The fields of historical performance and contemporary composition may not seem on first impression to share much. Insofar as the former is dedicated to reproducing the oldest music and the latter... Show moreThe fields of historical performance and contemporary composition may not seem on first impression to share much. Insofar as the former is dedicated to reproducing the oldest music and the latter to inventing the newest, they can easily be understood as fundamental opposites. In context of this precise disciplinary opposition, however, this dissertation locates an opportunity for the advancement of both fields through an interdisciplinary practice and theorisation across them. Much cross-polination has certainly occurred between the two fields already, but it has largely been confined to performance spheres. Theorisations across the two remain rare. Key to the productivity of this dissertation is the identification of a complementary pair of analyses coming out of the two fields in the 1980s: critiques of the authenticity of historical performance on the one hand, with Richard Taruskin providing the classic example, and critiques of the possibility of artistic originality on the other, especially by Rosalind Krauss. Viewed independently, each of these critiques can seem to present a vexing impasse. If historical performers cannot reproduce the past, what are they doing and why does it matter? Likewise, if contemporary composers cannot make anything new, the same questions apply. What can one do but acknowledge one’s shortcomings and carry on? As these debates of the 1980s wound down, this is exactly what happened. Each discipline resigned itself to its shortcomings and carried on as if the critiques had never been made. But a reevaluation is worthwhile, as something much more interesting happens when they are viewed across each other. The ontological problems they describe begin to look eerily similar, and a wide array of practices within both disciplines come to look like fundamental syntheses of mimesis and invention, memory and imagination. What previously obscured or devalued types of music might be freshly empowered by renewed attention to this synthesis? Through comparative study of historical theory, critical theory, art theory, Englightenment and anti-Enlightenment philosophy, and the recent histories of historical performance and contemporary composition, alongside artistic experiments in a potent gray space between the two, this dissertation seeks to understand artistry and historicity in relation to broad ontological and epistemological problems of making and remaking in music. Special potency is found in archival manuscripts of long 18th–century Britain containing anonymous, fragmentary, or damaged notation. Through both compositional and interpretive experiments with these historical extracts of music notation, as well as theoretical reflection upon them, novel ways are found for aurally presenting the rich and complex intertemporality of musical practice and its surrounding cultures and histories. Show less
This dissertation examines the public presentation of fixed media electroacoustic music and investigates the performative capacities which are involved in materialising such music, in order to shed... Show moreThis dissertation examines the public presentation of fixed media electroacoustic music and investigates the performative capacities which are involved in materialising such music, in order to shed light on the question of what performing means in the context of fixed media music, which is prefabricated and presented through loudspeakers in a concert venue. While electroacoustic music production has been the main focus of academic work in this area in recent decades, less attention has been given to its public presentation. Through the process of composing a series of fixed media works and presenting them in various circumstances, I formulate an understanding of the important elements involved in such process. This has resulted in the emergence of concepts and strategies which ground the composition within its performance context, so that the work comes to full existence only in the performance space. Such perspectives shift the focus from the (alleged) fixity of the medium towards the diversity and wealth of the listening experiences that it can engender. This dissertation also includes an audiovisual part; complementary and of equal importance to the written component, by simultaneously expressing its central ideas and demonstrating them in the form of a multichannel fixed media work. Show less
Gabriel Paiuk’s project Mutable Audible investigates how that which is heard – the audible – is formed as inherent to material, collective and technical circumstances. The audible is conceived as... Show moreGabriel Paiuk’s project Mutable Audible investigates how that which is heard – the audible – is formed as inherent to material, collective and technical circumstances. The audible is conceived as not exclusively bound to the private realm of the mind or the will of the individual listener, but as dependent on the diverse operations that inform how a sensorial engagement with sound takes place. To account for the mutable character of the audible, Paiuk postulates a novel concept of sound image built upon the work of the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. This notion is unhinged from previous uses of the term, namely those that define it as a visual surrogate or a mental representation. Rather, the image is conceived as a node in a cycle of functions that articulate a metastable relationship between sensing agent and milieu. The result of this reconsideration is twofold. On the one hand, the sound image is postulated as a tool to address the audible as a variable locus of engagement with the world. On the other, it unsettles assumptions that keep the image anchored to its traditional visual-centric forms and techniques and drives its transformation to encompass the realm of sound. The variable form in which the audible is produced is explored across four artistic works which constitute the experimental backbone of the dissertation. Show less
