Programme booklet York seminar 2011

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ïnn UNlvnnsïïy *W Embodiment fu=àr Experiment A two-day seminar: 10th - 11th May 2}tt ilRFï{E{3fi K }{Sf I T[5 {JT The Department of Music at the University of York has a long-standing interest in practice- based research, whether in social contexts as with its MA degree in Community Music, in the extensive research undertaken by PhD composers, or its new PhD in performance by portfolio, established three years ago and recently graduating its first PhD. The present two-day seminar, "Embodiment íÊ Experiment", brings together expertise from both institutions. We are also delighted to welcome our distinguished keynote speaker, Professor Rolf lnge God4v, and an additional researcher, Jan Schacher, from another of the Orpheus lnstitute's partner institutions, Kunst Universitát Graz. This is the second York-ORCiM seminar - the first took place a year ago - and forms part of the ongoing collaboration between the institutions. The seminar aims to explore the relationship between two observations: firstly, that experimentation is inherent to artistic practice and to the processes of music making; secondly, that composition, improvisation, performance and listening are all embodied practices. We wish to examine the ways in which experimental approaches to music making can reveal the embodied character of musical exchange and perception, articulating significant aspects of tacit knowledge. Wílliam Brooks & Catheríne Laws (co-conveners) Mdtthew Lawson (ad ministrator)

description

The Department of Music at the University of York has a long-standing interest in practicebased research, whether in social contexts as with its MA degree in Community Music, in the extensive research undertaken by PhD composers, or its new PhD in performance by portfolio, established three years ago and recently graduating its first PhD. The present two-day seminar, "Embodiment vs Experiment", brings together expertise from both institutions. We are also delighted to welcome our distinguished keynote speaker, Professor Rolf lnge God4v, and an additional researcher, Jan Schacher, from another of the Orpheus lnstitute's partner institutions, Kunst Universitát Graz. This is the second York-ORCiM seminar - the first took place a year ago - and forms part of the ongoing collaboration between the institutions.

Transcript of Programme booklet York seminar 2011

Page 1: Programme booklet York seminar 2011

ïnn UNlvnnsïïy *WEmbodiment fu=àr Experiment

A two-day seminar: 10th - 11th May 2}tt

ilRFï{E{3fiK }{Sf I T[5 {JT

The Department of Music at the University of York has a long-standing interest in practice-based research, whether in social contexts as with its MA degree in Community Music, inthe extensive research undertaken by PhD composers, or its new PhD in performance byportfolio, established three years ago and recently graduating its first PhD.

The present two-day seminar, "Embodiment íÊ Experiment", brings togetherexpertise from both institutions. We are also delighted to welcome our distinguishedkeynote speaker, Professor Rolf lnge God4v, and an additional researcher, Jan Schacher,from another of the Orpheus lnstitute's partner institutions, Kunst Universitát Graz. This is

the second York-ORCiM seminar - the first took place a year ago - and forms part of theongoing collaboration between the institutions.

The seminar aims to explore the relationship between two observations: firstly, thatexperimentation is inherent to artistic practice and to the processes of music making;secondly, that composition, improvisation, performance and listening are all embodiedpractices. We wish to examine the ways in which experimental approaches to music makingcan reveal the embodied character of musical exchange and perception, articulatingsignificant aspects of tacit knowledge.

Wílliam Brooks & Catheríne Laws (co-conveners)

Mdtthew Lawson (ad ministrator)

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Tuesday l0th May

Events are in the Rymer Auditorium unless otherwise stated.

1330 - Coffee and Welcome

1400 - Three Presentatio ns. Choir: Kathleen Coessens

r KVSwalk_SOLO (Juan Parra)

KVSwalk-SOLO aíms to research the possibilities and limitations of physicality and embodiedmusicality in computer music performance. The musical structure is centered around themetaphoric imaginary, as well as sonic derivatives of the Karman Vortex Street phenomena.For its ensemble version, a set of 'high-order parameters' were defined for each performer,favouring timbre variation and texture density control over pitch and articulation variety.KVSwalk-SOIO is a solo computer version of a piece commissioned by the Orpheus lnstitutein Gent and the lnternational Music Council premiered by the ORciM ensemble and ChrisChafe (CCRMA) the Orpheus Research Centre in Music Festival on September 16, 20j.0. TheSolo version features a mixed setup consisting of an analog/digital sound-generation engineand a custom controller that demands from its performer to use physical gestures derivedfrom a variety of 'traditional' musical instruments.

