I wrote a text for FORUM+ on artistic research policy at Dutch conservatoires. My central claim is that the role of research in conservatoire curriculum is changing. In the post-Bologna years, the integration of research in master curriculum was considered part of a process of academisation. Today, we can observe the appropriation of research in service of educational ambitions to integrate conservatoire curriculum in a more market-oriented and time-efficient way. In my text, I formulate some opportunities and pitfalls of this process.
A printable pdf-version with a more readable layout can be found here. A Dutch version of the text will appear later.
Enkele jaren geleden zag ik het indrukwekkende Mars II van Karl Van Welden en Frederik Croene tijdens het eerste Oortreders festival. Onlangs maakten beiden een nieuwe voorstelling, of althans een voorstudie daartoe. Een korte reflectie daarop, en een aansporing om het eindspel nog even uit te stellen.
It was a joy to perform Tubes again with Cathy van Eck, next to Cathy’s ‘Wings’ and a few other works at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Also a great performance of Agostino di Scipio. More photo’s here.
End 2009 Frederik Croene premiered my Das Wohlpreparierte Klavier I at Transit Festival. It was quite a success, but also marked the end of a period of radical experiment and intensive composing, before getting a phd and moving into other fields. Next performance of Elisa Medinilla and Frederik Croene in DeBijloke may sound like a wake-up call. Indeed, after a compositional break of almost 10 years, book II and III are in the making, hopefully to be premiered towards the end of 2019!
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.
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.
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.
