Orpheus Institute

The research was carried around these three focal points: 1) Authenticity: I replaced the composerperformer as part of an aesthetic whole, instead the instrument being the focal point of the experiments.I questioned the sense of "authentic" performance and represented the historical context of the works.2) (Re)Shaping Interpretation: I deepened the understanding of the musical works by exploring the specificities of the clavichord and the Stein fortepiano.I questioned the expressive architecture of the chosen musical pieces in the light of Empfindsamkeit, rhetoric and good taste.3) Artistic exploration: focusing on Mozart's 6 "Munich" Sonatas and C. P. E. Bach's 6 Varied Sonatas Wq. 50, I studied the ties between the musical score, the sound complexes and the instrument itself.I explored the notion of improvisation and variation in the classical era and questioned my relation to it as modern performer.

A vibrant and sustainable research environment is essential to establish a thriving PhD program. Organization for PhD Education in Health Sciences in European System, a European platform to promote best practices in PhD education in health sciences, published a guideline entitled "Best Practices for PhD Training." The guideline includes comprehensive recommendations and suggestions on different components of the PhD program, of which supervision is an essential one. A working supervisor-student relationship based on mutual respect, responsibility, and participation is essential for the success of a PhD thesis. Supervisors should be active researchers and receive training to develop their supervising skills. They serve as role models in academic life, both scientifically and ethically. The appointment of a co-supervisor, besides the principal one, is strongly encouraged not only to increase the efficiency in monitoring the student progression but also to defuse interpersonal conflicts. Institutional regulations should include the duties and responsibilities of the supervisor. A contract prepared by the institution and signed by the supervisor and the student could help specify the task and may serve as a starting point. In case of a conflict, grievance mechanisms also need to be clear and explicit. Supervisors ought to assist the career development of the students and guide them to become independent researchers. Unfortunately, different surveys showed that there is widespread discontent among the students about their supervisors. Performance pressure on both students and supervisors create enormous tension. Students feel stressed about their career prospects. Institutional policies should consider these stress points to enhance the wellbeing of students as well as the faculty.

<p><b>Beyond resemblance: creative divergence in music performance</b></p><p>What does it mean to produce resemblance in the performance of written music? Starting from how this question is commonly answered by the practice of interpretation in Western notated art music, this book proposes a move beyond commonly accepted codes, conventions and territories of music performance. Appropriating reflections from post-structural philosophy, visual arts and semiotics, and crucially based upon an artistic research project with a strong creative and practical component, it proposes a new approach to music performance. The approach is based on divergence, on the difference produced by intensifying the chasm between the symbolic aspect of music notation and the irreducible materiality of performance. Instead of regarding performance as reiteration, reconstruction and reproduction of past musical works, <i>Powers of Divergence</i> emphasises its potential for the emergence of the new and for the problematisation of the limits of musical semiotics.<br><br>Ebook available in Open Access.<br>This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).</p>

In this chapter we analyse two interrelated projects across the fields of visual art and music, philosophy and anthropology. Calendar Variations (2010-11) is a visual activity initiated by Anne Douglas, visual artist and researcher. A Day in My Life (2011-12) mirrors this activity in music and is developed by Kathleen Coessens, pianist and philosopher. The two projects are research driven and frame questions about the relationship of improvisation to experiential knowledge. First, what might experimentation be in the context of experience of life and experience of art? Does improvisation as a concept and a practice offer new potential to inform experimentation in a distinctive way? We will use Dewey as a starting point for a phenomenological approach to experience as a form of ongoing experimentation and adjustment, a process of learning endemic to life itself. We will map this articulation onto Hallam and Ingold's four characteristics of improvisation. These closely resonate with Dewey while nuancing/inflecting the resulting learning as an experience between people, formed socially and culturally. Moving deeper into experience, experiment, and improvisation as three key interrelated concepts, we look briefly at Bergson, who offers a way of imagining experience as time dependent: life is constantly in a process of formation that is unstoppable even in reflection. This implies a conflation of intuition and intellect into one single activity, leaving the artist-as-researcher in a paradoxical situation. How is knowledge created if we cannot look back on experience by stepping outside what is ongoing? Arnheim helps us to unravel this paradox: intellect and intuition are distinctive but interrelated modes of being. We limit ourselves in life, Arnheim argues, to what is useful and necessary to know, working within this contingent. Art enriches possible ways of imagining. These challenge and extend experience. We lay out this theoretical ground as the basis from which to analyse the two artistic projects. By interpolating between the theoretical and artistic experiences, we enlarge not only our perspectives on but also our actions in the world.

On the basis of a notion of experimentation derived from Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s concept of ‘experimental system’, which he developed in the context of twentieth-century experimental science, this paper sketches a possible route into a genuine artistic epistemology. While experimental systems are highly conceptual in nature, they are actually meant to produce material, epistemic excess – epistemic things – that enter the world first as unknowns. Given this initial lack of knowledge, the article argues that it is less helpful to decide whether any concrete epistemic thing is fact or fiction; rather, an artistic epistemology is suggested that focuses on the radical individuality of such a thing and the way in which artistic research practice may need to protect its individuality as a site for particular knowledges. This implies a critique of Rheinberger’s emphasis on historicity in experimental systems, a critique which is explained with reference to two works by Marcel Duchamp: Fountain and Three Standard Stoppages. While the former arguably changed the history of art, the latter is said to have had a much greater effect on Duchamp’s practice and understanding.