Juan Parra Cancino (b. Chile, 1979)

Studied Composition in the Catholic University of Chile and Sonology at The RoyalConservatory of The Hague (NL). As a guitarist he was part of several ensembles related toGuitar Craft, a school founded by Robert Fripp. He collaborates regularly with artists likeFrances Marie Uitti, Richard Craig, KLANG and lnsomnio Ensembles. parra is founder andactive member of The Electronic Hammer, a Computer and percussion Music Ensembledevoted to the creation and promotion of new music and Wiregriot, a voice and electronicsduo that seeks to reconstruct the repertoíre for thís format. He is currently a phD candidateof the Leiden University(NL) and the Orpheus lnstitute (BE) focused on performancepractice in Computer Music, supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds, and thelnstitute of Sonology (NL). Since October 2008, he has been appointed as associateresearcher for the orpheus lnstitute Research center in Music (oRciM).

One Step Beyond: Fínding Theatre in Music; how pieces suggest their theatricslcontent vio means of theír performonce (Morag Galloway)

ln this session lwill be discussing a work in progress, lnvisibte Hand.fhis piece is for stringquartet and dancer, and the composition process has been placed on hold whilst the dancerengages with the idea behind the piece to generate appropriate material and vocabulary.Ïhis compositional hiatus will enable workshop time to experiment and explore ways inwhich the dancer and the movements embodied in the string players performances willinteract with one another. This interaction will then be used to shape and re-involve theínitial musical material.

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Morag Galloway

Morag Galloway is a part-time PhD student studying composition at the University of Yorkwith Roger Marsh. Her area of interest focuses on the 'space' between music and theatre,and her pieces explore collaboration and multi-media approaches as well. Morag is a part-

time Lecturer in Composition at Leeds College of Music, as well as a professional directorand photographer. For more information see moraggalloway.com.

Sounded Gestures ond Enocted Sounds

(Catherine Laws/Bill Brooks/Damien Harron)

Musicians make physical gestures in playing their instruments; so much is obvious. Somegestures are practical, resulting in sounds: a hand depressing a key, a beater striking a gong.

Others are communicative (a cue given to colleagues); some are theatrical (the head thrownback in excitement). The study of these behaviours is of much interest to researchers

interested in the embodiment of musicianship, in practice-based and practice-enhancing

research. Taxonomies of gesture are being developed and applied; particularly useful is thepreliminary work done by GodOy and Leman in Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement andMeaning (Routledge 2009). 'sounded gestures and enacted sounds' will apply and extendtheir work, investigating the relationships between physical and sonic gesture in the musicof a piano-percussion duo and applying the results in performative and compositionalcontexts. ln particular, the research will be informed by a series of composed etudes whichtake physical (rather than sonic) gesture as the starting point, but with an understanding ofthe specific correlations and divergences between gestural and sound content. The intent is

to examine composition as choreography, but a choreography in which the intimate relationbetween the physical and the sonic is embedded.

Today's presentation is very much a preliminary report on the research project describedabove. The first three phases of work have entailed: (1) preliminary readings into and

conversations about the conceptual framework; (2) two days of intensive work at thelnstitute of Electronic Music and Acoustic (lEM) at the University of Graz, Austria; (3) thecreation of the first of a projected series of etudes, which receives its first performancetonight. The conceptual basis for the work will be addressed in short presentations byCatherine Laws and William Brooks; Catherine and Damien Harron will then summarize thework conducted at lËM; and finally all three presenters will discuss the first etude from theperspectives of composer and performer.

Catherine Laws is a musicologist and a pianist specialising ín contemporary music. She is a

lecturer in Music at the University of York, and a Seníor Research Fellow at the OrpheusResearch Centre in Music, Ghent. For ORCiM, she is currently working on practice-basedresearch projects on the performance of Morton Feldman's late piano music, processes ofcomposer-performer collaboration, and the relationship between physical and sonic gesture.Her other primary research focuses on the relationship between music and language,

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particularly the musicality of the work of Samuel Beckett and composers' responses to histexts.

