Research Catalogue

Dette prosjektet er en kunstnerisk utforsking av stemmens klanglige egenskaper, med utgangspunkt i en klassisk utøverpraksis, og av spenningsfeltet som oppstår mellom tradisjon, teknikk, stil og sjanger når disse konfronteres med hverandre og hybridiseres. Dynamikken mellom elementene som veves sammen, utforskes gjennom begreper og konsepter hentet fra Karen Barad: diffraksjon, intra-aksjon, agentisk kutt, re-turning og entanglement. Jeg lanserer begrepet diffraktiv refleksjon som metode for å anse materialer på nytt gjennom intra-aksjon og sammenvevinger av spacetimematter. Fortiden åpnes opp for å anses på nytt, når tid /rom blir rekonfigurert, kuttet sammen-med/fra, og vevet sammen i nye relasjoner gjennom diffraktiv refleksjon. Alle delene i prosjektet, aktivitet og eksposisjon, er forbundet – entangled. Området undersøkelsene foregår i, defineres som Grenseland. Arbeidet viser hvordan en kan åpne opp – og utfordre – en etablert praksis ved å ta i bruk nye og uvante grep fra andre praksiser.

Reconfiguring the Landscape was a Norwegian artistic research project hosted at the Norwegian Academy for Music and funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU). The project investigated how 3-D electroacoustic composition and sound-art can evoke and provoke a new awareness of our outdoor environment. The work addressed both urban and natural settings. The project was led by Natasha Barrett and included an international lineup of composers, technologists and scientists who contributed in different ways. The project startup was in November 2019, just a few months before COVID impacted all activities. From 2020-2021 the project members worked independently. In 2022 group activities resumed. Research work formally ended in the beginning of 2023, and public dissemination and documentation concluded in November 2023.

Over the last 60 years, contemporary percussionists have been investigating the potential of their instruments beyond established classical techniques, making use of a variety of preparations and techniques, additional electronic amplification and manipulation, and alternative setups. In my artistic research project The Vibrating Drum, I apply my background as a percussionist working in various experimental disciplines towards a consideration of how the vibrating speaker (the transducer) can be used to produce sustained sounds. Over the course of my project, I have assembled a haptic system comprising vibrating speakers in contact with the drum skin, small amplifiers, and iPads, that allows me to create and develop new artistic works for percussion. My methodology entails giving a series of solo concerts, where I present different versions of the setup and material from my ongoing research. I have also introduced my material in collaborative projects and explored how vibrating material interacts with specific acoustic spaces. To produce my formal artistic results, I edited and structured the recorded material, which resulted in two solo albums, a video installation, and a final concert. The aim of this research is to broaden my own practice and to offer a tool for modern percussionists, composers, educators, and others for whom my research and approach would be relevant in the future. 

In Performing Precarity we have been working with several composers staging projects that enhance unstable situations on stage. For Berg & Høeg’s Photostudio I composed the music myself. In this exposition I reflect upon experiences from the process of creating and performing the music in improvisational dialogue with my collaborators in Theater Corpus. What ideas and work methods are available to me in the encounter between puppets, actors, myself and my instrument? How can themes and experiences from the research project Performing Precarity inform the work? My reflections deal specifically with the music, despite the fact that the music clearly cannot to be separated from the whole setting. Many thanks for permission use our material in this exposition; Tormod, Aina, Tuva, Ragni and Daniel.

To be a contemporary music performer today is to have a deeply fragmented practice. The performer’s role is no longer simply a matter of mastering her instrument and executing a score. Music practices are increasingly incorporating new instruments and technologies, methods of creating works, audience interaction and situations of interdependence between performer subjects. The performer finds herself unable to keep a sense of mastery over the performance. In other words, performing is increasingly precarious.