Jeffrey Cobbold

United States °1984
research interests: Autobiography, contemporary art, digital humanities, digital storytelling, experimental music, (music) education, practical theology, sound, video
affiliation: Independent researcher
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CV

research

research expositions

  • Love of God - Group Exhibition: A Retrospective Virtual Gallery (2022) author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold published in: Research Catalogue
    Love of God - Group Exhibition Curated by Jeffrey Cobbold September 14 - October 19, 2019 Artworks Trenton, Trenton, New Jersey (U.S.A) 2019 Curatorial Statement: “…I will find you. I will always find you……A loving heart is the truest wisdom……To believe and be satisfied with just the way things are……No one has ever seen God……Jesus……Love is a circle……And what comes around goes around…” The words above come from Love of God (L.O.G) Audio Quotation Database, a DIY online database and digital humanities project I started in 2015 when I was working as an intern within the Love of God Retreat Program in Lawrenceville, NJ. In order to create the database I asked the program’s high school student participants to find quotes about love and God that would help them reflect on the meaning of these words within their retreat program. These quotes are now the heart and inspiration for Love of God – Group Exhibition, which presents works from a selection of artists exploring issues of love and God revealed through artistic practice. The artists featured in this volume are: Jessica Browne-White (sculpture) Jeffrey Cobbold (sound, video, text) Devonte Roach (film) Marina de Bernado Sanchis (drawing) Together they create multiple entry points for one to consider the character of love, God and the intersections of both in our ever changing world. Love of God – Group Exhibition takes on the spirit of the Love of God Retreat Program in Lawrenceville, NJ with its necessity for inclusive understandings about love and God. While Jesus was a central topic of discussion within the retreat program, there was no mandated opinion one was expected to have about him. Rather, the unifying aspect of this program was an affinity for music and the arts within the expression of community. Their community was intersectional, dealing with the differences of varied socio-economic statuses, sexual identities and divergent relationships with the organized Christian church amongst so many other forms of diversity. The retreat program no longer exists as it did in 2015 due the disbursement of its high school participants and changes in adult leadership. The online database is now a relic of the digital humanities project that occurred at that time. Yet, this exhibition is an initial step toward sharing a glimpse of the spirit of this retreat program with others. I sincerely hope that the spirit of this exhibition will connect with you as you search for love and God in your personal life and within the communities you serve everyday. Love of God Community Conversation (Luke 1:5-45) October 12, 2019 Artworks Trenton, Trenton, New Jersey (U.S.A) Featured presentation: "Love, God, and Community" by Simone Oliver 2019 Community Conversation Statement: This community conversation seeks to provide a space for theological and artistic reflection within the Love of God – Group Exhibition. A team of presenters will offer their individual reflections on love, God and community through engagement with Luke 1:5-45. Presenters will also consider the works of contemporary art and case study materials within the Love of God – Group Exhibition to aide their presentations. A time for discussion will be had between presenters and the audience for better articulation and understanding of divergent pathways toward love, God and community that can be useful for work in Christian ministry and contemporary art & culture.
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  • Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling (METADS) at the 14th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research (last edited: 2023) author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
    METADS stands for “Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling”. It’s a special initiative for furthering interdisciplinary arts thinking and production that is inspired by music. METADS’ history started in 2017 with Jeffrey Cobbold’s musically rich digital audio sermon album focused on his autobiographical story as a music educator. Included in the sermon are observational digital stories of various music students, which offer approaches to confronting fear through various modes of truth-telling. In 2020 METADS was mastered by audio engineer Johnny O, who also sang on the song "JOURNAL PROMPT" on the METADS album. The album’s cover art was created by graphic designer Lauren Meyer. In 2021 METADS expanded as a visual art project through Cobbold’s invitation to Meyer to create visualizations for the digital audio sermon album into a comprehensive visual guide/coloring book. Meyer’s involvement in METADS has furthered its progression toward interdisciplinary arts thinking and production inspired by music and storytelling. For the 14th SAR International Conference on Artistic Research, METADS makes an urgent appeal for music educators and musicians to tend to the stewardship of their relationships in music through the creation of their own autobiographical digital stories, offering them as artistic research in this sensitive area of our musical lives. This is an effort to improve professional practice through investigation of relational fears and the expression of rare relational truths that are often concealed or neglected. METADS also seeks to appeal to the non-musician at the conference who engages in personal storytelling inspired by music or other mediums with a concern for the moral fabric of their creative relationships.
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works