William Brooks is Professor at the University of York and also Emeritus Associate Professorat the University of lllinois. He has been a Senior Research Fellow at ORCiM since 2009 andis also head of the Editorial Board for ORC|M publications. ln addition to the present workon gesture, his recent contributions to discourse at Orpheus and York have included a paperon the essential characteristics of experiment in music; several papers, presentations, andperformances of or relating to work by John Cage; and an recent and ongoing project in

collaboration with Stefan Óstersjó and the digital ensemble Trembling Aeroplanes.

1545 - Coffee Break

L615 - Keynote Presentation

o lmages of sound, postures ond trajectories ín music (Rolf lnge eodoy)

Chqir: Cotherine Laws

One intriguing issue in musical composition, improvisation and performance is how images

of musical sound are generated and/or recalled in our minds. We have seen various works in

the field of musical imagery that try to address this question, and recently it has become

clear that musical imagery in many cases is closely linked with imagery for music-related

actions. This suggests that it could be a good idea to try to explore the nature and use

of motor imagery in musical contexts, and in our current research we try to do so by a moresystematic study of postures and movement trajectories in music-related actions, i.e. in both

sound-producing actions and sound-accompanying actions such as in dance or various kinds

of spontaneous movements to music.

We try to look at how what we call key-postures in music-related actions, meaning the

shape and positíon of the sound-producing or sound-accompanying effectors (fingers,

hands, arms, torso, other body parts) at certain salient moments in time such as at variousaccents or other peaks, can serve as orientation points as well as triggers for images ofmusical sound and music-related actions. Between such key-postures, there are continuousmovement and sound trajectories that encompass many prominent musical features. Withthis model we believe we can combine the continuous nature of sound and motion withdiscontinuous, chunked, or 'snapshot' type images of sound and motion, inspired by Pierre

Schaeffer's ideas on the sonic object. ln my talk, I will present background material for this

model of musical imagery by key-postures and trajectories, as well as some of our current

work in this area.

Rolf lnge Goddy is Professor at the Department of Musicology, University of Oslo. His main

area of research is phenomenological and cognitive approaches to music theory, presently

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with a focus on

musicalsound.the links between images of human movement and the experience of

1745 - Leisure time and wine

1830 - Buffet dinner

2000 - Evening Concert

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Threeway (Hans Roels / performed by york students)

KVSwa I k_SO LO (Juan Pa rra)

Troces (Jan Schacher)

Ash Dome (Jon Hughes)

lnterval and transfer to Sir jack Lyons Concert Hall (tbc)Le corps à corps (Georges Aperghis / performed by Damien Harron)Prelude (Bill Brooks / performed by catherine Laws and Damien Harron)

Wednesday l1th May

0930 - Two Presentations. Chair: WÍtliom Brooks

The performance of hyperpolyphonic music - a conflíct zone between gesture andsound (Hans Roels)

ln my research as a composer and performer I develop a performance practice in whichplayers focus mainly on their own actions and sounds while perceiving actions and soundsfrom other performers on a lower consciousness level as if they were further away. Activeinteraction with other performers happens only sporadically in this kind of performancepractice. The music that is composed in this research consequently allows a lot of temporaland stylistic freedom to the voices or layers. This results in what I have labelled'hyperpolyphonic' music.

ln this presentation I claim that gestures and movements in hyperpolyphonic music are asource of confusion that sígnificantly hinders the synchronization of the different parts thatare being played simultaneously. This claim is based on artistic and systematic experimentsthat were performed by the author with groups of 3 or 4 musicians.

The artistic experiments consist of two compositions; the first one uses visual gestures andthe second one auditory earmarks to synchronize the four players. The reactions from theperformers and the amount of rehearsal time spent on synchronization indicate that theperformance comfort is higher if the interaction between the players is based on auditoryinformation. ln the composition where the synchronization was realized by visual cues thebody movements carried contradictory tempo information and a lot of rehearsal time wasnecessarily spent on the synchronization of the different parts.

