Skip to main content
Norges musikkhøgskole Norwegian Academy of Music Search

Sounding Philosophy

The project is supported by CEMPE's innovation grants and led by Dániel Péter Biró and Ingrid Catharina Geuens at the University of Bergen, Grieg Academy.

Sounding Philosophy is an interdisciplinary research project combining the fields of music, dance, visual arts, philosophy and science. The project integrates these fields, investigating how recent theories of emergence, reason and the mind can be approached from creative, metaphysical and scientific standpoints. The project integrate artistic research with the humanities and sciences into the study programs of the Grieg Academy and University of Stavanger, thereby seeking to strengthen collaboration and interaction between teachers, students and institutions as well as across disciplines and genres.

While philosophers have described thinking, doing and perception as different “states of mind,” scientists have not only concerned themselves with the question of how intelligence in the universe is possible, but also how intelligence plays a role in the evolution and emergence of nature. Philosophers, such as Spinoza and Kant, regarded both philosophy and art not merely as rational modes of explanation but also as expressions of spirit (spiritus) and intelligence (Geist). Such questions of spirit also relate to recent developments in emergence theories in physics and philosophy.

Hagit Yakira. Foto: Joe Armitage.

In the project, students of composition from the Grieg Academy and University of Stavanger will create interdisciplinary works inspired by philosophical and scientific texts. These will be performed in workshop-concerts by the Neue Vocalsolisten (Stuttgart, Germany), Bit20 and the Norwegian Youth Chamber Music Festival Ensemble which consists of violinists Luke Hsu and Laurens Weinhold, violist Xiaoti Guo and cellists Rainer Crosset and Clara Lindenbaum, who is finishing her Master Degree at NMH with Torleif Thedeen.

These texts will also form the basis for choreographies and artworks. Such an international, interdisciplinary research forum will be unique in Norway and the world, giving the students a world-class educational experience. The proposed new model of teaching will allow for students to gain new perspectives through connecting scientific exploration with creative discovery.

Report

Published: Aug 20, 2019 — Last updated: Oct 1, 2020