Introduction
I am a classically trained clarinetist who is looking for ways to reach a more complete form of artistic expression. I have the feeling that I cannot express all of my ideas through my instrument and that there are things that I cannot convey with music only. For this reason I started looking for other forms of expression in other disciplines. In the final performance of my bachelor studies at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, I combined music with other media such as self-created written texts and visual elements. This helped me more fully express my artistic intentions. With this research, I continue this artistic exploration into other media and disciplines with the aim of developing even more fulfilling forms of artistic expression.
This research deals with the question of how to expand my performance palette and express myself artistically using multiple media. This question brings along other questions such as what I understand by multiple media, or multimedia, the nature of my relationship with these different media, and the best way to combine them.
My research method consists of the exploration and experimentation with different media, combining them in ever-shifting constellations in a number of performances developed throughout my master trajectory. In this exposition I gather and analyze the insights of this process based on a journal kept throughout the process, and in which I retrace my steps and the artistic and practical choices that I make. Furthermore, I study literature reflecting on the topics of the research. This helps me reflect about and articulate my choices and intentions. I also look at work by other artists working in ways similar to mine or whose artistic search is similar to my own. Exploring their work gives me inspiration but serves as well as a source of comparison and reflection about what works and what does not when combining media and different forms of expressions.
In terms of outcomes, this research culminated in a multimedia performance held at Studio Loos, The Hague, in February 2023. This exposition includes documentation, a description of and a reflection on the artistic processes of creating this multimedia performance, Stilstaan in de wolken, where I merge composed and newly self-created music, text and visual elements. The reflection is also a map of the decisions made during the creative process, the experiments that I did towards the realization of a multimedia performance, my sources of inspiration, including earlier works of mine and works by other artists, and finally, how the different media used in the performance relate and interact with each other. I hope that the insights presented here can be an inspiration for other artists who, like myself, are seeking to expand the boundaries of their instruments and media.
In the chapter 'The nature of my relationship to different media' I reflect on my relationship to different media, including music, text, visual art, complementing my thoughts with reflections on the tradition and limits of classical music performance by music philosopher Lydia Goehr, music philosopher Leo Samama and philosopher Walter Benjamin's writings on photography.
In the chapter 'The artistic process of creating the multimedia performance Stilstaan in de wolken' I reflect about the processes of creating my own multimedia performance. The elements that I discuss include the methods I used to define the theme and atmosphere of the performance; musical experiments that helped me free myself from the score and the existing repertoire to explore my own sound world; the creation of materials such as photos and texts that later became part of the performance; graphic scores used to guide the performance and musicalize my texts; creation of multimedia works for the performance; description of the Try Out performance in October 2022 including some works of the final performance; the first conceptual phase of Stilstaan in de wolken; the creation of other new multimedia works for the performance Stilstaan in de wolken and the analysis and documentation of the final performance Stilstaan in de wolken at Studio Loos on the 12th of February 2023. I intersperse the analysis of my own processes with the description of relevant and inspiring works by artists John Cage, Claire Rousay, Carola Bauckholt, Celeste Oram and Kalea.
In the 'Conclusion' I talk about what I have learned from doing this research and what kind of performer, person and artist I have become.