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ln the systematic experiments a trio played works with predefined constraints (on rhythm,

tempo and pitch). ln one part of the experiment the performers were visible for each other,

in another part they were invisible. The data from these experiments were obtained by

audio and video recordings together with an Optitrack motion capturing device. The data

were analysed using Music lnformation Retrieval methods and statistics in order to detect

tempo instability, rhythmic irregularity and the amount of entrainment between the players.

The results clearly indicate that the tempo instability and rhythmic irregularity are higher in

the sessions where the performers are visible to each other'

Hans Roels studied piano and composition and during the 15 years that he was active as a

professional composer his works were played in several European countries. Between 2001-

and 2008 he was responsible for the concert programming in the Logos Foundation, a centre

for experimental audio arts. Since October 2008 he is working on a Ph.D. in the University

College Ghent (Belgium). Since 201-0 he also works as a researcher in the Orpheus Research

Centre in Music (ORC|M) in Ghent' More info:www.hansroels.be

e 'Traces' (Jan Schacher)

Traces is a piece for wearable sensors and electronic sounds. The sounds are captured,

shaped, displaced and transformed by the interpretation of traces of movements and

gestures in a bodycentric space. ïhe performer navigates a mental space where the

instrument, with its sounds and transformation processes is layed out.

One of the goals of the piece is to explore embodied interaction with an abstract musical

instrument through empty-handed and open-air hand and arm movements. By deliberately

stepping away from traditional ways of playing electronic music instruments through mixing

desks, keyboards or mice the affordances of abstract movements for musical performance

become apparent. The combination of visible actions and gestures with directly or abstractly

linked sounds creates mental images both in the performer and the audience. Movements,

actions and gestures are perceived as something akin to a sign language. The signs and

gestures evoke dance, music conducting or even martial arts, yet exist in a domain of their

own. The sounds range from directly captured breathing and vocal sounds to instrumental

raw materials transformed and rendered abstract through a variety of processes related to

movements and gestures. On stage the physical presence of the performer presents the only

point of focus. No other elements are visible, thus emphasising the invisible nature of the

electronic instruments and opening the perceptual space for body expression'

Jan Schacher - The Swiss double bass player, composer and digital artist ian Schacher has

been active in electronic and exploratory music, in jazz, contemporary music, performance

and installation art as well as writing music for chamber-ensembles, theatre and film. His

main focus is on works combining digital sound and images, abstract graphics and gestural

performance in the field of electronic music and in mixed-media projects for the stage and in

installations. Jan Schacher has been invited as artist and lecturer to numerous cultural and

academíc institutions and has presented installations in galleries and performances in clubs

and at festivals such as the Résonance Festival in Paris, the Sonar Festival in Barcelona, the

Transmediale Festival in Berlin, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, the Edinburgh Festival,

the Singapore Arts Festival and many other venues throughout Europe, North America,

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Australia and Asia. ln addition to his artístic work, Jan Schacher is also an AssociateResearcher at the lnstitute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the ZurichUniversity of the Arts. He holds a Masters in DigitalArts from the Pompeu Fabra Universitat.

1030 - Discussion

L100 - Coffee Break

1130 -Three Presentations. Chair: Aine Sheil

e There is olways more than meets the ear - embodied negotiation and associationin performonce (Kathleen Coessens)

"There is always more than meets the eye, and perception can never outrun itself or exhaust

thepossibilities of what it perceives..." (Merleau-Ponty) .

"Music only has meaning when it points beyond its own structure to other structures and

relationships - that is, to realities and possibilities around us and within us." (Lachenmann

Iee4)

This lecture will explore the conflation of music, culture and subjectivity at the level of themusician's - corporeal/embodied - acts and expressions. We will consider both a semioticperspective which takes into account the position of the performer beyond the score and a

phenomenologically informed, experience related account. Music of the late 20th centuryquestioned in the first place the traditional intra-musical aspects concerning compositionand analysis. At the same time, timid approaches challenged also the traditional artistichabitus and the traditional instrumental techniques. While discourse about cultural position

and reaction are embedded in historical and musical analysis discourses, the scores interfereprofoundly with the performer's embodiment, her/his artistic habitus and her/his personal

experiential corporeality. I will focus on the fracture between socially acquired artistichabitus (Bourdieu, Mauss, Foucault) and extra-traditionally elements related to performancepresent in the scores of different contemporary composers - Gyorgy Kurtag and HelmutLachenman - and how this fracture urges for an experimental approach by the performer.

