THE [ W A L L S ] WE CREATE : on distance in research practice
(2023)
author(s): Ewa Łączkowska
published in: Research Catalogue
An interactive, mixed-media artistic research process – using somatic experience, dance, listening, storytelling, and visual arts to ponder on the topic of distance in research practice.
The focal point of this research process has been the somatic feeling of distance and entanglement and exploring those through movement - captured on film, inspired by and enriched with music by Ólafur Arnalds.
The written story is a secondary translation of the research process, formed by the somatic exploration, movement experimentation, painting, and the process of film-making. I’ve used watercolors as an aid to help me translate and express the inquiry in the form of text.
10.1
(2023)
author(s): Levin Eric Zimmermann
published in: Research Catalogue
10.1 is a sound art installation and a sequence of daily performances over a lunar cycle resp. 30 days. It deals with questions about the relationship between art and life, the passing of time and its context in a wider discourse.
INSTALLATION SETUP
The installation view is located in a shop window in a small urban space. It consists of brown sheets of paper hanging from the ceiling of the space that are visible through the storefront windows. On the pages are printed the current lunar cycle, musical notations, text quotations, or quoted drawings. In the lower part of the display window are three instruments. Each of these instruments has three strings that are moved by electromagnets. The resulting sounds are picked up by guitar pickups and sent to tranducers attached to the shop windows so that passersby could hear the sounds through the vibrating window panes.
PERFORMANCE SEQUENCE
Every evening I went into the installation room to play a page of the score with my guitar. Each page lasted as long as the sunset lasted on that particular day in that particular place. My playing was not only accompanied by the magnetic string instruments, but initiated by them, as the instruments began to play as soon as the sun set, signaling me to join them. After the sun set, the instruments played a dedicated night light composition. These night light compositions were composed by me as a daily routine during this lunar cycle. They sounded throughout the night until dawn, when another composition would begin, signaling the transition to the silent daylight.
Bandoneon Explorations
(2023)
author(s): Mercedes Krapovickas
published in: Research Catalogue
This master's thesis explores the augmentation of the bandoneon, an iconic Argentine instrument traditionally associated with tango music, through the integration of live electronics and extended performance techniques. The research delves into the development of a unique system that enables real-time interaction between the performer and the electronics, transforming the bandoneon into a dynamic and expressive instrument. The study investigates the implications of this augmented approach on musical expression, embodiment, and the relationship between the performer and the instrument. Through a series of performances, including collaborations with other musicians and participation in festivals, the thesis examines the practical application and reception of the augmented bandoneon in diverse contexts. The findings contribute to the discourse on the intersection of traditional instruments, technology, and contemporary musical practices, offering insights into the possibilities and challenges of augmenting a culturally significant instrument like the bandoneon.
Nodos Activos + Las Julias Experiment
(2023)
author(s): Yamil Hasbun Chavarría, Pamela Jiménez Jiménez
published in: Research Catalogue
On July the 4th 2023, the Nodos Activos Teams was invited to participate in an event named ‘Las Julias’ as organized by the School of Performative Arts (Escuela de Artes Escénicas) from the Universidad Nacional. An event that allows researchers from the aforementioned school to show the academic community of UNA their ongoing or concluded research experiences. Typically, participants are students and academics from the Performative Arts disciplines. However, Nodos Activos combines an interdisciplinary team of students and academics from Design, Visual Arts and Performative Arts, and its products reflect that heterogeneity.
Thus, the activity was planned as a means to allow Performative Arts students and academics to exit their comfort zones, and explore the research and creation methods, tools and concepts of the visual arts and design fields in a ‘hands on’ activity developed through an active concept of playfulness and abstract thinking-and-doing.
Electrifying Opera, Amplifying Agency. Artistic results. reflection and public presentations (PhD)
(2023)
author(s): Kristin Norderval
published in: Research Catalogue
Exposition of PhD research for PhD fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Academy of Opera, Kristin Norderval.
This artistic research project examines the artistic, technical, and pedagogical challenges of developing a performer-controlled interactive technology for real-time vocal processing of the operatic voice. As a classically trained singer-composer, I have explored ways to merge the compositional aspects of transforming electronic sound with the performative aspects of embodied singing.
I set out to design, develop, and test a prototype for an interactive vocal processing system using sampling and audio processing methods. The aim was to foreground and accommodate an unamplified operatic voice interacting with the room's acoustics and the extended disembodied voices of the same performer. The iterative prototyping explored the
performer's relationship to the acoustic space, the relationship between the embodied acoustic voice and disembodied processed voice(s), and the relationship to memory and time.
One of the core challenges was to design a system that would accommodate mobility and allow interaction based on auditory and haptic cues rather than visual. In other words, a system allowing the singer to control their sonic output without standing behind a laptop. I wished to highlight and amplify the performer's agency with a system that would enable nuanced and variable vocal processing, be robust, teachable, and suitable for use in various settings: solo performances, various types and sizes of ensembles, and opera. This entailed mediating different needs, training, and working methods of both electronic music and opera practitioners.
One key finding was that even simple audio processing could achieve complex musical results. The audio processes used were primarily combinations of feedback and delay lines. However, performers could get complex musical results quickly through continuous gestural control and the ability to route signals to four channels. This complexity sometimes led to surprising results, eliciting improvisatory responses also from singers without musical improvisation experience.
The project has resulted in numerous vocal solo, chamber, and operatic performances in Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States. The research contributes to developing emerging technologies for live electronic vocal processing in opera, developing the improvisational performance skills needed to engage with those technologies, and exploring alternatives for sound diffusion conducive to working with unamplified operatic voices.