Schulz, V.; Adema, S.; Gils, L. van; Karten, S.M.; Baumann, H. 2023
This paper proposes a new conceptual framework for the creation of an interoperable metaverse seamlessly incorporating AI and blockchain technologies. To achieve this, current issues of... Show moreThis paper proposes a new conceptual framework for the creation of an interoperable metaverse seamlessly incorporating AI and blockchain technologies. To achieve this, current issues of interoperability within the discipline’s state-of-the-art are first identified. Next, a new virtual ontology of the interoperable metaverse is proposed, inspired by recent developments in assemblage theory and in specific concepts by Gilles Deleuze, Manuel DeLanda, and Paulo de Assis. In the third and fourth parts of this paper, a new technical solution is presented: a taxonomy of Periodic Spacetime Sequences, devised for practical implementation of a new distributed version control system. This solution could offer an innovative framework for the interoperable metaverse, which could be built using the proposed taxonomy. Show less
In this well-documented, bilingual, and richly illustrated catalogue, published for the long-anticipated exhibition Reflected Beauty: Chinese Reverse Glass Paintings from the Mei Lin Collection at ... Show moreIn this well-documented, bilingual, and richly illustrated catalogue, published for the long-anticipated exhibition Reflected Beauty: Chinese Reverse Glass Paintings from the Mei Lin Collection at the University Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong (September 2021-January 2022), the authors give us a profound insight into the phenomenon of reverse painting on glass and mirror paintings, with a particular focus on those from the Mei Lin Collection assembled by the Sinologist, author, and translator Rupprecht Mayer and his wife Haitang Mayer-Liem. Composed of over one hundred works acquired in East Asia between 1968 and 2012, this is one of the world's most important collections of Chinese reverse glass paintings from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Show less
This dissertation and the corresponding films and recordings presented here are an effort to distil an approach to performing the orchestral music of Johannes Brahms that is significantly different... Show moreThis dissertation and the corresponding films and recordings presented here are an effort to distil an approach to performing the orchestral music of Johannes Brahms that is significantly different from what has hitherto been produced in the fields of both Mainstream Orchestral Performance Practice (MPP) and the Historically Informed Performance Practice (HIPP). In the first chapter, I demonstrate how my approach is based on my understanding of historical sources concerning the use of modification of rhythm and tempo in orchestral performance, particularly relating to the work of the conductor Fritz Steinbach and the Meiningen Orchestra. In the second chapter, I describe my role as a conductor in this project, and the way in which I have tried to reinvent and re-implement the tools of modifying rhythm and tempo with my project orchestra. I describe my methodology in four films about each project week in the years 2019-2022. The films show how I evaluated the preliminary results and considered them in following editions and they demonstrate how my perspective changed over the course of the project, as well as how the project was perceived by participating musicians and by experts and audiences. In separate films, I provide examples of modifications of rhythm and tempo as realised with the project orchestra in the recordings. In the third chapter, I describe other characteristics of the project orchestra and its way of playing, including the use of portamento. In Chapter 4, I present recordings of the four Brahms symphonies and the four concertos that were made during the four years in which I conducted my PhD research, 2019-2022. The fifth chapter contains evaluations and conclusions. It also mentions possible future goals and projects. In a separate section I present a list of works and recordings cited, a summary, a short biography and my acknowledgements. Show less
