Jazz / Pop Singing at the Crossroads of Movement and Musical elements
(2024)
author(s): Daniela Fanelli
Limited publication. Only visible to members of the portal : KC Research Portal
Research question - How can focusing on the connection between body movements and the key musical elements of rhythm, lyrics/mood, pitch and dynamics positively affect the expressiveness and vocal freedom of jazz / pop vocalists?
When considering the attributes of captivating performances, jazz and pop singers often tend to underutilize their bodies on stage. This observation prompted a deeper examination of the interplay between body awareness, singing, and movements, resulting in the question “How can focusing on the connection between body movements and the key musical elements of rhythm, lyrics/mood, pitch and dynamics positively affect the expressiveness and vocal freedom of jazz / pop vocalists?”
The research aims to address this question through a series of investigative stages. Firstly, the analysis of my 2023 end-of-year performance revealed a clear correlation between gestures, expressiveness and the four musical elements mentioned. Further research supported this finding and led to the development of movement-focused singing exercises, whereby vocalists sing while consciously engaging their bodies in alignment with each key musical element individually. This methodology underwent testing with six vocalists, yielding valuable empirical data.
The data shows that this set of exercises can be a helpful, holistic tool in increasing expressiveness, enhancing awareness and improving embodiment while singing, as I have also experienced for myself. By sharing this research, I hope to encourage all musicians to deepen their connection with themselves, their instrument, and the audience through movement and body awareness.
Embodied Wave
(2024)
author(s): Yegyeong Cha
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Interactive Media Design
Since the Covid19 pandemic began, we have to wear a mask to protect ourselves. Not being able to see full facial expressions and hear the voice can be crucial to the interaction of speaking a second language. Additionally, with most of our physical routines online, it has become impossible to see the whole body, making it difficult to observe non-verbal messages. This thesis explores the ideas of how we can communicate more efficiently if the current phenomenon continues. How could we communicate when our language delivery is impaired?
It argues that communication obstruction caused by the mask worn can be overcome
with bodily communication with gestures and eye contact. Gestures as a symbolic action and eye contact as a window by emotionally synchronising brain waves require a deeper level of contextual and emotional exchange. Empathising from a desire to understand and to be understood can break a blockage by connecting together. Furthermore, the thesis suggests what mindset and position we need to take when experiencing difficulties of cultural differences during bodily communication. If we keep the gestures simple and embrace the embodied cultures and co-learn the diversities, we can go beyond language and connect globally.
Various Writings: Chapter One
(2018)
author(s): Dion Star, Lizzie Ridout, Maria Christoforidou
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
VARIOUS WRITINGS: CHAPTER I
There are rumours that writing will cease, books will die, the digital eye will take over. Standing at the edge of this precipice we look away from these preoccupations. Instead we look back, investigating the act of writing through systematic consideration, attempting to disregard all preconceptions. This exposition focuses on the gestural and uses Vilém Flusser’s concept of ‘pseudo writing’, to analyse the interaction between the physical actions and the technologies of writing.
The first act of Various Writings’ was a response to Vilém Flusser’s text The Gesture of Writing. This text radicalised our ideas on what constitutes research and thematised the conditions of sharing in ‘other’ terms. Flusser meticulously disassembles the act of writing. We follow in his footsteps, using personal mythologies, Oulipian constraints / translations, taxonomies and non-verbal conversations as implements to excavate relics of writing. We collect codes, tools, surfaces; test writing against various technologies and translate it into movements, attitudes and objects.
Some works and their afterlife
(2018)
author(s): Mika Elo
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
In this exposition I present a cluster of works with regard to their subtle interconnections, often not consciously constructed or intended in any particular ways at the time of their conception. The afterlife of these works, however, enact aesthetic intra-actions of their ensemble. Shedding light on some parts of this cavernous network of pressing matters I make an attempt of explicating the ways in which artistic thinking might get "diffracted" into many part-processes that are both divergent and entangled. In the course of my presentation, I try to be sensitive towards the fact that these strings of thinking are distributed in a complex manner across the divide of sensibility and intelligibility. In terms of the chosen approach this implies avoiding the use of discursive explanations as the main medium of explication. This "method", if it can be formalized as one, involves priorizing the material circumstances of particular articulations, both verbal and non-verbal, over content-oriented gestures of translation.
Jazz / Pop Singing at the Crossroads of Movement and Musical elements (copy)
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Daniela Fanelli
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Research question - How can focusing on the connection between body movements and the key musical elements of rhythm, lyrics/mood, pitch and dynamics positively affect the expressiveness and vocal freedom of jazz / pop vocalists?
When considering the attributes of captivating performances, jazz and pop singers often tend to underutilize their bodies on stage. This observation prompted a deeper examination of the interplay between body awareness, singing, and movements, resulting in the question “How can focusing on the connection between body movements and the key musical elements of rhythm, lyrics/mood, pitch and dynamics positively affect the expressiveness and vocal freedom of jazz / pop vocalists?”
The research aims to address this question through a series of investigative stages. Firstly, the analysis of my 2023 end-of-year performance revealed a clear correlation between gestures, expressiveness and the four musical elements mentioned. Further research supported this finding and led to the development of movement-focused singing exercises, whereby vocalists sing while consciously engaging their bodies in alignment with each key musical element individually. This methodology underwent testing with six vocalists, yielding valuable empirical data.
The data shows that this set of exercises can be a helpful, holistic tool in increasing expressiveness, enhancing awareness and improving embodiment while singing, as I have also experienced for myself. By sharing this research, I hope to encourage all musicians to deepen their connection with themselves, their instrument, and the audience through movement and body awareness.