Exposition

Refiguring composition: artistically researching the contact between composition, improvisation and the outside world (last edited: 2026)

Birgitta Flick
open exposition

About this exposition

Rooted in a composer–improviser’s fascination with a musical composition’s transformative potential, this doctoral artistic research project reflects on the composition through investigating it as a trace of creative interacting. It applies an artistic working method of individual and collaborative compositional experimental setups of iteratively combined creative activities, such as notating or playing saxophone. Interwoven with autoethnographic reflection, this yields a spiral creative-reflective path that focuses both on the activities and their traces, such as notations or recordings, as well as the human being’s perceptive transformations. Drawing on artistic and sociological–philosophical specifications of the human being’s interacting with its world such as Jean-Luc Nancy’s or Hartmut Rosa’s, as well as Sybille Krämer’s and Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s conceptualization of a trace, the project scrutinizes not only the diversity of evolving relations between all activities–traces–participants as transformative tools for each other, but also seeks a new language as a creative–reflective tool in its own right. Through exploring the notion of the trace, as well as creating neologisms such as the musical Geschehen for a specific notion of created sound, a concept of creative practices as being relational and transformative emerges, leading to the notion of a shared creative practice as shared modes of relating. Creative practices such as improvising and composing evolve as epistemological and semantic grids that conceptualize experiences of engaging with traces, alongside an understanding of a composition as a trace that is formed by and affords specific modes of relating to the “outside” world. Artistic results include new vocal and instrumental scores, lead sheets, electroacoustic pieces, and a selection of recordings.
typeresearch exposition
keywordscomposition, improvisation, composition process, artistic research, Tacit Knowledge, artistic practical knowing, listening, artisti experimentation, notation, interaction, collaborative creating
date11/11/2025
last modified28/01/2026
statusin progress
share statuspublic
affiliationArtistic Research Center (ARC), mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
copyrightBirgitta Flick
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2635968/3678635
external linkwww.birgittalflick.com


Copyrights

nameReflective documentation_Birgitta Flick_20260122
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameTranscription improvised song form of 20211208
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameimprov I (while listening to song form 20211208)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameimprov II (on improv I on song form 20211208)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameimprov III (while listening to improv I + II)
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nameimprov II + III together
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namesong form 20211208 transcription sightread by Birgitta Flick, Lisa Hoppe, Antje Rößeler
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Lisa Hoppe, Antje Rößeler
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nameWinter Slices (by Yilin Yang)
copyrightYilin Yang, Birgitta Flick
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nameFirst recording for Circular Composition II, 20220215
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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namewhistle tones in first exploring session for Circular Composition II, 20220215
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameCircular Composition II_Sorrow, piano recording for Chanda
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameKumbhaka
copyrightBirgitta Flick & Chanda Rule
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nameKumbhaka, 20220603, Vienna, mdw, Artistic Research Lab
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Chanda Rule, Ivar Roban Krizic, Gernot Bernroider
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nameRecording 402
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameIn the dark, first draft 20220528
copyrightBirgitta Flick & Chanda Rule
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nameIn the dark
copyrightBirgitta Flick & Chanda Rule
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nameIn the dark, 20220817, Mattighofen, New York City Musikmarathon (phone recording)
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Chanda Rule, Simon Platzender, Thomas Kugi, Mickylee, Ike Sturm, Gernot Bernroider
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nameKumbhaka by Birgitta Flick Quartet
copyrightChanda Rule, Birgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewksi
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nameKumbhaka by Lina Nyberg, James Banner, Birgitta Flick
copyrightLina Nyberg, James Banner, Birgitta Flick, Chanda Rule
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nameArpeggien 20220306 (344)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameRecording 344
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nameSorrow: first piano recording, 20220304
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameCircular Composition II, score (Bb)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameCircular Composition II
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameCircular Experiment II, notation
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Roland Schneider
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nameCircular Experiment III, notation
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzewski
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nameCircular Experiment I
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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usagespdf
nameExperiment IV by Birgitta Flick Quartet
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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usagesvideo
nameColor Studies #10 (For Leslie & Paul) by Birgitta Flick Quartet
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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usagesvideo
nameColor Studies #10 (For Leslie & Paul)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameColor Studies #13 by Birgitta Flick Quartet
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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usagesvideo
nameCircular Experiment II-III by Birgitta Flick Quartet
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski, Roland Schneider
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nameExperiment IV
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameColor Studies #13
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namePulsations
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Antje Rößeler, MV-NRW Musikverlag/GEMA
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usagesaudio
nameCircular Experiment I, Birgitta Flick Quartet, Industriesalon Schöneweide, 20220508
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Roland Schneider
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nameCircular Experiment II, Birgitta Flick Quartet, JazzBaltica, 20220626
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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nameCircular Experiment III, Birgitta Flick Quartet, Donau 115, Berlin, 20220629
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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nameCircular Experiment II, A-Trane, Berlin, Andreas Schmidt & Friends, 20220620
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Andreas Schmidt, James Banner, Max Andrzejewski
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namePulsations, notation
copyrightBirgitta Flick, MV-NRW Musikverlag/GEMA
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nameAdventurous Groove
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Antje Rößeler, MV-NRW Musikverlag/GEMA
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nameBild
copyrightAntje Rößeler, Birgitta Flick, MV-NRW Musikverlag
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nameAdventurous Groove, notation
copyrightBirgitta Flick, Antje Rößeler, MV-NRW Musikverlag/GEMA
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nameExerpt from the piece's premiere (20240201, interacting with the word shapes)
copyrightMusa Horti (dir. Peter Dejans), Birgitta Flick
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nameExcerpt from the piece's premiere (20240201), the piece's end shaped through Peter Dejans
copyrightMusa Horti (dir. Peter Dejans), Birgitta Flick
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usagesvideo
nameThe Enchanted Forest
copyrightMusa Horti (dir. Peter Dejans), Birgitta Flick
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usagesvideo
nameThe Enchanted Forest, score
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameTwo groups "attuning", audio example, 20230903
copyrightMusa Horti, Birgitta Flick
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nameScript for workshop with Musa Horti, 20230903
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameRecording 574
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameRecording 573 Chor, 20231101-2
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namePiano exploration, 20231103
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameTrails of Traces I (November 2023).mp3
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameTrails of traces II (november 2023).mp3
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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nameReconnecting (with) Traces_Transition into the performance's beginning
copyrightProberaum (Nina Perovic, Mina Nočić, Thomas van Walle, Birgitta Flick)
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nameCircular Composition III
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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usagesaudio
namePlanetWoman, score
copyrightZsuzsanna Ardó (poem), Birgitta Flick, Lone Larsen (music)
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namePlanetWoman
copyrightZsuzsanna Ardó, Lone Larsen, VoNo, Josef Sjöblom, Micaela Gillenberg, Birgitta Flick
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usagesvideo
namedossier for VoNo I_part I, 20240119
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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namedossier for VoNo I_part II (score), 20240119
copyrightBirgitta Flick (music), Zsuzsanna Ardó (poem excerpt)
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namedossier for VoNo II_part I, 20240126
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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namedossier for VoNo II_part II (score), 20240126
copyrightZsuzsanna Ardó, Birgitta Flick, Lone Larsen, VoNo
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usagespdf
nameStundenblume (recorded at Sanahin Monastery, 2024)
copyrightMehdi Hesamizadeh, Birgitta Flick
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usagesaudio
nameStundenblume, final score (July 2024)
copyrightBirgitta Flick
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