Something like home
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Nemat Battah
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this autoethnographic arts-based research, I return to the gift of music in my life and use it as the ultimate form of expression. I explore the process of navigating my own transgenerational trauma through composing and working with musicians from different musical and cultural backgrounds. Something like home explores the effect of finding common ground of love and compassion between my family members, especially those who have been navigating the traumas of war. I collected stories, memories, and impressions from my family’s childhood, and composed music that is inspired by them. In the first sections I discuss some concepts related to the transmittion of war trauma , and Bowen’s family system theory. Moreover, I relate to reasearches and projects that have been concerned with trauma art therapy and dealing with cultural trauma through music. As well as showing examples of composers who have been working with similar processes.
In this project, I unfold my compositional process, and I present some possibilities of dealing with harmonizing traditional Arabic music, using partials from the harmonic series. I also share my process of collaborating with a lyric writer and a videographer who have helped me to bring the stories to life.
Throughout the process I discovered that engaging with the stories unlocked new artistic outcomes and some unexpected artistic practices, expressions and results.
Another important outcome of this project was the need for coming up with approaches that were used for transcultural music making and engaging the musicians with the stories but making sure to leave space for their own artistic identities to come across and shine. In the near future, I am hoping to use this project as a basis of my doctoral research project which will focus on memory expression through music by working with the diverse citizines of the finnish community.
Art and the Philosophies of East & West
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Christopher Healey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Art arises either in parallel with or in response to the implicit or explicit philosophies of a culture. Aesthetics and artistic processes have traditionally varied across cultures as a result. For example, the so-called "Western" Classical music tradition which has been influential and widespread throughout much of Europe is distinctly different from the artistic traditions that existed in Japan. Indeed, Japan presents an interesting example for comparison not only because its religo-philosophy is distinct from the Christianity, but because its location resulted in long periods of isolation from other cultures. It is only comparatively recently that the culture of Japan and that of Europe (as disparate as it may be) made meaningful contact.
This essay explores how Japanese art and European art were historically distinct, as well as examining the more recent examples of how this cross-cultural contact has influenced some notable composers.
Recreating musical cultures of the past for the 21st century
(last edited: 2016)
author(s): Arjen van der Heide, Denise Petzold, Veerle Spronck, Helen Piel, Alix Rufas, Sjoerd Bollebakker, Maximilian Graf von Matuschka
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The research presented here is the result of a joint research project from research master students of the program "Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology" (2014-2016) at Maastricht University.
The seven of us have each conducted individual studies incorporating various cases that deal with musical cultures from the perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS).
The research presented here is the result of a joint research project from research master students of the program "Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology" (2014-2016) at Maastricht University. The seven of us have each conducted individual studies incorporating various cases that deal with musical cultures from the perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS).open exposition comments (0)