Artistic research in music: performance, innovation and career at research universities

Abstract

Successful careers at research universities pose some fundamental challenges to performing artists: merit is traditionally measured through academic publication, the transformation of practice through research is seldom at odds with empirical transmission of musical knowledge, and artistic research, while potentially bridging practice and investigation, is insufficiently theorised in its definition, scope, and objectives. Drawing on Hybrid Augmented Saxophone of Gestural Symbioses (HASGS) as a case- study of artistic research, this paper is aimed at discussing the construction of the professional identity of a music university teacher. HASGS was developed by Henrique Portovedo as an academic project aimed at optimising performance by electronically controlling parameters in mixed music performed in the mechanical instrument, thus reducing the recourse to external control devices for electronic purposes. In its current form, HASGS consists of of anESP32 card integrated in a conventional saxophone providing Bluetooth and wifi connectivity, a ribbon sensor, a four button keypad, a trigger button, two pressure sensors, up and down selectors, and an accelerometer. Emerging as a response to existing works to saxophone and electronics, the system has been progressively developed in a collaboration with composers which resulted in the production of new repertoire for this hybrid instrument. In order to stimulate musical creation, a complete outline of the system’s possibilities is now available to composers. Based on HASGS as case-study, this paper shows, firstly, that research may transform the creative process, and, secondly, that the development of the system itself results from the integration of the performance in a research university, a context marginal to market logic in which experimentation is not only allowed but sought for in career development – overall, how artistic research may pursue the goals of research universities.