Post-(C)-Art
Cargo
Research Log
About
General Introduction
Research Context
An experiment
'Cargo' was a one-off experiment in which three artists - cello, piano and word - created a public performance à l'improviste without knowing from each other what would be told and played.
The title of the performance refers to the 'Confituurboek' of the same name for 2022, written by Gaea Schoeters, which was already printed but not yet distributed at the time of the performance.
At the center of the performative and the qualitative research the following questions were investigated:
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What happens in terms of communication, of negotiation, when it is possible to proceed only intuitively?
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What happens when the entire preparation phase is taken away and ku immediately throw in the deep end in front of an audience?
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In what way does this affect relationships, and what impact does the presence of this audience have directly on our performance?
Project design
The project 'Cargo' is a research project founded in artistic praxis. The project design and, by extension, the focus of this report are therefore on both the artistic praxis and the reflection on and interpretation of that praxis, both in the moment and through retrospect.
Schematically presented, the process followed the following course:
Starting Point: The Performance
Which story would be told, remained a secret to everyone but the author until the moment of the performance, just as the music would remain a surprise to her and the audience, and was not entirely fixed even for the musicians. Gaea Schoeters chose to premiere 'Cargo': her short novel that would be released a few days later as 'Confituurboek': a gift offered by the so-called "confituur bookstores". Schoeters based her choice partly on the length of the performance agreed in advance, which was a bit over a half-hour, just under 45 minutes. The book would lend itself to stopping midway on a cliffhanger - there were several options for this, to be chosen according to the course of the performance by the input of the music - with the audience being able to read the sequel itself once the book became public.
Just before the performance, a tiny hint of the cliffhanger was lifted, which, however, was more of a misfire than an insight into the story: the cover of the book depicting a plush dog, and on which the title can be read.
The first phase of the research focused on the performative aspect: the followed (musical) course within the different stages of the process, which is documented and analysed using different data/sources:
a. Context: the moment in the performance (only for Stage 2: Performance)
b. Explanation of the repertoire choice and adapted form sequence
c. Video recordings: rehearsal moment, performance and synthesis video
d. Discussion of interpretation and communication
e. Interpretation analysis on the score
f. Wordclouds as mood boards for the interpretative intentions
The aforementioned sources and related analyses reflect the artistic intentions and choices linked to the unique performance context on the one hand, and the results achieved on the other. This form of documentation was chosen so that these subjectively made artistic choices could then also be represented in an intersubjective manner. In doing so, it is not intended that repeating the process would lead to exactly the same decisions and interpretations - on the contrary. However, the intention is to increase the shareability and reliability of what has been researched.
Whereas in Part 1 the research focus was on documenting, analysing and sharing the events, choices, actions and results of the performative artistic process, in Part 2 the emphasis was shifted to the performers' individual and social perspectives on this process through (auto-)interviews. For this purpose, discourse analysis via the analysis tool ATLAS.ti was used. The aim of this was to uncover the underlying personal, social, communicative and procedural processes that (implicitly) guided and guided this process, paying particular attention to 'performance', being the final stage in the creative-performative model designed in function of the research question of the overarching doctoral research: "What model(s) of musical praxis that reconcile traditional performative practice and metier with contemporary requirements can be designed by exploring processes of 'participative sensemaking' in non-traditional artistic creations?"
Next step: Research Phases
Report
The project has been extensively documented and investigated, and captured in a comprehensive research report. This report is part of a series of similar reports, each separately compiled in response to a specific artistic project, which together form the body of data and analysis of the doctoral research 'Connecting the Dots'. The ultimate goal is to design a theory through induction from the partial conclusions of all the reports in the form of a widely applicable creative-performative model in response to the overarching research question of the overarching doctoral project 'Connecting the Dots'. This requires a reliable and not purely subjective set of data, artistic and qualitative.
In order to document and make the process sharable on the one hand and increase its reliability on the other, a combination of research methods was made ('methodological pluralism', Borgdorff, 2012; see also Hubner & Vanmaele, 2020; Jensen, 2018) highlighting the artistic-performative on the one hand, and the personal and social on the other. Thereby, the use of 'performative research methods', in which artistic activity as practice-led research is central, focuses on documenting, analysing and intersubjectively sharing the emergent events, actions and outcomes that result from the artistic-research process (Gray, 1996; Haseman, 2006; Goddard, 2007). To complement this, qualitative research methods seek to uncover the underlying personal, social, communicative and (implicit or explicit) processes, on the one hand to support the performative, and on the other hand to enable discourse and dissemination (via the preconceived model) (Skains, 2018).
The complete research report, containing all information, can be accessed and downloaded below.