Investigating Affordances in Networks of "Things"-"Performers"-"Composers" in Multimodal Musicking Labs: A Performer's Perspective 

 

Doctoral Dissertation Project (Dr.art, in progress)

 

Katelyn Rose King 

 

Artistic Research Center (ARC) mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; Institut Interpretation - Hochschule der Künste Bern

 

Supervisors: 

Thomas Grill, mdw, http://grrrr.org

Tasos Zembylas, mdw

Andreas Leopold Dick, HKB, www.leodick.info

Jennifer Torrence, Norwegian Academy of Music, www.jennifertorrence.com

 

Keywords: music laboratories, experimental systems, percussion, electroacoustic music, co-creation, collaboration

 

www.katelynkingpercussion.com

orcid.org/0009-0000-0521-9384

This doctoral project is designed as a series of experiments that investigate the triangular web of performer-/composer-/musicking technology-collaborators during collective, creative practice. The abilities and functions of what I refer to as "electronic-musicking objects" are examined by way of their affordances (Gibson, 1979). Within these highly focused micro-laboratory settings, both conventional and unconventional parameters are introduced to explore often-neglected aspects of collaboration between humans and electronic nonhumans–such as agency, affect, tacit co-creation, problem-solving, and processes of becoming acquainted. Situated within a set experimental system, this research relates itself from the perspective of a percussion-performer but aims to uncover some universal knowledge about performer-composer-thing networks in the fleeting acts of co-creation. 
two people at a table across from one another. one person sitting at a laptop and the other standing, playing a wooden, electronic instrument with cassette tape. the three entities are musicking

Research questions guiding the project:

What knowledge can be drawn from analyzing co-creative music practice through the concept of affordance, in terms of how we deal with composition collaboration, use technology and how we perceive each other? 

In what ways can we capture “data” from co-creative situations, and how will such documentation material come to life outside of the lab?

Methods and Process

The multimodal lab operates through both artistic and research methodologies designed to merge creation and reflection.


Artistic Methods

  • Collaborative Experimentation: Each lab involves a small ensemble of collaborators (human and nonhuman) engaging in co-creation without predefined hierarchies or goals. Composition, performance, and research emerge through doing.

  • Improvisation and Making: Sound materials, tools, and instruments are developed and transformed within the lab.

  • Multimodal Documentation: Video, audio, text, and photographic traces are captured throughout, forming parallel aesthetic outputs. Documentation is not supplementary but compositional—another modality of creation.

  • Open-Door Sessions: Each lab concludes with a performative sharing session in which the public witnesses and sometimes participates in the ongoing process, extending the lab’s epistemic ecology.

     

    Research Methods

    • Experimental System (Rheinberger, 1997): The lab is structured as an evolving experimental constellation where material, human, and conceptual elements interact to produce unforeseen knowledge.

    • Performative Knowledge Production (de Assis, 2018): Following de Assis’s Logic of Experimentation, musical practice is treated as a performative system where knowledge and aesthetics co-constitute one another.

    • Reflection-in-Action Pauses (Schön, 1983): Periodic, randomly triggered reflection moments prompt participants to articulate thoughts or sensations mid-process. These entries, collected across media, form a layered record of lived experience.

    • Ethnographic Observation: External observers contribute notes and perspectives, framing the practice as a social and cultural inquiry as well as an artistic one.

    • Iterative Analysis: Insights are drawn by comparing material from different labs—videos, transcripts, sounds, and reflections—revealing patterns of affordance, agency, and intra-action.