"No Self Can Tell" by Laasonen Belgrano, E. and Price, M.D.

The research explores 'ornamenting' as a transferable method in inter-disciplinary studies, inter-faith dialogues and artistic/therapeutic practices. Adapting techniques of Renaissance musicology, the processes we have developed de-create and re-create vital connections. It is a communica-tions strategy for times of crisis. Starting with simple sonic relations we extend the method far be-yond its traditional musical setting. The practice utilises 'Nothingness' as a component of creativity, providing a novel response to figurations of nothingness as mere negation. Preliminary results sug-gest its potential as a counter force to nihilism and social dislocation. The work divides into four areas. 1. Primary research on relationships between sound, meaning, and the sense(s) of self, exploring how sense is made of Otherness via processes akin to musical praxis: consonance, dissonance, 'pure voice' and ornamentation. 2. To apply this new perspective to a range of exile experiences – mourning, social disconnection, ex-communication and aggres-sive 'Othering'. 3. To investigate the cancelling of normal time-conditions in crisis situations such as trauma, dementia, and mystical experience, relating non-linear temporality to creative practice and healing. 4. To widely disseminate our results and methods as contributions to the methodology of artistic research via journal articles, live workshops and performances, and a book of original, praxical, testable, and teach-able interventions.

Before the beginning...

"there is a strange and fertile over-lap: a yet-to-be mapped liminal zone"

Thus the four main objectives of the research are:

1. To investigate relationships between sound, meaning, touch and the sense(s) of self. This sense of self of course implies 'the sense of an encounter (or being touched) by/with/through the 'Other'.

2. To investigate how we make sense of Otherness via processes akin to musical praxis: most notably consonance, dissonance, 'pure voice' and ornamentation.

3. To investigate the cancelling of normal time-conditions in a variety of 'non-normal' situations: trauma, dementia and other mental conditions, ecstasis and so-called 'mystical experiences'.

4. To investigate the relationship of this non-linear temporality to trans-generational trauma, especially where collective trauma 'ripens' long after the empirical events.

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