Sonic Conversations for Double Bass, Berimbau and Sámi Joik: Shaping Identity in the Third Space
(2020)
author(s): Nathan Riki Thomson
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
This exposition presents, unpacks and discusses the effects of intercultural dialogue and collaboration on the formation of an individual personal artistic identity, through the lens of two musical duets. These artistic research case studies are centred around the author in dialogue with a Brazilian berimbau player and a Sámi singer, which act as focal points to examine how intercultural dialogue and collaboration can impact on the formation of a personal artistic identity and how the third space emerging from a transcultural dialogue can be a catalyst for new musical discoveries. In addition, I consider the kinds of musical and communication skills that are needed to co-create music in a transcultural context and which kinds of ethical issues arise.
The core thread of discussion and argumentation is centred firstly around the idea that by placing oneself in diverse and unknown musical environments and engaging in dialogue, a dynamic third space emerges, which holds within it the opportunity for new elements and approaches to surface and take shape in unexpected ways. And secondly, I propose that searching for points of resonance with the world around us may be crucial in the creation of meaning and the formation of a personal artistic identity. Although the practice of music making is at the core of this research, the work is viewed with a wide-angle lens, acknowledging findings that point to the importance and potential benefits of increasing intercultural dialogue, understanding, collaboration and resonance at all levels of society. Discoveries also emerge within the areas of extended instrumental techniques and an expanded sonic palette for the double bass, as well as the creation of new music.
This exposition zooms in on two examples from my complete artistic doctoral project at Sibelius Academy, Uniarts, Helsinki, namely the two sonic conversations for double bass and berimbau, and double bass and Sámi joik.
Music in the making: identities and personality at play
(last edited: 2026)
author(s): Jonas Howden Sjøvaag
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
This artistic research investigates what kind of music arises from multiple musical identities. The answer is the album III, a collaborative work with guitarist Juhani Silvola, supported by a research exposition that documents and reflects upon the creative process, and an extensive timeline showing it as it unfolded.
The main argumentation within the work revolves around the importance of distinguishing between musical identities (plural) and personality (singular). The rationale behind this is to generate productive creative friction – to use the knowledge of multiplicity as a tool – to identify and push against boundaries and have knowledge from one identity inform, and expand, another.
Identities are multiple, situational, and enacted through doings: (in my case) the drummer, the singer, the producer, the programmer, et al. They coexist, each with its own expectations, vocabulary, and criteria for success. Personality, by contrast, is shown as the continuous thread – the container in which all identities meet and negotiate, providing coherence without dissolving difference. The research unfolds across three phases: Startup, Deconstruction, and Assemblage.
Methods include archival listening (revisiting accumulated recordings as material to draw from, either through self-gratification or analysis), physical and material constraints, custom software tools, and playing my instruments. In some cases, peripheral projects became ‘methodological sites’, allowing for focused and longer-term exploration and research. Spirit of Rain, Be Like Water, and a duo with Hans Martin Austestad, all function as experiments where methods combine and generate knowledge.
A central concern is the role of machines in creative practice. Noting, but not necessarily drawing on, philosopher John Searle's (1980) Chinese Room Argument and the concept of procedural agency, this work follows a line of thought in which machines may exhibit tendencies, but not personality. What emerges from human-machine collaboration is shaped by this asymmetry. The exposition, built using HTML and hosted in the Research Catalogue framework, is not a linear argument entirely, but rather a pathway through sounds, texts, videos, and fragments – organized semi-chronologically and tagged by function. It demonstrates that answering a question about musical identity requires both artistic result and theoretically aligned reflection.
Mediating Musical Identity
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): PAN
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A salient feature in all forms of jazz accompaniment since the 30s is the walking bass, which is “a line played pizzicato on a double bass in regular crotches in 4/4 metre, the notes usually moving stepwise or in intervallic patterns not restricted to the main pitches of the harmony”. The most developed virtual instrument of mine is the Walking Machine, which is thoroughly described in my thesis A Field of Possibilities (Nilsson, 2011) as well as in the ICMC 2008 proceedings. There are however a number of predecessors, as well as successors up to a present rendering, which together make up a work story of virtual walking bass instruments. Heard in the rear-view window, despite using quite different technologies, concepts and algoritms, it displays different sameness, variations of a permanence that mediates aesthetic preferences of its inventor and player, in this case within the realm of walking bass accompaniment.