

We live in an age of Symbolic Misery (Stiegler, 2014). In this era, we listen to the same music, scroll through the same Instagram feeds, and we immerse ourselves in daily lives that are the same as others, gradually losing the 'singularity (Stiegler, 2014)' of individual difference. This homogenized structure of perception continuously reshapes our subjectivity (Simondon, 1958; Hui, 2016), making individual desires no longer emerge from unique experiences or internal generative processes, but are increasingly induced and regulated by external technological and symbolic systems (Stiegler, 2015). In this context, the question is no longer 'What do we produce?' but rather, 'Do our desires still belong to ourselves?'. As Stiegler (2014) pointed out, in order to enter the market more effectively, marketing technologies have developed an industrial aesthetic system centered on audiovisual media. This industrial aesthetic re-functionalizes individual sensory experiences following industrial interests, aiming to produce a replicable and controllable unified taste through the standardized pleasure. This huge 'desire project (libidinal management)' manipulates human drives for externalization through a diversity of apparatus (Agamben, 2009; Foucault, 1977), generating a sense of 'participation' via formalized interaction, restricting the level of perception and expression (Stiegler, 2015). Through daily repetition, this process gradually weakens the individual’s ability for subjectivation, trapping them within a passive structure of desire (Stiegler, 2014). This exposition is based on an artistic research project titled 'I Don’t Know Who I Am', an installation game. It invites players to watch a five-minute monologue, the story of a cow (inspired by, for example, Lacan et al., 2001), to explore the secrets hidden within this cow’s desire. After watching the video, the player will face a plate of real grass with soya sauce, and be invited to make a choice: whether or not to eat the grass. This installation game encourages players to reflect on a critical question: At a time when industrial aesthetics and subjective experience standardize individual desire, is increasingly hollowed out, where do our desires truly come from? Do they still emerge from internal generative processes, or have they long been preconditioned and disciplined by technological objects and symbolic systems?

This study dives into the realms of games and music, examining their history and the recent interest in the intersection of their features. The proliferation of research surrounding these two distinct yet interconnected fields has led to the emergence of new theories, reflections, and applications. While historical perception has commonly conceived "play" as a less serious activity, particularly in academic and artistic environments, this study explores how recent artistic movements have reclaimed its significance. Both games and music contribute to a particular cultural proliferation. Moreover, the technological landscape has further amplified the impact of these artistic endeavors, with entertainment platforms experiencing widespread dissemination and an exponential increase in user engagement. Drawing inspiration from prior research, the study aligns with other analytical frameworks while consciously narrowing its scope to the performer-composer relationship. This intentional focus aims to delve deeper into the intricacies of this dynamic without dismissing the importance of the audience, framing it as a subject of debatable relevance within the study's specific analytical scope. In conclusion, this study offers a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between games and music, shedding light on their shared history, contemporary developments, and the dynamics between performers and composers in the evolving landscape of artistic expression.

Throughout our musical history, many female composers’ figures and legacies have always remained overshadowed in the male-dominated realm of 19th- and 20th-century music. Eugenia S. Osterberger (1852–1932) is one of them: a remarkable and overlooked Galician composer who blended Galician and Spanish traditional music with European academic styles. This research aims to shed light on Osterberger's life and work by performing her compositions with my instrument addressing the central question: “How can I share it engagingly with the audience?”. To carry out this project, the methodology involves a literature review of Eugenia’s context, story, and compositions; archive fieldwork to find the scores; the process of arranging and adapting her music for oboe or English horn; identification of Galician and Spanish folklore footprints and other styles in her pieces; and revision of tools for engaging audience. The culmination of this research will be to have all the essential tools to be able to create a performance that combines narration and music to bring Osterberger's legacy to life, making the audience enjoy and connect with my emotional engagement and with the composer. In addition, it is intended to make a new contribution to the repertoire for oboe and English horn and raise awareness of under-represented voices in music history, which may inspire others to rediscover forgotten composers.

Editorial of the inaugural edition of ARJAZZ Journal for Artistic Research in Jazz (May, 2025)