ODC 2025: Music and Time: Conservation and Innovation through AR

The focus of music research on conservation relies on a particular view of music as an essentialised object, being safeguarded against the ravages of linear time. Western music pedagogy is still dominated by institutions that view it as their mandate to conserve the canon of Western classical music. Historical musicology and performance practice research are often likened to processes in art conservation. More broadly, there is a sense that music research has been slower than other disciplines to embrace progressive analytical approaches rooted in critical theory.

However, over the last few decades, incursions from the fields of anthropology and the social sciences have opened up new fields of inquiry within music research, breaking down the subject-object dualism to engage meaningfully with, through, and in music. Artistic research (AR) offers a unique response to this challenge by repositioning musical practice not merely as an object, but as a research process in and of itself.

Some questions that have inspired this conference are:

• How do contemporary AR trends balance conservation and innovation, and address the influence of time and space on research?
• How can AR epistemologies revolutionize Historically Informed Performance practices?
• Which skills and narratives are prioritized by conservatoires, and how can artistic researchers challenge or reinforce these choices?
• How can emerging trends in composition and sound art challenge positivistic views of the music object and re-imagine music’s relationship with time?

Keynote speakers

• Martino Gozzi (Holden School, Turin)
• Bruno Forment (Orpheus Instituut, Ghent)

Guest Speakers

• Kyoung Hwa Kim (Hanyang University)
• Luca Della Libera (Conservatory of Frosinone)
• Jeremy Cohen (San Francisco)

Convenors

• Valeria Mignaco, Orpheus Instituut, The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University
• Coy Jonty, Orpheus Instituut, The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University
• Maximilian Ehrhardt, Orpheus Instituut, KU Leuven
• Minji Kim, Orpheus Instituut, The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University
• Éléonore Luciani, Orpheus Instituut, Universiteit Leuven
• Laura Adriani, KU Leuven
• Elisabeth Damai Salverda, KU Leuven
• Vuma Levin, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Timetable

• Thursday 10 April:

10.00 to 13.00

14.00 to 18.30

• Friday 11 April:

10.00 to 13.00

More info: https://orpheusinstituut.be/en/news-and-events/musicandtime-call