An Embouchure Aid for Wind Musicians
(2023)
author(s): Giuseppe Sapienza
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Giuseppe Sapienza
Main Subject: Classical Clarinet
Research Supervisor: Wouter Verschuren
Title of the Research: An Embouchure Aid for Wind Musicians
Research Question: Assessing whether playing a wind instrument can change tooth position and investigate the effectiveness of an embouchure support device to provide dental support.
This study was inspired by the author's personal experience of discomfort and pain while playing the clarinet and aims to investigate the potential relationship between dental health and clarinet playing, specifically the impact of the mouthpiece on tooth position and stability.
A literature review of previous studies on the connection between wind instruments and tooth movement was conducted. The author collaborated with two professional dentists to develop an embouchure support device called PlayAid. The device was prototyped and tested by the author with a positive outcome.
The study found a correlation between playing the clarinet and an increased risk of dental problems, including tooth mobility, erosion, and discomfort. The upper incisors were the most commonly affected teeth. The literature review showed that playing wind instruments can cause changes in tooth position, specifically an increase in overjet.
Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that an embouchure support device, like PlayAid, can effectively provide dental support for players with dental problems but also for those who exclusively seek better embouchure comfort and sound quality.
The chosen format of a presentation will be a public exposition of the results of the research with a live demonstration of PlayAid.
Impulsive Incantations - Voicing Migraine
(2020)
author(s): Mariske Broeckmeyer
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
When migraine arrives, not only the body suffers. The voice too is impacted by a condition that introduces itself with such great force. As a migraine-suffering singer I notice these changes and become fascinated by the aesthetics of a failing voice in a failing body. This exposition reflects upon the relevancy of Migraine Music as an aesthetic phenomenon and by focusing on the specific area of the vocal and the sonant, I project the issue into a broader context of language, speech and communication. First, I find the migraineur’s voice to be missing as it is silenced by society. Then, I study the failing of the voice when constricted by intense physical pain and I turn to the voice as it is transformed by migraine-specific symptoms. I study these deficiencies of the voice on a theoretical level in order to approach them through my artistic practice as a migraining singer. The artistic work accompanying this research is entitled Impulsive Incantations, and aims at voicing the migraine body through evocative text, vocal improvisations and a migrainous singing technique.
Between Agony and Ecstasy: Investigations into the Meaning of Pain
(2018)
author(s): Barbara Macek
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Pains are moving, alluring us to world-making-activities, attuning our bodies with other bodies and therefore putting us in relation to others. Pains cut into our net of habits, and even the slightest pain causes a transformation. Pains are crushing, deeply distressing, showing us our limitations – but also our capability to go beyond our limits, to outgrow ourselves.
In the course of my literary research for this project I generated 10 PAIN CATEGORIES that I derived from poems, philosophical and literary texts on pain, and my own experiences. These poetical/pictorial categories differ profoundly from pain categories as they are to be found in common pain questionnaires: They refer to the existential dimension of pain and do not differentiate between physical and mental pain in order to overcome the myth of this dichotomy. The next step of my project consisted in going into the field to look at, imagine and feel into pain. I conducted methodical observations in the casualty departments of two Viennese hospitals and developed my own method of "self-reflective observation in the mode of seeing/feeling". The assemblages as part of this exposition present the results of these investigations and reconstruct different perspectives on PAIN as an EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENON.