Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Music / Unrestricted

Denna uppsats innefattar en kvalitativ studie med en introspektiv metod (Frostling-Henningsson, 2017), en undersökning av hur ett arbete med röstklanger kan användas som verktyg inom improvisation och gestaltning. Undersökningen utförs med grund i Nadine Georges metod i klangbildning och utifrån den analyserar jag sedan hur mina improvisationer påverkas av ett klangligt fokus, samt hur det kan gynna ett förmedlande av känsla och budskap (George 2013). Då rösten är något tydligt kopplat till känslouttryck i vår vardag går jag in på hur tonutformningen, även utan ord i en ordlös vokalimprovisation, kan påverka uppfattningen av sinnesstämning.

Studien undersöker hur kontrabaspedagoger på högskolenivå jobbar med undervisning i improvisation och vilka implikationer det kan få när undervisningen sker i en akademisk miljö. Förhoppningen var att studien, genom kvalitativa intervjuer med framstående jazzbasister, som även jobbar som kontrabaspedagoger, skulle ta fram en samling idéer för undervisning av improvisation som kan användas på jazzutbildningar och som kan vara till användning för framtida undervisning i improvisation på kontrabas. Med hjälp av begrepp från vedertagna läroteorier från främst sociokulturell tradition analyseras resultat för att försöka besvara forskningsfrågorna. Resultatet visar att ett bra gehör och god teknik är de två viktigaste idealen för den improviserande basisten och att kontrabaspedagoger lär ut verktyg för improvisation till sina studenter. Vidare visade resultatet att den stora fördelen med att jobba med jazzundervisning i en akademisk miljö är att den är, för studenter, en mötesplats för likasinnade. / This study asks the question how upright bass teachers work with teaching improvisation on the university level and what implications the academic environment could have for the students. The aim for this study was, through qualitative interviews with renowned bassists, to gather some ideas on teaching improvisation that can be used for future teachings of improvisation on the upright bass. With the use of terms from theories of learning, the results were analyzed to answer the research questions. The results show that a good ear and technique are the most important ideals among improvising bass players, and furthermore teachers of jazz bass improvisation saw it as their role to teach tools for improvisation to the students. Finally, the results show that the big advantage of learning jazz in the academic environment is that the student gets to meet peers with the same interests as they have.

<p>Mandus Almqvist Johansson, "Komposition 1"; studioinspelning 2 feb 2016.</p><p>Medverkande: Mandus Almqvist Johansson - akustisk gitarr, Julia Strzalek - klarinett, Emma Augustsson - cello, Emil Skogh - kontrabas, Andreas Pollak - trumset, klingande objekt.</p><p></p><p>Mandus Almqvist Johansson, "Komposition 2"; studioinspelning 2 feb 2016.</p><p>Medverkande: Mandus Almqvist Johansson - elgitarr, Julia Strzalek - klarinett, Emma Augustsson - cello, Emil Skogh - kontrabas, Andreas Pollak - trumset, klingande objekt.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

The increasing interdependence of economies and the recent economic crisis has considerably strengthened the importance of exporting. It is recognised as promoting the survivability of companies as they are better able to diversify risks and generate multiple income streams. Thus, investigation of the determinants of export performance has become particularly important. Marketing decision-making has been identified as one of the core drivers of firms success. It is a process under the direct control of managers where significant changes can be introduced to improve it, and by extension, the ability to achieve successful outcomes. However, little is known about how export marketing decisions are made and what key decision-making approaches managers rely on to drive their performance. A literature review that span multiple disciplines (e.g. strategic management, organisation studies, marketing) helped to disentangle two key decision-making approaches, namely planning and improvisation. This is the first study examining the impact of both of these simultaneously on a firm s export performance. While planning is considered to be a unidimensional construct, improvisation is comprised of three facets: spontaneity, creativity and action-orientation. Based on decision theory, this research was conducted in two phases. The literature review informed phase 1: a qualitative exploratory study among export managers in the UK. A conceptual model was then derived from the results and tested in phase 2 through quantitative analysis utilising data generated from 200 respondent companies via a self-reported online questionnaires and the application of structural equation modelling. The results indicated that export customer performance was negatively affected by planning and positively influenced by action-orientation, whilst export financial performance was found to benefit from planning. All decision-making approaches (planning, spontaneity, creativity and action-orientation) were found to be positively related to responsiveness to environmental changes. Using moderator analysis, important insights were uncovered into combining decision-making approaches. The export function was found to benefit from a combination of planning and action-orientation, whereas spontaneity and creativity while having separate positive effects are not well combined with planning, producing negative moderation effects.

The thesis is concerned with the exploration of the notion of ‘flow’ from both a psychological and dance analysis perspective in order to extend the meaning of flow and move beyond a partiality of understanding. The main aim of the thesis recognises the need to understand, identify and interpret an analysis of the moments of flow perceivable in a dancer’s body during improvisatory practice, through technologically innovative means. The research is undertaken via both philosophical and practical enquiry. It addresses phenomenology in order to resolve the mind/body debate and is applied to research in flow in psychology by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, and flow in movement analysis by Rudolf Laban and Warren Lamb. The significance of this endeavour can be seen in the reconsideration of the relation between mind and body, and art and science which informs the methodology for the research (Part One). The three main outcomes of the research are related to each of the three subsequent parts. The first research outcome is the articulation of a transdisciplinary approach to understanding flow and was developed by expanding on the current definitions of flow through an innovative transdisciplinary methodology (Part Two). Research outcome two addresses the intersubjective nature of flow, which was identified within improvisation. From this two methods were constructed for the collection and interpretation of the experience of the dancer. Firstly, through reflective practice as defined by Donald Schön. And secondly, an argument was provided for the use of motion capture as an embodied tool which extends the dancers embodied cognitive capabilities in the moment of improvisation (Part Three). The final research outcome was thus theorised that such embodied empathic intersubjectivity does not require a direct identification of the other’s body but could be achieved through technologically mediated objects in the world (Part Four). Subsequently, the findings from the research could support further research within a number of fields including dance education, dance practice and dance therapy, psychology, neuroscience, gaming and interactive arts.

