PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION ACTIVITIES
C. In the format provided to you in the course Introduction to Project Management, submit your Brief Description of Professional Integration Activities
1. Describe your Professional Integration Activities.
Knurl lab is becoming a research company (WBSO) with the intention to develop an music product: Knurl, a cello for meaning creators. It has become a reference of new instruments for exploring the potential of hybrid instruments (acoustic-electronic) to be enhanced by its interaction with audiences, social and environmental practices and the concept of reprogrammability (to rebuild the interface system live).
My professional integration Activities is related to exposing Knurl in the global music industry, discovering the best ways to apply an experimental music practice into a social business practice. This PIA involves three scenarios:
Development: The creation of an interface/ instrument
Educational: Documentation of the research at www.knurl-lab.in
Industry: The design a WBSO Company
2. What is the background and motivation of your PIA?
Embracing personal limitations
This project explores how digital (fabrication) technologies and live coding can expand the experience of (classical) instrumental concerts for performers as well as the audience.In addition, the project aims to share knowledge about creating new experimental electroacoustic instruments in a sustainable way. An open investigation format of collaborative R&D, try-outs and concerts is a means of exploring the digital limitations of music-making, and uncovering solutions for some of technical barriers that composers and performers face today by the application of digital tools.
For the future of music practice
My motivation for exploring interactivity inside an instrument is to erase the borders between audience and listener. In my own belief, sharing the power of artistic expression between the audience does not only reinvent an old system of music production, where only the artist is allowed to say something, it is also an empowerful experience for the audience to be listened.
3. What will the final outcome be?
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An Instrument
Description: I aim to conclude a cello design that is hybrid, reprogrammable and portable.
How I Measure:
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How effective is the symbiose of its components / features
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Its sounds quality (sound projection, spectrum)
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How much time and effort does this instrument require to be played, transported, made and repaired.
Challenges: Time is the only challenge.
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A Research company
Description: To ground a small start company based in education and development of a product and artistic practice.
How I Measure:
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How the research contribute in education and innovation areas of its soundroudings
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How unified and effective is its vision, social practice, system of production and marketing
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How applicable is in large scale (global industry or more employees).
Challenges: Bureaucracy and administration
4. Describe the short-term goals for your PIA.
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To conclude a version of recycled carbon fiber and microtonal.
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To find a solution for isotropy in 3d print (with a pros processing technique)
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To understand how speaker enclosure could work (how dense the material has to be)
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To receive from Andrew (Bela) the pick up system (an multi voice electrodynamic pick up)
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To redesign a circuit diagram for this pick up
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To develop the first prototype of an app / web browser for its remote control
5. Describe the long-term goals for your PIA.
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To establish an organization for the research of new music practices
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To sell Knurl
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To offer workshops about reprogrammability / hybrid instruments design
6. In what way will your PIA create value?
First, Music industry has a lot to do in regard to sustainability and fair label conditions. I try to emphasize those 2 points the most into the creation of this practice.
Second, In an electronic music system, the interface can be its biggest limitation. Instead of enhancing its possibilities, music products and devices can easily limit artistic decisions, adding rules and conditions that can hamp musical expression instead of enhancing it. It is weird to realize that most of the current software and designed interfaces are dedicated to only a single process of composition.
The instruments of today should enhance creativity and freedom in music practice. I hope Knurl (my instrument) can shake up and dislodge assumptions about how music is bought, sold, commodified, shared, and experienced. In that sense, Knurl is less a finished, permanent object than an ongoing mode of artistic investigation, a means of exploring the social, ethical, and political implications of music-making, and uncovering solutions for some of the barriers that composers and performers face today.
7. Describe how your PIA is related to your own artistic development
To start, if I may say, success and growth in your career has already a lot of prefefinition from our society: Some people believe that development is related to the amount of audience, other how happy you are with your sound. I do believe that my development as an artist is very connected to my development as a human being. So I can't predict my future in the described situation or context, I can only say that a project with that amount of passion and perseverance will for sure teach me a lot about patience, organization and confidence. I hope that this instrument will be the way that I found myself being complete. Knurl is a life-career project.
8. Describe how your PIA is related to your research.
My Master research is related to exploring audience engagement by new interactive tools (Knurl). Since my goal is to encounter an audience and a new kind of engagement for this specific music practice, I see that I could apply its outcomes into my actions of developing a community around it, applying a business and a social practice.