Proposal: A video diary of the workshop for my piece “Hearing Queer”

Miika Hyytiäinen

I am a composer and researcher, specialising in the collaboration and communication between singers and composers. In this challenge, I propose a video diary of the workshop for my piece “Hearing Queer”. The process includes singer and author Isabella Shaw and saxophonists Aina Daviden and Sara Zazo.  In May, the piece is still in early stages, so there is a lot of need for reflection, challenging my own ideas and back-and-forth, which I will collect in a diary oriented toward autoethnography. I also used a similar method in my article ”Composing anti-acousmatically: an autoethnography”. I’m confident that some recordings from the actual workshops can be used, since the reflection on how to proceed with the composition is my own. Because of the theme of the work, the auditory aspects of queerness in history require careful ethical consideration. 

My musical style is the German experimental music theatre that relates to performance art and theatre, but is still strongly rooted in musical practices. The musicians are classically trained, but all are experts in contemporary music.

Proposal: Stimulated Recall as a Method for Analysing Embodied Performance Practice 

Farhad Aref 

As a PhD researcher in music, my work engages with practice-based inquiry into musical performance within an intercultural context. This project employs stimulated recall as a qualitative method to investigate the embodied and cognitive processes that emerge during performance. 

Stimulated recall is applied through the analysis of recorded performances of my own practice. By revisiting these recordings and pausing at specific moments, I articulate the tacit decisions, physical gestures, and expressive intentions that shape the unfolding musical material in real time. This method enables access to forms of knowledge that are not readily captured through notation or post-hoc theoretical reflection. 

The approach is particularly suited to my research, as it foregrounds the role of embodiment and situated knowledge in the construction of musical meaning. It allows for a nuanced examination of how technique, expression, and structure arise dynamically through the interaction between performer, instrument, and sound. 

This project demonstrates the potential of stimulated recall as a rigorous methodological framework for generating insight from within musical practice, contributing to broader discussions in practice-based research and performance studies.