Digital Creativity

Henrik Frisk and Kim Hedås

henrik.frisk@kmh.se, kim.hedas@kmh.se

About

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KMH

  • The Royal College of Music in Stockholm is Sweden's largest independent university college for higher music education and research
  • KMH offers artistic programmes in folk music, jazz, classical music, composition, conducting as well as music therapy and music pedagogy
  • KMH is actively engaged in research in the fields of music and performance, pedagogy, music and health and music and technology
  • In EASTN-DC the department for composition (KDM) is the active institution and the research field of music and performance and music and technology.

Research

  • We are engaged in research on many topics and have a close collaboration with The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Recent research projects revolve around improvisation and contexts for mutual learning.
  • With KTH we collaborate in artistic research education in music technology, currently with four PhD students
  • Collaboration with Lund University on research education for artistic research in music.

Collaborations

  • We collaborate with a number of institutions for research, education and creation
  • In Stockholm our closest partners are Audiorama, EMS, Fylkingen and KTH
  • Many international collaborations and partners

Klangkupolen

  • At one of our concert halls at KMH we have a sound dome consisting of 29 speakers and four subwoofers. This can be expanded with an additional 16 speakers for a full 45.4 setup.
  • The challenges and the current focus of research involve speaker placements, systems for spatialising audio, and audience development.
  • We are developing an interface for Klangkuplen that will serve the purpose of an access point for listeners with little or none previous experience with a large scale speaker system such this.
  • We are also developing a database for documentation of works performed at Klangkupolen.

EASTN-DC

Our contribution in EASTN-DC is primarily geared towards composition and sound installation and the ways these artistic activities can reach out to new areas.

General challenges: Making research and artistic practice accessible

  • How can we contribute to making KMH accessible to a larger group of actors?
  • How can we develop methods that encourage active participation?
  • How can we expand our practices in ways that encourage mutual learning?

The testbed

  • A new music festival: Svensk Musikvår
  • A public defense in artistic research:
  • Kent Olofsson. Composing the performance: An exploration of musical composition as a dramaturgical strategy in contemporary intermedial theatre.

Specific challenges

  • How to make some of the elements of the PhD thesis accessible to a wider audience
  • How to make possible the dissemination of the results of the thesis in a wider context
  • How to capture the creative capacity of the wider context of artistic research at KMH
  • How to situate the knowledge produced in the context of artistic practice in contemporary music drama
  • How to situate artistic research also in the field of new music

The program

  • A workshop in Hörspiel composition
  • A concert of electroacoustic music with (Swedeish) composers such as Anders Blomqvist, Akemi Ishijima, Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Åke Parmerud and Kim Hedås/Christina Ouzinidis
  • A Folk song laboratory

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The program

  • A symposium on artistic research practicies
  • Another concert of electro acoustic music with composers such as Bengt Hambreaus, Tommy Zwedberg, Paulina Sundin/Monty Adkins, Susanne Skog, Lise-Lotte Norelius and David Granström
  • A Hörspiel concert and a performance with Teatr Weimar: Death to the Welfare Dogs

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A workshop in Hörspiel composition

We teamed up with Audiorama - a listening venue for music and sound art and with a specially designed acoustical space with 21 loudspeakers from floor to ceiling.

Audiorama has experience with working pedagogically in this area.

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The goal

  • Give the participants insigths into the processes of composition
  • All material for the works should be created during the workshop (except dramatic texts that were supplied)
    • In other words, the reading of the text as well as gathering sound material for the creative work should be recorded in the workshop.
  • We had a limit of twelve participants (two groups of six).
  • As an institution for higher education in music, this kind of workshop was new to us.

The schedule: Day 1

When? What? Who?
14.00 Lecture: What is a Hörspiel? All
14.30 Studio introduction: concept Groups
15.00 Reading and sound collection Group/2
16.00 Conceptualisation and drama Groups
16.30 Composition Groups

The schedule: Day 2

When? What? Who?
14.00 Spatialisation Group 1
16.00 Spatialisering Group 2
18.00 Performance and evaluation All

Lecturers

  • Kim Hedås
  • Henrik Frisk
  • Magnus Bunnskog
  • Marcus Wrangö
  • Two KMH students acted technical assistants

Result group 1

Result group 2

Evaluation

  • The results of the evaluation were very positive.
  • Almost all participants thought there was too little time, something we already knew. Making a condensed format was a design choice.
  • Respondents thought the workshop delivered what they had expected from it.

Our own reflections

  • Though we managed to draw attention from parties that were external to our environment, we did not reach out beyond the social groups we generally interact with.
  • It is perhaps not surprising that a workshop that gives users access to advance technology and performance spaces becomes popular.
  • How can we reach outside of these groups and expand our horizon beyond the sphere of cultural workers?
  • The way students were incorporated in the workshop proved to be very useful: not only could they assist the teachers, they also made valuable contacts and insigths themselves.

Related and future work

Ljudbänken: the sound bench

  • Ljudbänken is a bench made for outdoor use that has four integrated speakers and a playback system built into it.
  • In a collaboration with the City of Stockholm and Audiorama, Ljudbänken will be located outside of the Stockholm Opera during the summer of 2018.
  • It will play four pieces by our students. The music is looped continuously during the course of the day.

Summary

  • Presenting a workshop with participants from a wide range of backgrounds and with no particular demands on prior experience proved to be possible
  • The workshop proved to be a good platform for mutual learning
  • The participants took part in other activities during the week, both the public defence and other performances

Thank you!

Henrik Frisk