Connecting Cultures Through Music is an ongoing artistic research project that pairs extemporaneous musical expression with live electronic processing to study how music can reduce harmful biases and intergroup conflict, specifically between refugees and native Swedes. The image above is from my presentation of the project at the Clinton Foundation Global Initiative University Summit (CGI U) in October, 2018. During the presentation, I demonstrated the compositional process used in Connecting Cultures Through Music.Over the course of the hour-and-a-half poster session I recorded people’s responses to the following questions, and quickly processed these recordings to create a piece of music:
Together, these responses built an ethnography reflective of the diversity present at the conference. Click below to listen to the track
- Take a breath
- Where do you feel you’re from?
- Can you hum or sing something that reminds you of home?
- What is one word to describe CGI U?
Together, these responses built an ethnography reflective of the diversity present at the conference. Click below to listen to the track
This project took shape as I started my artistic research residency in August of 2017 at the Lund University Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden. Following the first installation of this artistic research residency, collaborators Åkervinda, Nemat Battah, and myself held a performance where we showcased various frameworks devised during the residency. The frameworks, listed below, can be seen as a score for the musical “work.” Each section is improvised, and the authenticity of the extemporaneous music is maintained in the recording. Click below to listen to a recording of this improvised "work."
- Conversation-Explanation
- Vart kommer du från? (where do you come from?)
- Worldwide refugee populations
- Safe, Society, Culture
- This is Love;
In March, 2018 I presented Connecting Cultures Through Music at the University of Malta School of Performing Arts Annual Conference. Click below for a transcript of that presentation.
| vu_symposium_final.pptx |