Artistic Research in Southeast Asia: The Artist Researcher

Ingolv Haaland

 

Listen to your Mind: <TAO in CAGE> An Experimental Convergence Project

Soohyun Suh

 

How Innovation Keeps Music Alive

Hae Soo Kim

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Artistic Research in Southeast Asia: The artist researcher

Ingolv Haaland

University of Agder, Norway and Mahidol University, Thailand

During the last decade, Artistic research (AR) has gradually been incorporated into the curriculums of music departments at many universities. This brought about demands for an increasing knowledge base to provide  insight into the complexities of the artistic processes -researching in and through the arts – as an expansion of musicology. AR, both as method and theory, provides an interesting framework for critical thinking as it is often innovative, interdisciplinary and has a multi-method approach. But how do we organize and disseminate this research to meet the standard IMRAD structure from other sciences? Which possibilities are there for future artist researchers in the SEA institutions?

Listen to your Mind: <TAO in CAGE>  An experimental Convergence Project

Soohyun (Anna) Suh

Seoul National University

<TAO in CAGE>, a convergence arts project, includes 3 different genres: exhibition, showcase, and video art.

 

Celebrating the 111th anniversary of John Cage's birth, the boundary between East and West is resolved with sensuous Korean traditional music. Tao Yuanming’s (365-427) philosophy on the stringless Zither, that “the inaudible sound is more beautiful than the audible sound” is spatially constructed, and John Cage’s (1912-1992) artistic philosophy that “Every sound that exists is Art” is presented on stage.

The reason why “the inaudible sound of the stringless zither is more beautiful” is that, when the “sound” is inaudible, other imaginary senses fill in the silence. Like John Cage's famous <4’33”>, which captures the audience's unique sound and the passage of time as a work of art,  <TAO in CAGE> becomes a complete piece of work in itself with questions and thoughts. In the filled space of 'NOTHING', no forms or rules exist. Therefore, it is different from any other performances.

 

Creators and producers should not be constrained or limited in embodying the Creative Arts. <TAO in CAGE>, supported by Seoul National University, is an ambitious challenge to make a new, innovative art project for the future of this Pandemic era.

How Innovation Keeps Music Alive

Hae Soo Kim

Seoul National University

Sukhi Kang, born in 1934, was a composer and professor at Seoul National University who remarkably incorporated digital music into his compositions. He continuously strived to reach new horizons, exploring the boundaries of music with his innovative ideas.

Lyé-Buhl (1968), the title of one of his main works, describes Buddhist chants within Buddhist music and notably includes Korea’s unique traditional sounds. This interesting song, however, only resurfaced after being forgotten for over 50 years when Seoul National University revived the song in the form of a music video in 2020. 

Although performing the song during the pandemic was difficult, new mediums were explored as new challenges – a continuation of Sukhi Kang’s legacy. In this way, Lyé-Buhl paradoxically serves as an example of how the pandemic introduces us to a new paradigm of music, including the hybrid mixture of online and in-person performance and the strange intermix of the past, present and the future within music. 

Through innovation and change, Lyé-Buhl continues to live on through various performances in different mediums. Finally, today in 2022, the song will be performed as a collaborative work between Seoul National University and Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music. 

This presentation will examine how Lyé-Buhl is an example of hope for the future of music, and how it is being kept alive through innovation.