Happy to announce the start-up of three new research groups within my lectorate at the Royal Conservatoire: Fundamentals of Musical Training, Making in Music, Curation and Social Engagement. Festive presentation on January, Friday 25th.
november 23, 2018
Dance-Music Collaborations
These two young men put their stamp on the twentieth-century history of music and dance with a bang sacré. What is the state of dance-music collaborations today? November Music organised an expert meeting on this subject, I was asked to moderate and make some introductory notes.
juni 27, 2018
Onvoltooide Muziek
Toespraak ter gelegenheid van Musica’s 40-jarige bestaan, aan de vooravond van AlbaNova – The Musical Gift, het festival dat ik vijf jaar geleden boven de doopvont mocht houden. Het waren tegelijk ook mijn laatste woorden voor Musica, want mijn afscheid van de organisatie. Dankbaar voor zeven boeiende jaren.
februari 23, 2018
The time of research
After having worked for more than six years for Musica, my lectorate at The Hague Conservatoire brings me back to artistic research. I’ve always had an ambiguous relationship with the discourse around artistic research, even more so with the persistently recurring discussions between sceptics and defenders. The arguments on both sides are mostly predictable, and they usually fail to put the phenomenon in a wider context of societal, institutional and cultural evolutions. My view on artistic research has always been pragmatic, although I will try now to approach the topic from a more future-oriented perspective. What better way than starting with conditions and motivations? I made a short introductory text for the programme book of the master research symposium at the conservatoire end March. More to follow.
december 1, 2017
Lectorate ‘Music, Education and Society’
Thrilled to announce my appointment as lector ‘Music, Education and Society’ at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, starting from February 1. More information on:
https://www.koncon.nl/nieuws/paul-craenen-nieuwe-lector-koninklijk-conservatorium
oktober 24, 2017
Muziekeducatie in Cultuur in de Spiegel
Sinds een aantal jaren volg ik vanop de zijlijn de ontwikkelingen rond Cultuur in de Spiegel, de cultuurtheorie van Barend Van Heusden die een referentiekader wil bieden voor cultuureducatie in onderwijs. Hoewel de theorie door het Vlaamse onderwijs -en cultuurbeleid werd omarmd, er sprake was van implementatieonderzoek, van klankbordgroepen en talloze presentaties en studiedagen, blijkt Cultuur in de Spiegel in muziekonderwijs of non-formele muziekeducatie weinig gemoederen te beroeren. In onderstaande tekst ga ik op zoek naar verklaringen door met een muzikaalkritisch oor naar de theorie te luisteren. Ik doe enkele suggesties tot aanvulling en herdenking van het model. Waar Cultuur in de Spiegel zich presenteert als een theorie van het culturele verschil, formuleer ik de noodzaak voor een theorie van culturele resonantie.
februari 5, 2017
media archive: Tubes (2007)
Around 2004, I started exploring the possibilities of feedback manipulation in live performance. One of the results was Tubes, a piece for two performers, pvc-pipes and digital signal processing. Apart from some concert fragments, I never published any video material from the many working sessions with Cathy van Eck. Here are some fragments from an early version of the piece, below is a compilation from later recording sessions. A full version can be found here. Please listen in stereo or with headphones!
oktober 29, 2016
On sound art and listening time
I will give a lecture on the conference organized by Marcel Cobussen on “The Role and Position of Sounds and Sounding Art in Public Urban Environments” on Wednesday, November 30rd at Gravensteen, Leiden.
Sound art works deal with the experience of time in a different way than musical works do. The focus on space, instead of duration has been a main argument in the positioning of sound art as an autonomous art form with specific characteristics and its own playing field.
More then 10 years of experience with Klankenbos, a permanent outdoor collection of sound art works, invites us to reconsider the importance of dealing with listening time on several levels: the invitation to take time, the creation of an environment with proper time-spaces for listening, the variability of sound output and ultimately the lifespan of sounding art works.
