Projecten

The Ear as an Eye

Francesca Ajossa

Nowadays music is just a few mouse clicks away and comes to us in many different forms; yet, no matter in which circumstances, it is primarily linked to the auditory stimuli that it consists of.

Numerous studies show, however, that visual information also play a fundamental role in the way an audience experiences a musical performance. In contrast to traditional organ performances, where the visual element is almost absent because of the hidden position of the console, the aim of this project is to use the great communicative power of vision to enhance the expressiveness of the performance and possibly overcome the limitations pointed out in the literature through the idea of the “music projected moving bodies”: a danced choreography that is added to the performer-audience line of communication.

Sonic Silhouettes, Musical Movement

Winnie Huang

On the international stage, we are seeing an increasing presence and growing phenomenon of musical-gestural pieces. Musical-gestural pieces feature prominently physical elements for visual aesthetics, explicitly notated by the composer. Notated as musical scores, performed by highly trained musicians, the role of the musical-gestural performer is one that spans multiple disciplines, between music and movement, and requires a multifaceted and highly skilled interpreter with specific capabilities. The rise of this genre, demands investigation from the point of view of the performer providing insight for future artists and academics in this field.

My doctoral trajectory will investigate the collaborative process in musical-gestural pieces. I will develop a performance practice allowing understanding of the skills required, with a focus on notational and practice problematics, and the physical embodiment of the pieces during the process. Research in the genre of musical-gestural pieces will be completed through artistic collaborations with composers in this field, through analysis and examination of the process, and through public performances. Necessary understanding of this phenomenon will create informed composers and performers, and allow the artistic community the unique opportunity to better comprehend this genre, generating broader interest in new musical-gestural works.

Mediated Bodies

Jan Schacher

Music performance with technological instruments questions the relationship between embodied experience, situated cognition and the instrument. Key elements that constitute a present, aware and embodied music performance in an exploratory music practice are agency, intentionality and perceptual attitudes. Based on the experience as a performer on stage, a particular focus is put on the cognitive processes and types of awareness of the body in exploratory music situations. 

Enhancing inspiration

Marina Liontou-Mochament

Aiming to enhance inspiration in improvisation and composition in contemporary modal music, through and towards her artistic practice, this research will first explore in-depth aspects of metric/rhythmic improvisational practices through paradigmatic figures of the 20th century from various modal traditions.