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When I first arrived in Tallinn I had no clue on what Autoethnography was or meant. When I came back, I had an idea of what it was and, most important, of how it could be used within artistic research, enough to use it to carry on my own project. Each day we learnt about an aspect of autoethnography and were given inputs on how to incorporate it in a meaningful way for our own artistic subjectivity, and the activities were both interesting and useful in this sense. The whole experience was empowered by the cooperation among the participants which was constantly encouraged. I personally met both new people and people I knew since the previous RAPP Labs, through the activities I learnt both personal and artistic traits of some of them - and so did they with me - and I felt very grateful and enriched by this exchange.
For me as a scientist it has been really astonishing to see how many different approaches and various theories have been presented during the Lab in Vienna. They were so heterogenous that even some contradictions between them came on the surface. I am convinced that dealing with these contradictions is absolutely necessary to find an own research-attitude. For participants who have been at the beginning of their research this might have been challenging but the discussion which took place in the mid of the week during the conference has been helpful to verbalize these contradictions and to reinforce students to find their own way as researchers.
The approach to non-Western traditions is kind of awkward when approached in the same context that we approach the issues of western cultures. As we were discussing with some guys, for the same reason that we cannot analyze all genres of music with schenkerian analysis, for the same reason (in my opinion) there is no need to put all traditions into a narrative, verbal, explanatory framework. It may sound cliché, but I think that experiencing and feeling something practically can bring us consciously or unconsciously into an "unlearning" process (as some presenters have mentioned), rather than a sophisticated theoretical review, trying to formalistically define i.e. "what is music?". In these review processes and in attempts to question the role of hegemonic cultures, the framework of approach must be differentiated and not uniform for all music, because this extreme liberalism, in my opinion, slides into generalities and aphorisms and ends up perpetuating the formulas of a "prestigious" western university, which is still defining roles and aspects. In my opinion, the presentation that was completely out of this context (which I describe that could be avoided), I think it was by Horacio Curti, who introduced us very convincingly to the theoretical background of Japanese music, along with acoustic examples. Thanks to all for this inspiring week!
At RAPP Lab 3 in Cologne we used senses and the body to approach sound, movement and music from different perspectives. Students and teachers were experiencing the same laboratories and lectures, reflecting eye to eye on methods and skills of embodied reflections. With a large amount of inputs and alternative ways of making and looking at the process of creation, we experimented in different locations around the city and practiced and performed in playful and creative ways this new knowledge given to us.
The workshop developed a constructive atmosphere, in which new experimentation was possible. A great deal of the activities were music-driven, but this also made sense as most of us participants had our background in music, either as performers, composers, or musicologists etc. However, we dealt quite a bit with movement as a tool of expression and experimentation, which fit the theme of embodiment well. My best experiences came from the workshops dealing with gestural improvisation and multi-sensory expansion of evaluating criteria for music, plus an excellent lecture recital. I would say about half of the Lab's content was interesting and useful, the other half a bit superficial, or perhaps still finding its way. However, I'm very happy to have participated, since I could extract new tools for my musical and research work. The participants were amazing, and worked on interesting projects in their home institutions. It's always nice to hear creative and dedicated people sharing their work.
RAPP Lab 3 in Cologne was a very beneficial experience in many ways. I got introduced to methods of enhancing my awareness of multisensorial perception that were new to me, while also discovering new aspects in already familiar ones. I could experiment with these methods and aspects artistically and in various ways, both individually and in groups. Thus, I could also deepen my awareness of the diversity and variety of the different kinds of reflection and knowledge that result from the diversity of artistic practice and experimentation. Also, taking part in RAPPLab3 was the first time for me to involve in an artistic research context outside of my own university, and it was actually an encouragement to do so more. Besides the impulses and inspirations from the lab’s classes and activities, I therefore also enjoyed a lot meeting artistic researchers and art students from many different fields and institutions and discussing our work and many other things together.