By considering examples in the writings and compositions of these musicians, I want toexplore from the point of view of the performer how contradictions and - explicit as well as

implicit - body-related indications question culturally acquired schemata and subjective

embodiment - both the own physical (artistic) corporeality and the personal embodied

sedimentation and memory. This performer's point of view will involve a consideration ofboth the societal and the individual, the objective and the subjective, the semiotic and thephenomenological, theory and practice. The body as a natural system of symbolizing will

k7h-

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have to cope with cultural instructions and influences. The performer needs to negotiatebetween these elements. The examples drawn from practice will question the body inperforma nce from d ifferent perspectives:

1. the body as a díscourse or text (the inscription by culture and education, the aestheticdisposítíon, the cultural norms and the academic/artistic discipline)

2. the body as expression and meaning (the communication of emotion, imagination; therelation between synaesthetic and kinaesthetic means of expression)

3. the body as object or system (the mechanism of the body, the nature and location ofhuman agency; movement and the corporeal space)

Kathleen Coessens' research is situated at the crossings of science and art, human creativity andcultural representations, looked at from an embodied, epistemological and philosophical point ofview. She graduated in piano and chamber music at the Conservatory of Brussels and the Ecole

Cortot at París; at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, she studied philosophy, sociology and psychology.She was awarded her doctorate in 2003 with her thesis, The human being os o cartogropher - copingwith the olreody epistemized world. A reworked publication will follow in 2010 as The Human Beingas o Cortogropher. She is professor and post-doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel(VUB, Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science), senior researcher at the orpheus Research Centrein Music, Ghent, and guest-professor at the Conservatory (Artesis Hogeschool), Antwerpen. Sheteaches 'semiotics', 'sociology of artistic practice' and 'arts and performance culture'. She recentlypublished The Artistic Turn - q Monifesto (2009, Leuven University Press) with Darla Crispin and AnneDouglas.

t 'Jdzz is where you Íind it': embodying jozz on BBC terevísion, 1946-66(Jenny Doctor!

Between the late 1940s and the mid-1960s, a number of jazz series were specificallychoreographed for BBC television. Programmes such as Jazz is Where you Find lt, Jazz Sessionand Jozz 625 were created in terms of a particular jazz culture that represented British interestsand audiences of the day. How did the creators organize and plan their filming of thesetelevisual programmes in order to frame and embody improvisatory practices in music as

encountered in iazz? Filming improvisation then was almost oxymoronic, given the encumbranceof cameras and other equipment, the restricted shot possibilities and the limitations of livetransmissions. Looking at stage plans, camera scripts and other papers that survive at the BBC

written archives in conjunction with extant audio-visual recordings, I will explore the statedstylistic aims of the producers in terms of filmic possibilities of the time. Several significantquestions materialize from this process, which I approach answering using the lens of philip

Auslander's concepts of mediatized liveness. Just what did the BBC accomplish throughaudiovisual transmissions of live iazz in performance? How did the BBC go about embodying jazz

performance, from both the point of view of the studio audience and the audience beyond theeye of the camera?

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t Mobility os an enabling condition of artistic experímentatíon (Anne Douglas)

An earlier paper on interval (Douglas 20L0) focused on the paradox of movement, such as

walking that is simultaneously continuous and discrete. The breaks and pauses in continuityprovide opportunities for creativity to intervene and change direction, to vary patterns. By

utilising artistíc languages of sign and symbol, such as notation, we understand the body'smovements while it is moving.

This related paper will focus on another aspect of movement i.e. mobility between our inner and

outer selves. This mobility, I argue, can be viewed as an enabling condition in the construction ofa certain kind of knowledge in relation to art. - knowledge with rather ïhan knowledge obout(Shotter 2005). Knowledge with is achieved through experimentation with the body working inthe world. Knowledge obout poses conflicted experience as a problem to be solved andexplained by finding an agency that is responsible.

