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. 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. These investigations are conceived as boundary-crossing transdisciplinary methodologies through which we attempt to 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.

a lesson in the shadows of death entangled moment of frozen fragments embodying sacred movements through air, body, mind, mattering, voicing as if NOTHING

The Agenda Group is a research group based at KMD, connecting artistic practices "with an agenda". The group enables crossover methods rather than media specificity, allowing space for different participants. "An agenda" is here understood as an aspect of socially engaged art practices. This relates to people, narratives and history alike and is about our shared values and contribution to society as artists. The engagement relates to issues outside of the artistic context and investigates how these issues might be mediated and moderated with artistic means. The Agenda Group is open for all kinds of artistic practices, but the focus of the discussions will be on artistic practice "as crucial to both individual and societal change and development" (KMD Strategic Plan). The relationality between art and society is never as simple as it seems and these reflections involves the thinking of intensity in addition to formats, translation and displacement. In this sense the agenda of an artistic project is crucial to the understanding of its implications. The Agenda Group is a pragmatic platform to connect various members of staff at KMD (artistic-researchers, post-docs, PhD’s and maybe even MA-students). The main purpose is to meet regularly, presenting and discussing the artistic research of each of the group members. An internal critical agenda. Research group initiator: Professor Frans Jacobi

This project aims to explore the ability of playing by ear in order to design a creative and stimulating teaching approach for the development of the skill in piano lessons. The goal is to devise effective strategies for piano instructors, offering guidance on how to effectively advance the abilities of their students. Consistent with Woody’s ideas, playing by ear has been described by educators as a relevant developmental prerequisite to becoming a truly fluent music reader. Nevertheless, making sounds by ear is often just the initial and playful approach to music, and its significance diminishes considerably in education as the skill level increases. In fact, one must not forget the crucial role of the skill, that is the direct connection between music and player (without any interference like the score).

This visual essay explores images generated through AI-based expansion of a simple photographic composition. Without commands or prompts, the system infers human gestures, shadows, and presences — inventing what was never there. The project questions authorship, visibility, and the power of symbolic residue when language no longer mediates creation. It is not about representation — it is about refusal, inference, and the unsettling persistence of images beyond intention.

In a world saturated with sonic and social noise, this project positions listening as a deliberate, ethical, and relational practice. Through a series of interdisciplinary performances and compositions, I investigate how improvisation and spatial acoustics can cultivate human connection, challenge perceptual norms, and activate space as a responsive collaborator. Drawing on theories from acoustic ecology, performance studies, and architecture, particularly the work of Beatriz Colomina, Paulina Oliveros, Blesser and Salter, I explore how environments shape musical communication and identity. Improvisation functions not only as a musical technique, but also as a method of social engagement and shared authorship. This research embraces openness, embodiment, and collective presence as central to how music is created, perceived, and lived.