PERFORMING PRECARITY / Tania Rubio — Acoustic Fields

PERFORMING PRECARITY

To be a contemporary music performer today is to have a deeply fragmented practice. The performer’s role is no longer simply a matter of mastering her instrument and executing a score. Music practices are increasingly incorporating new instruments and technologies, new methods of creating works, audience interaction, and new situations of interdependence between performer subjects. In these conditions, the performer increasingly finds herself unable to keep control and a sense of mastery over the performance. In other words, performing is increasingly precarious.

The research project Performing Precarity seeks to investigate this paradigm by abandoning notions of mastery and instrument-specificity as the core of a musician’s practice in favour of the idea of the network and its ensuing precarity. What kinds of practices emerge when traditional conceptions of beauty and perfection are relinquished in favour of precarity, fragility, risk, instability, failure, and mutual dependence between performers, composers, technologies, and audiences? What kinds of reflections will emerge out of this repositioning of the performer from “master” to a mutually dependent agent in such a network?

Performing Precarity is a research project financed by The Norwegian Academy of Music and The Norwegian Artistic Research Programme. The project group consists of Laurence Crane, Anders Førisdal, Tomas L. Nannestad, Lisa Streich, Lea Tetrick, Io Sivertsen, Jennifer Torrence and Ellen Ugelvik. Several compositions have been developed during the project period by Carola Bauckholt, Olga Bochikhina, Laurence Crane, Jorge G. Elizondo, Elizabeth Hobbs, Simon Løffler, Trond Reinholdtsen, Tania Rubio, Lisa Streich, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Jennifer Torrence and Ellen Ugelvik. The group has cooperated with the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz, The Huddersfield University and The Moscow Conservatory. An exposition presenting the project will be published during the fall of 2023.

—————————————————

JENNIFER TORRENCE

Jennifer Torrence is a percussionist, performer, and artistic researcher based in Oslo, Norway. Originally from the US, she has performed and taught in a variety of contexts across the entire globe. Much of her work is built upon deep collaborative processes with composers and artists from other art forms. In addition to solo and collaborative projects she is a member of the Norwegian ensemble, Pinquins. Her artistic research is currently hosted by the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Stockholm University of the Arts. Jennifer is Associate Professor II of percussion at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

For more information see www.jennifertorrence.com.

ELLEN UGELVIK

Ellen Ugelvik, pianist, concentrates on developing and performing new projects in cooperation with contemporary composers and artists. Ugelvik works as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, USA and Asia. She has been invited to festivals such as Donaueschinger Musiktage, Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, Tasten – Berliner Klaviertage, Huddersfield contemporary music festival, Ultraschall, Tzlil Meudcan, Gaudeamus, Kammer Klang, Musikhøst, Rainy Days, ECLAT, De Suite Muziekweek, Angelica Festival, Kwadrofonik Festival, Nordic Music Days, Musik der Jahrhunderte; Südseite Nachts, Monday Evening Concerts, Risør festival of chamber music, Ultima contemporary music festival, Borealis and Happy Days. Ellen Ugelvik is employed as leader of the NordART Centre for Artistic Research and associate professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music besides her work as a freelance pianist.

For more information see www.ellenugelvik.com.

—————————————————

Leicht über Linz

PERFORMING PRECARITY

21.03.2023 19.00 Uhr

Sonic Lab ABPU

—————————————————

STUCK 2

Tania Rubio — Acoustic Fields

Acoustic Fields (2023) world premiere Acoustic Fields was written during the Acoustic Ecology Lab Mexico-Germany 2023 and refers to a large number of sound waves of crickets reflected by the interior surfaces of the enclosure, and dispersed in different directions. This process emerged during the listening session in the archeological site of Yaxunah, México; at the dusk. The constructive principle of the piece is the permanent sound in the place given by the constant frequency band of the crickets. The perception of the sound source changes as we move through the acoustic field. If we move closer to the source we recognize individual patterns, if we move away we perceive a continuum sound. My intention is to transfer my personal listening experience of the acoustic field developed from a simple pattern given by the stridulation (the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts) of the crickets. The perception of the sound source is influenced by different variables, such as movement, pitch, reflective walls, absorption media and the inner acoustic characteristics of the space. ///| Tania Rubio born in Mexico, 1987. My artistic work focuses in Biomusic, my process involved the studies of animal acoustic communication and natural soundscapes. I am particularly interested in soundscape studies through an interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches, mainly from acoustic, ethnographic and biological perspectives of sound. I am founder and director of the Laboratory of Acoustic Ecology in Mexico (LEAM). My music is mainly performed around America and Europe, I have received international grants and recognition from my work, the most recent are "Internationaler Koproduktionsfonds 2022-2023" by the Goethe Institut, "Jóvenes Creadores 2021-2022" by FONCA; "Composer in Residence 2021" by the Crespo foundation in the program "Art/Nature Nature/Art", Glenkeen Garden, Ireland; "Composer in Residence 2019" by the Archiv Frau un Music in collaboration with the Hoschule für musik un Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany, among many others. I am currently pursuing doctoral studies with Carola Bauckholt with the project: "Biomusic: from animal communication to musical creation" at the Anton Bruckner Private University. I studied a Master's Degree in Musical Creation, New Technologies and Traditional Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; and a Specialization in Object Theater, Interactivity and New Media at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the support of the program Studies Abroad 2015-2017 of FONCA-CONACYT. Graduated in 2014 with Honorable Mention in Bachelor's Degree from the Faculty of Music of the UNAM.