Trond Lossius

I am my own studio tech assistant

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 11:37:12 +0000

Maintenance work at my studio over the past few days:

Substituted a cable from sound card to amplifier to have all 16 channels of the surround setup working again
Calibrated all audio outlets so that all 16 channels work properly with consistent sound levels
Got rear pair of a quad setup working (finally)
Installed macOS Big Sur on a laptop
Set the same laptop up to use a MOTU 1248 sound card over AVB
Installed new 4K computer monitor (harsh reality check regarding the current level of photo skills)
Tidied up and cleaned the studio
Installed Ableton Live 11
Got bass guitar properly working with DI box and connected to various VST bass amp simulators (fun)

I am my own studio tech assistant.

Diatribe, conversation at Ringebu Prestegard

Sun, 04 Oct 2020 11:00:44 +0000

Coming Saturday, I take part in a conversation on the exhibitions and processes by Monica Winther, Katrine Køster Holst and Runhild Hundeide. They are all visiting artists at different locations in Innland county.

Conversations will reflect on how the exhibitions relate to where they take place and also traces ongoing research and explorations that will continue beyond the exhibition period. A first question is therefore whether these artistic practices can be communicated and considered as traditional exhibitions, or whether they bring with them a different type of awareness of the work’s creation that asks for alternative critical perspectives.

http://kunstopp.no/2020/08/20/diatribe-6-kritikersamtale-pa-ringebu-prestegard/

DART seminar in Madrid

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 12:55:08 +0000

Coming weekend I give a seminar for PhD students at Fundacíòn Katarina Gurska outside Madrid.

http://katarinagurska.com/en/novedad-educativa/5o-encuentro-del-programa-dart-de-investigaciones-artisticas-curso-2019-2020/

How can artistic research be motivated, understood and developed from within artistic practice? The literature on artistic research (AR) often argues for AR from an institutional perspective. I want instead to reason from within and consider AR a meaningful and productive way to structure, develop and share the artistic practice as well as methods, insights, reflections and perspectives that emerge from within the practice and that might be of use to fellow artist and community at large.

I will give a self-presentation focusing on my own background, artistic practice and experience as a research fellow, cultural worker, as PhD supervisor and as former Head of Research at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. I come to all of these roles and functions from the position of an artist. Methodologically I position my approach according to the “Nordic” or “Norwegian” model, with a sui generis perspective that foregrounds research in and through artistic practice, as a thinking-doing and doing-thinking from within.

How can AR be understood and managed as it unfolds? AR is a twofold process: Research has to be carried out, and next, it needs to be disseminated. Dissemination is an editorial process where elements are selected, prepared and organised to communicate the research clearly and convincingly. There is a rhetoric element to this, as suggested by several of the terms used by Michael Schwab to describe sharing of artistic research; staging, performing, unfolding, exposing, exhibiting or curating.

Successful expositions of AR are valuable, but they do not necessarily provide a chronological overview of how the research developed. In general, there is a potential danger if models for dissemination gets retrofitted into expectations for how research is to unfold. The research process is seldom as neat, tidy, structured and linear as the dissemination might suggest. I propose an alternative model for reflecting on the AR process as it unfolds. It combines six categories or perspectives. It considers (1) Research Question, (2) Context, (3) Methods and 4) Results. Results are often are temporary and site-specific, and hence (5) Documentation is essential. Finally, (6) Reflection is required. The proposed model emphasises how all six dimensions interrelate, inspired by a similar relational didactic model by Hiim and Hippe. The model invites reflection on the research process, emphasises relationships between categories, and acknowledges the research as a complex and dynamic process where none of the perspectives comes first. Instead, developing the AR implies that all six dimensions evolve.

During the seminar, there will be ample time for conversations and discussions. We might also head out for a listening session, to experience first-hand some of the approaches I have to my own artistic practice. The Sunday session is set aside for brief presentations by each of the students and subsequent discussions on how the perspectives offered in the seminar might relate and apply to their ongoing research.

Call for Vis #5 - Onbe more time, let's do it again!

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:48:53 +0000

https://www.en.visjournal.nu/call/

The call is open between 17 February and 1 June 2020.

THEME “ONE MORE TIME, LET’S DO IT AGAIN!”
Trond Lossius, Editor of VIS Issue 5

The OECD Frascati Manual defines five criteria that all research and development work must meet. The fifth of these is that the activity must be “transferable and/or reproducible” ¹. Reproducibility has revealed itself to be thornier than previously perceived, and the last decade has seen something of a “reproducibility crisis” in several scientific disciplines ². This crisis also extends to the humanities ³.

