The first steps of this research began during my PhD in Sonic Arts, completed in 2022 at MIAM, Istanbul Technical University. I developed a composition model, Response-able Com-position, emphasizing relational and response-able practices in composing with human, more-than-human, and material agents. This framework offers an alternative to isolated, human-centered composer practices, foregrounding relationality, embodiment, and shared agency.
Currently, I focus on sympoietic interactions in instrument-human collaborations, exploring embodied, movement-based models in improvisatory practices. I began this research in September 2024 during a 4-month residency as an artist researcher, at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz where I examine sound-movement continuums between musicians and instruments using movement-based practices for listening and responding.
This exposition is an open-access, evolving project aimed at documenting and sharing the process of working with the sympoietic model as transparently as possible. It will continue to grow, engaging with musicians in both academic and non-academic contexts to exchange insights into theory and practice, with the goal of fostering dialogue and collaboration.
This project is practice-based research that investigates a practice model for sympoietic[1] musicking in the field of contemporary free improvisation and comprovisation. It is driven by my interest in socio-musical sound engagements, and particularly relational connections between humans and instruments (physical material objects and electroacoustics). I explore this relationality with sound-energy-movement continuums with tools based on embodied, and movement-based practices for listening, interpreting and responding.
A Practice Model for Sympoiesis in
Improvisatory and Comprovisatory Musicking
Fulya Uçanok, December 2024
Going Visiting: Towards Sympoiesis in Human-Instrument Relationality (December, 2024) 17’
Audio paper; piano, objects, live electroacoustics and fixed media (speaking voice)
This audio paper introduces the first iteration of my research focusing on some of the topics of my research and translates them into artistic reflections between sound and language. It addresses some of the questions and themes I explore, while demonstrating some of the techniques and sound worlds in my interation with the instrument in an improvisatory setting.
With the audio paper format, my aim is to invite listeners into my ongoing investigation of both thinking and performing with the instrument as it unfolds.
Realized and recorded at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, December 2024.
Unexpected Arrivals (December, 2024) 12’
for six musicians and live electroacoustics
Unexpected Arrivals is composed for, and workshopped with PPCM (Performance Practice in Contemporary Music) students, at the Institute for Electronics and Acoustics (IEM), University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). The piece integrates partial elements of my ongoing research: 1) Gesture and trajectory models, Temporal Semiotic Units[1] and Gesture Archetypes[2] which shape the musical structure, and the listening modes, impacting interpretative strategies. 2) Engaging sympoietic relationality on two levels: a) between musician and instrument/voice through low-level indeterminacy via electronic processing; b) between musicians through amplification and electronic processing, where one musician’s electronics can pick up inputs from others, creating “leakages” that entangle decisions and shape the collective outcome.
Performers:
Beatriz Gaudêncio Ramos (voice), Leah Marie Bedenko (voice), Dacil Guerra Guzman (clarinet), Daniel Dundus (saxophone), Aleksandra Marika Kornowicz (violin), Mario Porcar Rueda (percussion)
The piece was composed at the invitation of David Pirrò for his Live Electronics class.
[1] Temporal Semiotic Units are developed by the Music and Informatics Laboratory of Marseille, for musical (and later visual) analysis, by a group of composers and artists led by François Delalande. TSUs consist of 19 movement trajectory models that express three features: 1) Basic information about the unit, 2) Morphological descriptions, and 3) Semantic meanings. Rix, E., Formossa, M. (Eds), (2008). Vers Une Sémiotique Générale Du Temps Dans Les Arts [Toward a General Semiotics of Time in Arts]. Sampzon: Delatour-France; Musique/Sciences edition.
The Open CUBE series at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) serves as a platform for presenting works in both concert and lecture formats. It facilitates discussions centered on research and fosters a collaborative exchange of ideas. Central to the series is the experimental and workshop-like nature of its concerts, emphasizing exploration and innovation.
Fulya Uçanok presents the practice-based component of her current research, titled "A Model for Sympoiesis in Comprovisatory Musicking," as part of the Open Cube series at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM), University of Music and Performing Arts Graz on December 13, 2024.
The Signale Graz Soirée are intended to form a forum in which dialogue between the institutes of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz to enable intensive exchange of artistic and scientific projects. Two guests, one from the IEM and one from a different department of the KUG is invited to present their current work and field of interests.
Presenting her current research titled: "A Model for Sympoiesis in Comprovisatory Musicking" at the Signale Graz Soirée talk series at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Institue of Electronic Music and Acoustics. November 25, 2024.
