The main method of this project is participatory action research (PAR) (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, and Maguire 2003). A key characteristic of PAR is that research questions, design, data collection, analysis and dissemination are done with the community in control. Rather than being research subjects, the people involved in PAR become full collaborators. This means that the research is typically designed to address a local problem and is action oriented. As a principal guideline, all the team members were encouraged to develop their own sub-goals and methodologies within the framework of the project. Based on the definition of inspiration as ‘mutually appreciated intentional and reciprocal artistic influence based on solidarity’, the benefits of the various initiatives’ outcomes varied. For transcultural artistic research, we assume that the outcomes for different team members may differ significantly, and having a single unified goal is not a requirement.

The starting point of the collaboration was common fieldwork: conducting interviews and excursions, and making audio and video recordings of important celebrations (such as two house-launching ceremonies). It is important to note that the fieldwork took place not only on Lanyu Island but also in Austria. The fieldwork at the latter location included visits to diverse cultural sites, Romano Centro and the nuclear waste storage facility in Seibersdorf, Lower Austria.

Auto-ethnography (Ellis, Adams, and Bochner 2010; Ruiz-Junco and Vidal-Ortiz 2011) was used to summarise each member’s observations, emotional states and interpretations. An internal wiki was used for drafting, while the weblog of the project website was used for more elaborated texts.

Through regular meetings (in person and online), all the participants were kept constantly aware of each other’s activities. The sub-projects were strongly interconnected through shared discussions, reflections and the exchange of information and materials (texts, audio, video). As a result, the project participants were able to continually support and complement one another.

The original design of the methodology or methodologies was created on the basis of an approach developed by Sandeep Bhagwati (called AGNI [analysis, grammar, notation, implementation]), originating from a participatory approach to garden and landscape architecture: the RSVP ‘Cycle Theory of Collective Creativity’ outlined by Lawrence Halprin (1970). AGNI was then extended into the Extended AGNI Methodology by Johannes Kretz and Wei-Ya Lin.

The AGNI methodology uses the terms that form its acronym (analysis, grammar, notation, implementation) in a wide sense. In the analysis phase, researchers observe the practitioners of an existing or emerging art practice. The practitioners are invited to demonstrate their work and discuss concepts, techniques and aesthetic ideas, and they respond to the researchers’ questions. Their comments, integrated into the documentation, provide salient insights into the practitioners’ (inside) view of their work. In the grammar phase, insights from the analysis phase, together with material about this art practice obtained otherwise, are analysed for ‘unspoken rules’. Possible focuses are aesthetics and ethics: are they oriented towards ideals of perfection, social relevance, marketability or the recognition of peers? Which implicit aesthetic and disciplinary hierarchies are at work? And even, which taboos are at work? The goal of this phase is to understand which cultural traditions and constraints or discipline-based axioms are central or peripheral to the particular art practice and to what extent they are central or peripheral. In the notation phase, descriptions of the art practice from the analysisandgrammar phases will be formalised to create various methods of representation suited to the art form. These methods can use any format and any medium. Suitable notations are important for the analysis and creative evolution of unconventional performance practices. Moreover, notations enable us to structurally create new relationships between different modes of expression. In this context ‘scores’ are seen in the widest sense, as ‘symbolisations of processes which extend over time’. 

The usefulness of various notation concepts and tools is then explored. Working from the assumption that the experimental acid test for any notation is its practicability, artist researchers implement several versions of the same ‘piece’ based on different notations. This process includes grafting a model derived from one practice onto the material of another. Such implementations require practical modifications.

An Overview of the Sub-Projects

In this project, the team members were encouraged to define their sub-initiatives, which then interacted as a network of entangled work packages.

One group focused on the contextual analysis, transcription and re-translation of historical song recordings from an archive (1970s–1990s) kept by Veronique Arnaud, stored at the Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie (CREM), combined with our field recordings (video and audio). One of our team members, Tao traditional song expert Siaman Vonganyan (Han name: Chien-Ping Kuo), dedicated his time to translating the songs word by word into Mandarin, collecting background information through fieldwork and interviews, and critically reinterpreting this extensive song collection.

This work was essential for two main reasons. First, the Tao people feel they have been ‘over-researched’, with their perspectives excluded from official historiography. Second, the number of older Tao people (meaning those 75 years old and older) who are familiar with the traditional song repertoires has dramatically decreased. Therefore, it is urgent to work with this material and find elders who are willing and able to share their memories of the content and context of the collected songs. Ultimately, a database of songs – including the sources, authors, background information, translations of lyrics, melody types, etc. (some of which are not available in the CREM archive) – can be created for further artistic interventions within this project.

Some team members experimented with the transformation of traditional songs and the development of scalable compositions. Before delving into the transformation of the Tao’s traditional songs, there were extensive discussions around the following questions:

1.  Can/should traditions, music and language be allowed to change?

2.  How and why does transformation take place?

3.  Who is (or should be) included in the transformative process?

4.  Which aspects are suitable for transformation or what content is suitable for transformation, and which aspects are not and what content is not?

5.  How does social change influence the sound and function of music?

6.  How can musical traditions that are losing their context and function be transformed and integrated into the present day?

7.  Who will benefit from the outcome of the transformative process (including questions of copyright)?

While we did not find definitive answers to all these questions, everyone involved learned a great deal from each other.

The first step in creating scalable compositions was making artistic translations, which involved transforming background information into aesthetically appropriate or genre-appropriate lyrics. This was followed by artistic experiments aiming to explore potential directions and evaluate preliminary results. Based on this, new creations were developed, such as the ‘Garbage Truck Song’. Some team members collectively created a new song to replace Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’ (commonly used as a rubbish truck signal in Taiwan), with new lyrics by Chien-Ping Kuo, inspired by Tao mythology and environmental protection issues on Lanyu Island.

In the final phase of the project, we also commissioned six new songs in Tao and Mandarin from the only (rock) band on Lanyu Island, Wild Thing (with a planned release in 2025). In addition, the Vienna-based rapper Tian Fu was commissioned to create a song (‘Salted Golden Shine’). Both commissions are based on traditional Tao songs. Other artistic genres were also explored, such as those involved in the following works:

1.  The radiophonic composition ‘The Lost Garden of Eden’ by Ming Wang (based on field recordings made on Lanyu Island)

2.  The photo, video and sound installation ‘Songs of Oblivion’ by Hui Ye (based on documentary footage of the prison on Lanyu Island)

3.  A photo exhibition and video installation by Chiao-Hua Chang and Wolfgang Liebhart

4.  An installation/improvisation/composition ‘ASED (... countercurrents ...)’ by Sandeep Bhagwati and Siaman Vonganyan (based on a Tao song recorded in various instances and at various locations on Lanyu Island)

5.  A dance performance combined with documentary video clips created and edited by Si Pehbowen (Han name: Zheng Kuo)

6.  The documentary film Land On by Si Pehbowen

7.  A dialogical creation process,created by Samu Gryllus and Si Pehbowen

8.  The development of the Tao Classroom Platform

9.  The creation of an Interactive Songbook Website for schoolteachers and pupils, allowing them to explore scalable compositions and access original songs, background information and material for their experimentation (in preparation)