There are reasons to question whether it is legitimate to deploy such scientifically-oriented research concepts in artistic research ⁴. Taking the interpretation of classical music repertoire as an example, is it at all meaningful to consider this highly individualised activity in relation to scientific ideas of replication? Do not musical interpretations instead negotiate an artistic field of tensions and possibilities between remaining ‘true to tradition’ and ‘breaking new ground’, between respecting the intentions of past artists and craving space for interpretative freedom, always resulting in something new?

Rather than engaging with the question of reproducibility, VIS Issue #5 will reflect on what “doing it again” may lead to in artistic research. Doing something again is integral to many artistic practices. The performing arts require rehearsal (répétition in French). Once adequately rehearsed, performances are commonly given several times over ⁵. Other artists engage with a series of works, or revisit a motif, topic or question over and over again. Works of art may benefit from “a second chance”, not least in artistic research. Repetitions might be the result of deliberate choices or emerge as recurrences within the practice ⁶. Artists may “do again” within their own practice or engage with the work of others through reading, restaging, referencing, reproducing, appropriating, reusing, sampling, or re-enacting ⁷.

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt suggest that “repetition is a form of change” ⁸. What insights may emerge by doing something again and again, repeatedly, over a long period? How may artistic research draw upon and benefit from such iterations? We invite expositions of artistic research where “doing it again” is of importance, and we invite contributors to expose the artistic research questions, contexts, practices and outcomes in which repetition manifests itself, reflecting upon how “doing it again” may contribute to practice, to research, insights and to knowledge production.

(The title for this call cites the lyrics from a song by Röyksopp and Robyn ⁹.)

¹ OECD. (2015). Frascati Manual 2015. Guidelines for collecting and reporting data on research and experimental development. The measurement of scientific, technological and innovation activities. Paris: OECD Publishing, p. 45.

² Baker, M. (2016). 1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility. Nature, 533(7604), 452–454. https://doi.org/10.1038/533452a

³ Peels, R., & Bouter, L. (2018). The possibility and desirability of replication in the humanities. Palgrave Communications, 4(1), 95. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0149-x

⁴ Ruiten, S. van, Wilson, M., & Borgdorff, H. (Eds.). (2013). SHARE: Handbook for artistic research education (Amsterdam, ELIA), p. 25.

⁵ Crispin, Darla, Hultqvist, Anders and Lagerström, Cecilia (Eds). (2016). Repetitions and Reneges, PARSE Journal, 3, 7-11 (Gothenburg, University of Gothenburg). https://parsejournal.com/article/introduction-to-repetitions-and-reneges/

⁶ Bandlien, B. Å. (2019). PhD-project: Recurrences – a method and practice within dance and choreography (2016-). Retrieved 15 December 2019, from PhD-project: Recurrences ~~a method and practice within dance and choreography (2016~~) website: https://khioda.khio.no/khio-xmlui/handle/11250/2425899

⁷ Refer to the topic of VIS Issue #3 History Now.

⁸ Eno, B., & Schmidt, P. (2001). Oblique Strategies. Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas (5th ed.) [Deck of cards].

⁹ Berge, S., Brundtland, T., & Robyn. (2014). Do it again. Arts & Crafts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btBSxtKzF6Q

Concert in Seattle - February 25

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 19:58:30 +0000

https://dxarts.washington.edu/events/2020-02-25/music-today-dxarts-winter-listening

I have a piece featured in an upcoming concert at Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater in Seattle. The concert is programmed by DXARTS The Department of Digital Art and Experimental Media and the School of Music at the University of Washington.

Music of Today / DXARTS: Winter Listening

Tuesday, February 25, 2020 – 7:30pm
Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater

The Department of Digital Art and Experimental Media and the School of Music are pleased to present a program of holographic sound works. Jonathan Harvey’s seminal Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, a virtuosic triumph of sound de/re-composition and spatial sound synthesis, is presented along with recent works from composers deploying the latest technical and aesthetic advances in Ambisonic sound holography.

Program:

Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980) – Jonathan Harvey

Listening understood as inhabiting (2015) – Trond Lossius

Urban Melt in Park Palais Meran (2017) – Natasha Barrett

Flupresje (2019) – Marcin Pączkowski

Vanishing Portals (2019/20) – Daniel Peterson

New field recording - Intérieur / Extérieur

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:30:57 +0000

http://sounds.trondlossius.no/posts/2019-11-28-fyllingsdalen-exterior-interior/

I have uploaded a new field recording, from Fyllingsdalen in November last year.

Reading Ondine Park I contemplate the exteriors and interiors of suburbia, the porous boundaries between the two, and the challenges this pose when field recording. Recording at times navigates the borders between public and private in ways that hint at how this technology and recording practice may come close to surveillance or stalking.