"Both in the case of perception and in that of buililing a skill, a person must actively meet his

environment in such a way that he co-ordinates his outgoing nervous impulses with those thatare coming in. As a result the structure of his environment is, as it were, gradually incorporatedinto his outgoing impulses so that he learns how to meet his environment with the right kind ofresponse" (Bohm in Shotter 2005).

ln art, managing our inner and outer selves in ways that produce the 'right kind of response' is arecognised skill. ln making art and in artistic research, we seek to grasp through experimentationwhat is real in life by looking, observing, reflecting and associating. Our inner predisposition tomove and be moved mentally and emotionally, to be active and to participate, arguablyproduces the conditions for change and transformation.

Klee articulated mobility in its simplest, most essential forms by experimenting with line. Goethelocated the individual in the world as 'the most sensitive research instrument', arguing that'every object, well perceived, opens up a new organ of perception within us'. Working with theknowledge of their processes of experimentation, I reflect on a visual example: a body ofdrawing within the project Calendor Voriations (2010-11). I explore the emergence of new workthrough simple processes of making marks as the most direct expression of my body's gesturesand variability. Challenging habituated modes of drawing, I trace development, working withKaprow's 1971. Calendor 'score as poem'. The score acts as a means of entering into theaesthetic imagination of another artist, much as a performing musician might engage with a

musical score. lt also articulates a process of mobilising my own inner resources in an intenseexperience of the physical and social world in which I happen to find myself. The traces that areleft are not concerned with knowing about i.e. re-presenting Kaprow's world in California as arthistorian turned radical experimental artist, although these facts inform my understanding.lnstead the score catalyses a focus and set of actions in which my inner and outer worlds cometogether intensely and experimentally for a period of time within a method which informs a

different understanding, one closer to Shotter's articulation as a knowing with. The paper

Fh oflE

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concludes that what is created in the process is 'infected', 'shaped' by others, transitory,

developmental while also part of a continuity.

Prof Anne Douglas is a visual artist and director of the On the Edge research programme at

Grays School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. She ís also a Senior Fellow at the

Orpheus Centre of Research in Music (2007-11l'. Her research focuses on the dynamic role of the

artist in the public sphere through a range of issues including artistic leadership; contemporary

art and remote and rural cultures; the aesthetics and ethics of working in public. She co-

authored 'The Artistic Turn - A Monifesto', Leuven UP 2009 with Kathleen Coessens and Darla

Crispin.

L300 - Lunch

1400 - Two Presentations. Chair: Jenny Doctor

t From Globokar's Toucher to the eye-tracking cutting edge devices, o survey of theevolution of body percussion within the Western culture (Enrico Bertelli)

This particular genre has settled in a unique space within the Western Classical Contemporaryrepertoire, a crossbreed between the folk based body percussion culture and composed pieces

for music theatre.

Since the early Seventies, composers have seen the percussionist as the most versatile amongperformers, always ready to reconsider his "job description" and very accommodating towardsthe weirdest requests. Percussion scores started showing primitive choreology, Sprechstimme

and a growing interest in the human body as a primary source for sound.

lf the MlDl revolution províded us with electronic drum kits and tuned percussions - let's notforget Kraftwerk's earlier experiments * it also generated the drum suits. Exceptionally popularboth in Experimental and Pop music, Anderson's (1986) Fleetwood's (1987) prototypes are theforefathers of hi-tech machinery that extended, to infinite, the body percussion capabilities.

Enrico Bertelli: Deeply interested in Contemporary Music, with a special emphasis on thePercussion music repertory. A rich background mixes the theoretical preparation achievedthrough university, with the instrumental skills gained through intense studies at theConservatoire and at the various master classes. Works closely with composers, investigating thepossibilities of percussion instruments and trying to push the conventional boundaries as in theUUCMS project for percussion and live electronics. Firmly convinced of the importance of an

informed performance, constantly approaches every piece both as a performer and as a

musicologist. This duality helps achieve a better understanding of the music and enables

communicating with the audience with sounds and words. Studied in Venice (BA), Verona (Perc.

