James Saunders presented a paper on the role of heuristics and decision making in open form compositions at the Ninth Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, held in Manchester at the RNCM from 17-22 August. James has been exploring the application of ideas drawn from game studies, behavioural science and decision making…
We are pleased to invite papers for the Loder Family and Music in Provincial Britain Study Day on Friday 16 October 2015, organised by Bath Spa University’s Centre for Musical Research in collaboration with the Holburne Museum. There will be keynotes from Emeritus Professor Stephen Banfield (University of Bristol) and Professor Rachel Cowgill (University of…
Wednesday 12 February 2015. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. Game compositions prioritise rules and processes over material and content. They operate on the participants, facilitating inter-personal exchange in dynamic ways. Such pieces question the role of composers, recasting them as facilitators who open up spaces for interaction, or as referees who mediate performances. The paper examines…
Wednesday 29 January 2015. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. This two-part presentation explores some of the current themes and theories that surround creative practices. Part 1, presented by Chris Lewis-Smith in the Commons Preview Theatre, outlines the early stages of a project that explores the organizational challenges of collaborative creative practice in HE using virtual teamwork. It ultimately aims…
Wednesday 22 January 2015. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. Fifty years after its release, Twentieth Century Fox’s Cleopatra still carries the soubriquet of “the biggest flop of all time.” Such is the reputation of the film that it is difficult to distinguish historical fact from the competing stories that forged the Hollywood legend. Myth: Elizabeth Taylor was the first female…
Wednesday 15 January 2015. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. In 1964, a Northern Irish garage rock band released their first single for Decca Records. A fistful of spikey singles and two albums over as many years earned Them a reputation for hard-driven rhythm and blues, marked out by a boorish lead singer with a fierce howl and throwaway phrasing…
Wednesday 8 January 2015. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. This research paper explores how Soundpainting functions as a creative compositional language able to foster dialogue between performers. Reference will be made to music and gesture analysis. Interview footage with the creator of the language, as well as a short film shot as part of the Soundpainting Think Tank 2013…
Wednesday 11 December 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. Luke Nickel – Living scores: using memory to erode and transform musical material Historically, the written score has functioned as the most significant filter between the composer and the performer. Today, experimental composers (often foregoing a traditional written score entirely) use media such as video (Alexander Schubert),…
Wednesday 4 December 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. ‘Sacred Harp is loud, the harmonies are unusual, and not quite in tune.’ (Aviram, 2013) Despite belonging to the culturally-familiar (and largely dominant) western music canon, Sacred Harp singing, an American-spiritual style of community music making, is remarkably distinct from other contemporaneous and culturally-related musics. “Suggestions that this…
Wednesday 13 November 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. The contemporary music industries present a range of opportunities for emerging artists to share, showcase and develop their music. While the opportunities have never been greater, the challenges which emerging artists and musicians face are complex. This presentation details research findings on the ‘new’ music industries in…
Thomas has been an invited guest speaker at a sequence of international fora for contemporary dance in 2014. He presented a paper on UK community dance practices and taught two workshops to practitioners at K-Arts University as part of an international symposium on community dance in Seoul in December 2014. Thomas joined forces with Dr…
Wednesday 20 November 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. Carol Brown and Thomas Kampe will discuss their shared research into processes of embodied archiving of The Bodenwieser Method, a largely forgotten trans-national legacy within European Modernist choreographic practice. To hear this talk, please visit the MPA Research Forum
Wednesday 13 November 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. The creation of recorded popular music has always been a collaborative process. Listeners enjoy an audio product that consists of a composition (usually with lyrics) that is arranged, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered. All of these activities combine in an object that creativity psychology would define as…
Wednesday 6 November 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park. Anna Birch’s work on Mary Wollstonecraft has taken the form of numerous site-specific installations and large-scale performance and film events over the past 15 years. She reflects on how static monuments – usually celebrating great men – function in public space to create and reinforce established gender hierarchies…
Wednesday 30 October 2014. 12.30-2pm CM105, Newton Park Bim Mason will talk about the ideas behind his forthcoming book, referencing various strands of his own street theatre work and also the work of Banksy, Leo Bassi and Sacha Baron Cohen. To hear this talk, please visit the MPA Research Forum archive [BSU users only]
Centre for Musical Research 