The starting point of Hermans' research is how both children's physical play and dance improvisation by professionals can be considered somatic practices where sense-making manifests itself in and... Show moreThe starting point of Hermans' research is how both children's physical play and dance improvisation by professionals can be considered somatic practices where sense-making manifests itself in and between bodies, and through movement. Hermans makes use of the concept of ‘participatory sense-making’ (De Jaegher & Di Paolo, 2007) to understand the role of movement, and the lived experience, in the way we make sense of self, others and world. This philosophical-scientific premise is closely aligned with enactivism, a movement in cognitive science that claims that cognition is not so much an internal, mental phenomenon as it is the result of the dynamic relationship between an organism and its environment. Enactivism offers an alternative to traditional models that conceive of cognition as an internal information-processing process in which perception and action serve primarily as inputs and outputs. Body, context, and (the lived) experience thus play a crucial role in the sense-making process. Show less
This dissertation explores matters of collectivity, drawing from the experience of working with the Amsterdam-based collective Hackers & Designers (H&D). The main thesis of this research is... Show moreThis dissertation explores matters of collectivity, drawing from the experience of working with the Amsterdam-based collective Hackers & Designers (H&D). The main thesis of this research is that conventional design vocabularies are not capable of sufficiently expressing and accounting for collectivities‘ resistance to fixation and stabilization. Collective design as it is discussed here challenges notions of individual authorship, differentiations between disciplines, between product and process or between the user and maker. While collectives shape particular affiliations and commitments, design approaches and aesthetics, they also require perspectives on working and designing together that resist linearity, and a progress-based understanding of a design process. By means of several case studies, it is argued that the fragmentation of social and work relations is as much a characteristic of collective practice as the effort to sustain long-term relationships.Thus, collective practice is not fully deliberate, at least not in the same way as for instance ‘teamwork’, ‘the commons’, or ‘cooperativism’, are purposeful organizational frameworks for living, working or being together. Collective Collective design processes take part in and are a result of particular (often fragile) socio-economic, socio-technical conditions that pervade and shape the ways collectives function. Show less
This doctoral dissertation explores classical music performance from a curatorial perspective, reflecting upon and challenging the traditional configuration of performance environments. Beginning... Show moreThis doctoral dissertation explores classical music performance from a curatorial perspective, reflecting upon and challenging the traditional configuration of performance environments. Beginning with a consideration for the historical origins of absorbed attention and silence as the dominant mode of performing and hearing classical music, the subsequent chapters of this dissertation investigate alternatives to this mode by exploring artistic creations developed during this research. Informed by my combined experience as a curator and performer in the contemporary music field, these artistic creations use what I call ‘metaxical amplification’: the amplification of environmental sounds that are generally considered noise in the context of classical music performances, and that are therefore rarely considered in relation to the artistic experiences generated by these performances. Metaxical amplification proposes a reconfiguration of the performance environment and the ways in which attention unfolds within it. It also challenges a work-centred performance culture, since the performance mode emerging from this form of amplification is oriented towards the sonic exploration of musical environments through these works. More broadly, it propels the development of a practice in which musical interpretation, improvisation, and curatorial thinking are tightly interwoven. Findings are discussed in close dialogue with literature from various fields including sociology, philosophy, media theory, as well as through related examples from the fields of music, theatre, and the visual arts. Show less
The position of writing within the domain of artistic academic research is not self-evident. In academia, standard practice is to use writing for the transfer of knowledge: it is a means of... Show moreThe position of writing within the domain of artistic academic research is not self-evident. In academia, standard practice is to use writing for the transfer of knowledge: it is a means of communication. In the practice of (nonlinguistic) artistic research, the outcome is also often contextualized in a written argument. This leads to the paradox that, if writing as an art form is to be relevant in and for artistic academic research, it must relate discursively to itself in its own medium in order to achieve that relevance. This paradox has been embraced in this dissertation and research.'Word and Whetstone. Perspectives on writing at the intersection of art and academia' is the outcome of inquiry into the epistemological possibilities and characteristics of writing. The question is whether and how writing as a communication vehicle and as an art form can also serve as a knowledge generator. To investigate this, the practice of writing is thought of as an experimental system, analogous to the scientific experiment. Processes of narrating and annotating generate a dialogical encounter for new insights as well as providing a structure. The material is both the object of research and method. Show less