I intend to visit Stavanger in order to immerse myself in the vibrant musical and rigorous research environment to be found there. I have encountered musicians from Norway in Leeds, such as Didrik Ingvaldssen, Ståle Birkeland and Petter Frost Fadnes, when they were studying, and later teaching, at Leeds College of Music and the University of Leeds, and I was impressed by their open-minded attitude and spirit of enquiry. I wish to build upon these professional relationships by sharing my research and worki ng together to develop new joint projects.
My research at the University of Leeds is concerned with finding new ways to approach playing the drum set with the added dimension of live electronics, particularly using the graphical control interface Max MS P. My colleagues in Stavanger have made suggestions regarding artists and music technicians that I should approach for collaborative research during my intended stay. These include Nils Henrik Asheim, Per Zanussi, The Kitchen Orchestra and Dag Egil Njaa.
My research focus will be on deconstructing the drum set and ways of playing it in order to devise a new approach to playing from first principles, giving equal prominence to both the acoustic and electroacoustic elements. I work closely with music tech nologists at the University of Leeds and I hope to develop strong working relationships with Max MSP programmers at the University of Stavanger. My research is also concerned with the philosophy of improvisation, aesthetic judgements made during improvisi ng and what influencing factors come into play. The research project in Stavanger will involve a great deal of rehearsing and trying out ideas with various combinations of the musicians and music technologists that I encounter, leading to public performan ces in venues in the city and I intend to participate in research seminars, lecture recitals and workshops at the University of Stavanger, Department of Music and Dance.