Diploma), Cardiff (Erasmus & MA), York (PhD candidate). Follows master classes with Ensemble

Recherche and Modern and all the Percussive Arts Society ltaly meetings. Recent performances

include: residency at L'Arsenale Atelier 2010 (Trevíso - ltaly), New Music New Media in

sb

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Aldeburgh and at Kings Place - London, X-Musíc (venice), sensorium Festival (Dublin, york),Darmstadt lnternational Musíc School, Universities of York, Huddersfield, Leeds, Hertfordshire,Padova (ltaly), Late Music Festival (York), Festival omaggio a (Acqui Terme - ttaly), Luigi NonoFestival (Trieste, ltaly), computer Art Festival 2009 (Padova, ttaly), Transart resiival (Bozen -Italy), Klangspuren Festival (Schwaz, Austria), lnternational Ensemble Modern Akademie -lEMA09 (lnnsbruck, Austria), Leeds Metropolitan University, Napier's University (Edinburgh)Collaboration with composers Martin Matalon (lRCAM), Johannes Maria Staud (Austria),Stephen Davismoon (England), Dinu Ghezzo (NYU), Northern school of contemporary Dance(NScD - Leeds), AIAF - Asolo lnternational Art-Film Festival (Asolo - ITA), Libera Uníversidad deMadrid (SPA), Sonic Fusion Festival (Edínburgh - Sco), Cardiff Collective New Music Ensemble,second Prize concorso del Teatro Filarmonico di Verona (rrALy).

r Ash Dome - composítion ss qn embodied process (Jon Hughes)

Communication through donce can be both artistic ond personally tronsformotive. I interpretembodied memories into donce: the weight of my heort when a friend moves awoy; or thelightness and warmth of my husbond' s breath on my cheek as he sleeps; my mother, s hondsgrocefully attending to me. I creote the donce by identifying the inner impulses and motchingoppropriote efforts ond movement quolities with them. The embodiment through movementof something personally tragic can be transformed into o contracting torso, spiratingdownword movements, ond heoviness. Conversely, meaningful donce con olso come about ifI arbitrorily move using different weight, shope, time, qnd spoce quolities. t equate thisimprovisotional form of dance to verbol brainstorming, where verbal ossociations eticit ideas.Movement of this type owokens my body os knower and enables me to transform themovement into ddnce through elicited images, sensotions, and thoughts. !

This paper will be a follow up to a video showing of Ash Dome (7:30pm, Tuesday 10th May,Rymer Auditorium), a new dance piece created in collaboration with simon Birch(movement artist and head of performance studies at NSCD) and commissioned by theNorthern school of contemporary Dance in March 2011. Ash Dome was created in responseto the work of the British Sculpture David Nash. one of Nash's'growing pieces,, Ash Dome isa ring of ash trees plantedin 1977 by Nash in Welsh woodland, carefully manipulated forover 30 years to grow into a dome. This work creates both a resonant sculptural form and ameditative physical space. I see here a connectíon with the dance performance andrehearsal space, a focal point in both tíme and space where the body is allowed freedom ofexpression, and where the full dynamic range of movement and physical expression ispermitted. Working ín this place has been a valuable source of inspiration for me as acomposer, and I will be attempting to communicate why by exploring relationships betweenmy compositional process and dance, and by looking at composition as an embodiedprocess.

Ion Hughes is a composer based in york. He is currentlycomposition at the University of york with professor williamJack Lyons Research Scholarship. Recent work includes Ash(20711 with movement artist Simon Birch, The Women of

in his first year of a phD inBrooks, supported by the SirDome (2011) and TimelinersTrachis, a dance drama for

1 Betty Block and Judith Lee Kissell. The Dance: Essence of Embodimenf. Journal of TheoreticalMedicine and Bioethics, V ol 22.

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Javanese Gamelan and electronics performed in York 2010, and Kumo No Uta for soloshakuhachi and electronics (2009). At present he is working on Arts Council supportedproject with Simon Birch, Terrarium, and an installation for two dancers to be performed atvarious locations in the not too distant future. ln May 201L he is developing a new piecewith the dancer Anthony Middleton (Ballet Boyz) as part of a weeklong residency atYorkshire Dance in Leeds.

1500 - Final Discussion and Conclusion

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