Research Catalogue

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• MKE2 Onderzoek (last edited: 2019) author(s): Emily Huurdeman This exposition is in progress.
  Onderzoekslessen MKE 2
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  Orchestrating timbre - unfolding processes of timbre and memory in improvisational piano performance (last edited: 2019) author(s): Magda Mayas This exposition is in progress.
  This exposition is part of a Doctoral thesis in Music Performance and Interpretation submitted at the University of Gothenburg. The research investigates the orchestration of timbre from a performer’s perspective as means to unfold improvisational processes, taking its starting point in my practice. I am a pianist in the realm of improvised music, using preparations and objects as extensions of the instrument. Timbre is often understood as a purely sonic perceptual phenomenon. However, this is not in accordance with a site-specific improvisational practice with changing spatial circumstances impacting the listening experience, nor does it take into account the affordances and agency of instruments and objects or the performer’s movements and gestures. I explore timbral improvisational processes integrated into my practice, which is further extended through collaborations with sound engineers, an instrument builder and a choreographer. Through four investigative projects I conduct this practice-based research as multiple combined, artistic and analytical approaches into timbre: I detail vocabulary and technique through systematic mappings in Performative Timbre and Soundmaps; amplification and recording are explored in the creation of spatial compositions in Memory piece; a custom-built device for live spatialization is applied as means to expand and deepen spatio-timbral relationships in Piano Mapping; gestural approaches are used to compose timbre choreographies in Accretion, and diverse perspectives are articulated through dialogues and interviews with other practitioners, e.g. in the Audiopapers. Together, the studies explore timbral memory as a structural, reflective and performative tool and the creation of performing and listening modes as integrated parts of timbre orchestration. The thesis opposes the notion of generalizable, reproducible and transferrable (extended) techniques and instead offers detailed and intimate approaches to technique and material, leading to object timbre, action timbre and gesture timbre as active agents in sound producing processes. Orchestrating timbre forms a hybrid compositional approach, which can be applied to various improvisational contexts and engages with dynamic relationships and reconfigures them; a way of understanding and using the potentials instrument-body-space interactions afford.
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  PANCH Lupe Luzern (last edited: 2019) author(s): Jan Schacher, Margarit von Büren, Zita zb Bucher, Judith Huber This exposition is in progress.
  Wir sind auf (Innerschweizer) Spurensuche und beleuchten die Performanceszene der letzten 40 Jahre: Eine Karte – eine «Performance Archäologie» ist am Entstehen. Wer hat wann, wo, mit wem performt? Wir interviewen Veranstalter_innen und Performer_innen und recherchieren im Stadtarchiv Luzern. ...Wir sind eine (ergänzende) online Plattform: Snapshots berichtet über laufende Veranstaltungen; im Archiv wird vergangenes dokumentiert. ...Wir machen Innerschweizer Akteur_innen sichtbar.
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• Finding Focus (2019) author(s): Susan Williams published in: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
  An important question facing musicians both in the practice room and on stage is “What should I focus on?” There is a great deal of research in the fields of movement sciences and sports that suggests that adopting an external focus of attention – focusing on the intended effects of one’s movements – can be beneficial both for learning and for performance of complex motor skills. There has been very little research done on the effects of external focus on musicians. The aims of this study on external focus were as follows: to translate the idea of external focus from movement science into the field of music (how can external focus be characterized for music-making?); to design several ways to use, test and explore the application of external focus in field situations; and to collect data and find information to elucidate the effects of external focus and the instances in which it can work for musicians. A series of three empirical projects were designed and carried out in both semi-controlled as well as natural environments. The mixed methods research approach included both quantitative and qualitative elements. A music-pedagogical practice tool based on external focus was designed and used in all three projects. The first project involved natural trumpet players (n=7) who practiced fragments of repertoire using an external focus practice tool. Results were compared the their ‘usual’ practice methods. Quantitative data was collected to show the effects of external focus on accuracy, self-efficacy, confidence and motivation of the players. In the second project the same seven players participated in the preparation and performance of a chamber music concert for trumpet consort. The third project involved a chamber ensemble of 18 players including string players, trumpeters and keyboard players. In projects two and three the performances were prepared and rehearsed by using tools and techniques based on external focus. Qualitative data was collected from questionnaires, surveys and interviews. Results from the three projects tentatively supported the overall hypothesis: External focus is beneficial to musicians’ learning and performance experience. Statistical results showed positive effects of external focus on accuracy and suggest a positive trend for confidence and for self-efficacy in performance. Qualitative data from interviews and surveys over the three interventions showed the performers’ ensemble playing was enhanced by using an external focus approach, and that they suffered much less from performance anxiety than usual. External focus could play a larger role in music pedagogy for musicians at every level and stage of learning. The kind of procedural implicit learning that results from using tools based on external focus means that technique (motor control) is being informed by musical intention and not the other way around.
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  Home page JSS (2019) author(s): Journal of Sonic Studies published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
  Home page of the Journal of Sonic Studies
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  Habitual touches (carvings) of beings (2019) author(s): eli eli published in: Research Catalogue
  This is a story of consecvenses of concecvenses of concekvences of concecuences of consequenses of consequences of concequenses and how i almost learned to spell this word. Its a never ending story. I study what was before us, i draw lines and connect. Some lines are direct, others are nonlinear and take crooked paths, where we cannot trace where it all started.
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Mika Elo

Eugene A. Kim
United States

Maiju Loukola
Finland (residence)

Mariella Greil-Moebius

Anna Kholina

Casper Schipper
Netherlands

Tinna Joné
Sweden

Nayari Castillo-Rutz

Yiorgos Hadjichristou