Gunhild Mathea Olaussen – Sounding Matter

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 13:52:17 +0000

Next weekend an exhibition by Gunhild Mathea Olaussen opens at Galleri F15. The three works in the exhibition are the outcomes of her artistic research fellowship at the Norwegian Theatre Academy. I have had the great pleasure of following her work over several years os one of three superviosrs, alongside Karen Kipphoff and Christian Blom.

Galleri F 15
1. Feb – 15.Mar

The Sounding Matter exhibition comprises three sculptural sound installations which approach the subject of ‘us and our surroundings’ in various ways. The title refers to sounds that occur in encounters between rooms and materials, as well as to the viewer’s active search and ability to listen using the body. Listening is key to Olaussen’s artistic exploration, and in this exhibition, she works with the staging of rooms through sound, minimalist sculpture and dramaturgical structures. Sounding Matter is an extensive exhibition filling both floors of the gallery and forms part of Gunhild Mathea Olaussen’s PhD project at the Norwegian Theatre Academy. She will be defending her doctoral dissertation in March 2020.

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway, the Audio-Visual Fund of Norway and NBK – Norwegian Visual Artists.

Curator: Maria C. Havstam

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Gunhild Mathea Olaussen (b.1983) works with installation, composition and performance. She explores soundscapes where space, materials, the body and time are treated as equal components. She is driven by an interest for the tactile, sensual perception and social dramaturgy. Olaussen is currently an artistic research fellow at the Norwegian Theatre Academy.

EXHIBITION CONCERTS

Saturday, 14 March
at 12 noon and 3 pm
Interference, a musical work by Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen, will be performed within the exhibition.

Sunday, 15 March

at 12.30-12.50 pm, 1.30-1.50 pm, 2.30-2.50 pm and 3.30-3.50 pm
Musicians Bernt Isak Wærstad, Kristine Tjøgersen, Jan Martin Smørdal and dancer Magnus Myhr will be performing within the work called Resonance. Visitors can come and go as they please.

New field recording posted

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 21:22:48 +0000

http://sounds.trondlossius.no/posts/2020-01-15-Straume-pedestrian-tunnel/

Here is a new field recording blog post, from the first field recording excursion of the year. I am currently reading a PhD thesis by Ondine Park on the suburban imaginary, and it gives ample food for thought with respect to my own recording and listening practice.

BAD - Beyond Art Disciplines

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 14:02:21 +0000

BAD – Beyond Art Disciplines

Coming Monday I take part in a seminar at Uniarts in Stockholm. The seminar comes out of a two year Erasmus+ partnership between Stockholm University of the Arts, SKH (Performing Arts and Opera), the Iceland University of the Arts (Music and Performing Arts) and the Hanze University of Groningen (Music and Fine Arts). The aim is to create a cross-cutting transdisciplinary arts module, wherein artists will expand, improve and enhance their community of practice, professional development and employability.

San Francisco Tape Music Festival

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 19:50:47 +0000

If you are in the Bay Area next weekend, you might want to check out the San Francisco Tape Music Festival. A work of mine is part of the late evening concert Saturday 11.

A lot of the material for my piece originates from the Atmospherics collaboration with Je Welshtwo. Here are the program notes for my piece “Listening understood as inhabiting”.

I and my friend Jeremy Welsh often travels suburbs and rural areas in Western Norway. He brings a video camera, and I take along recording equipment. We use the resulting material in a series of audio-visual installations. The impression that these places leave often differs between sound and image. The eye experience scenic fiords. Nature and weather dominate, in spite of power lines, roads and buildings along the fiord. The field recordings testify to how these places are now domesticated. Human activities, machines, traffic, electricity, helicopters and passing airlines dominate the soundscapes.

This work starts from a series of field recordings from Western Norway and beyond. Some recordings are further processed and abstracted, and other layers added. The result is a psychogeographic reading of these places. In this composition, I want to create a sequence of places, fields and textures that we can listen to and inhabit. I hope this active listening will continue after the concert, as we re-enter our everyday lives and surroundings.

I will not be present, but Joseph Anderson is responsible for the diffusion, so I know that it is in the best of hands.

Experimenting with 3rd order spatial transfrorms

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 19:22:10 +0000

Ambisonic 3rd order spatial transform from Trond Lossius on Vimeo.

Yesterday in a video chat, Joseph Anderson suggested some ways of transforming higher-order ambisonic sound fields. This video demonstrates a prototype test of one of them, similar to the ATK Push/Pull transform, but in 3rd order.