  • Becoming a Digital Humanist | An Autobiographical Nonlinear Digital Story (Poster) (04/07/2016)
    Event: Conference, 2016 Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS), Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS), artist(s)/author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold
    2020 audio journal link: https://soundcloud.com/jeffreycobbold/sets/becoming-a-digital-humanist-an-autobiographical-nonlinear-digital-story-audio-journal 2016 DHOxSS conference abstract: This forthcoming six episode digital story demonstrates the power and importance of autobiography. It tells the story of my educational journey from Princeton Theological Seminary to Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. Within the story I explore the themes of race, tradition, individuality and my desired place in the academic area of the digital humanities. Through experimental music, conceptual art and basic documentation viewers are invited to decipher my personal sense of becoming and consider their own sense of self-actualization. Interpretation and exploration of this digital story are up to viewers, as they are encouraged to watch all six episodes in any order they would like to, doing this numerous times to discover nuances and connections within my journey. Viewers are asked to consider the following questions in conjunction with this digital story: What do you interpret about my life or personality from watching this digital story? What aspects of my story, if any at all, resemble your own story as you strive toward becoming your most authentic self? Would you share some or all of my digital story with others, especially persons in the process of working towards a particular type of self-actualization? Why or why not? I believe my project poster is a unique symbol of the digital humanities as it explores concerns within the humanities using an innovative digital story format. It is also a reminder to humanists of all kinds that biography and autobiography are necessary tools within humanities research and that their digital versions can positively assist the contemporary general public with the deconstruction of life’s cultural elements. At Berklee’s Valencia campus, I will continue this process during the 2016 - 2017 academic year within my Post-Master’s Graduate Fellowship for Diversity & Inclusion. I will be working within the Student Affairs Office, assisting programing on gender equality, intercultural immersion, analysis of relational micro-aggressions amongst other pertinent topics related to diversity and inclusion. I will continue my artistic research on autobiography and digital storytelling, honing them as dynamic tools for navigating issues of diversity and inclusion. This artistic research will be in effort to design and teach a new course for Berklee Valencia students, which will help them analyze their converging artistic timelines and personal stories as they exist within Berklee’s Diversity & Inclusion initiative. This course will assist students in claiming their various forms of self-actualization and approach musical collaborations within the Berklee Valencia community with deeper understanding of each other’s similarities and differences.
  • METADS | Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling: Confronting Fear & Becoming True As Music Students & Teachers (digital poster) (20/10/2018)
    Event: Conference, 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, artist(s)/author(s): Jeffrey Cobbold
    2020 Audio Sermon Album: https://soundcloud.com/jeffreycobbold/sets/metads 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum), University of Maryland Conference, Digital Poster Link: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OOpRBwyl8H_fAwcLO7I28ZT7cAu6yOS-EOe1v9JtHbY/edit?usp=sharing 2018 African-American History, Culture & Digital Humanities (AADHum) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Digital Poster Abstract: Music Education Through Autobiographical Digital Storytelling: Confronting Fear and Becoming True as Music Students & Teachers is a 37-minute educational message examining the presence of interpersonal fear and truth telling in music education. The driving force of the message is a personalized artistic research method, which I call “autobiographical digital storytelling”. Through this method I share my personal story as a music educator and graduate student intertwined with spiritualized observations of a music education community, which are presented to listeners in the format of a digital audio sermon. Through this message listeners are invited to reflect on important issues of embodiment vs. knowledge, friendship, community leadership, teacher-student relationships, the art of digital storytelling, loneliness and power dynamics in relation to the challenges of participating in a music education community. The goal of the message is to grant listeners (primarily students and teachers in music education) a beginning at noticing their own intersections of autobiography and digital storytelling for addressing interpersonal challenges within their educational journeys. I believe fostering these intersections can help produce healthier and more sincere interpersonal relationships that strive for rare and important truths to be told within a learning community. My digital poster presentation will share audio clips, research notes, concept maps and artistic tools used to create the educational message. Further explanation will be given to the term “autobiographical digital storytelling” and the choice of using the format of a digital audio sermon to highlight its features. I anticipate this message being relevant to AADHum 2018 as it brings forth my identity as an African-American male arts & humanities graduate student who was developing a moral compass on the margins of various learning communities. Within the interactive digital poster presentation I will invite discussion about cultural & racial authenticity, traditional methods of teaching & learning and the business focus of higher education, which all contextualize the artistic research and pastoral theological concerns which influenced this educational message. Viewers of the presentation, especially arts & humanities students, are invited to bring questions and concerns from their own experiences related to the aforementioned themes.