As a performer of firstly acoustic and latterly electronic and electro-instrumental music, I constantly seek to improve my mode of interaction with the digital realm: that is, to achieve a high level of sensitivity and expression. This thesis illustrates reasons why making use of haptic interfaces—which offer physical feedback and resistance to the performer—may be viewed as an important approach in addressing the shortcomings of some the standard systems used to mediate the performer’s engagement with various sorts of digital musical information. By examining the links between sound and touch, and the performer-instrument relationship, various new compositional and performance strategies start to emerge. I explore these through a portfolio of original musical works, which span the continuum of composition and improvisation, largely based around performance paradigms for piano and live electronics. I implement new haptic technologies, using vibrotactile feedback and resistant interfaces, as well as exploring more metaphorical connections between sound and touch. I demonstrate the impact that the research brings to the creative musical outcomes, along with the implications that these techniques have on the wider field of live electronic musical performance.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This artistic research dissertation employs the principles and practices of contact improvisation in a literary performative to describe and demonstrate this somatic form’s potential as a complex system of embodied knowing. For strategic and thematic purposes, chapters in this dissertation are referred to as Streams. The First Stream motivates the methodological approaches and emergent strategies employed in the researcher’s simultaneous practices of teaching, researching and writing about contact improvisation. The Second Stream is offered as an oral testimony of the researcher’s attempt to find practical solutions for the increasing complexity apparent in her work environment during the last two decades. It is written primarily as a first-person narrative with references by other somatic and contact improvisation practitioners embedded in the body of the narrative and presented as personal subconscious/collective unconscious interjections. The Third Stream uses a locally-emergent artistic research strategy termed Secondary Primacy to critically and creatively engage with existing literature. The observations of theorists and practitioners from the researcher’s own context (theatre and drama), as well as from a diversity of interrelated disciplines (including psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, quantum physics, pedagogy and visual art) are presented in an autonomous authorial voice employing the performative strategy of what if. This strategy serves to demonstrate the researcher’s experience of the link between personal subconscious and collective unconscious motivations for action and exposes the transdisciplinary ground upon which many of the ideas and observations voiced in other Streams, in particular about contact improvisation as a complex system of embodied knowing, are implicitly dependent. The Fourth Stream discusses contact improvisation as a complex system foregrounding the particular characteristics of nonlinearity, paradox, emergence and additional capacity introduced in the Second and Third Streams. The Fifth Stream demonstrates convergences and overlaps between contemporary theories about agency, embodiment and transformation as they may apply to educators in tertiary educational performing arts contexts. This discussion is interspersed with accounts of the researcher’s own attempts – through her performing arts educational practice - to understand agency and transformation as workable elements. The Sixth Stream is offered as a personal philosophy of action. The implicit values and strategies of the researcher that were exposed in previous Streams are here distilled and presented as affirmations and Actions motivating the sustained use, by the researcher within her localized educational context, of contact improvisation as a foundational somatic approach for performers. In keeping with the positioning of this dissertation as artistic research, the literary framing devices of a Foreword and Afterword are used to draw a reader’s attention to the practicebased nature of the subject under discussion. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie artistieke navorsingsverhandeling gebruik die beginsels en praktyke van kontakimprovisasie in ‘n literêre performatief om hierdie somatiese vorm se potensiaal as ‘n komplekse sisteem van verpersoonlikte kundigheid te beskryf en te demonstreer. Vir strategiese en tematiese doeleindes word daar in hierdie verhandeling na hoofstukke as Strome verwys. Die Eerste Stroom motiveer die metodologiese benaderinge en voortspruitende strategieë wat aangewend word in die navorser se gelyktydige onderrig van, en navorsing en skrywe oor, kontakimprovisasie. Die Tweede Stroom word aangebied as ‘n mondelinge betuiging van die navorser se poging om praktiese oplossings te vind vir die toenemende kompleksiteit in haar omgewing oor die laaste twee dekades. Hierdie Stroom word primêr as ‘n eerste persoon narratief aangebied met behulp van verwysings deur ander somatiese en kontakimprovisasie praktisyns wat in die narratief geanker en aangebied word as persoonlike onbewustelike/kollektiewe onbewuste tussenwerpsels. In die Derde Stroom word ‘n plaaslik ontwikkelde artistieke navorsingstrategie, naamlik Sekondêre Voorrang, gebruik om die konvensionele literatuurstudie op kreatiewe wyse te herinterpreteer. Die waarnemings van teoretici en praktisyns uit die navorsers se eie studieveld (teater en drama), sowel as uit ‘n verskeidenheid van interafhanklike studievelde (onder andere psigologie, sosiologie, evolusionêre biologie, kwantum fisika, pedagogie en visuele kuns) word aangebied as ‘n outonome outeursbedoelde stem en maak gebruik van ‘n performatiewe what if. Díe strategie dien as ‘n metode om die navorsers se ervaring van die implisiete afhanklikhied tussen persoonlike onderbewussyn en kollektiewe onbewustheid motiverings vir aksie te demonstreer, en die transdisiplinêre grond van idees en waarnemings, in die besonder oor kontakimprovisasie as ‘n komplekse sisteem van verpersoonlikte kennis, te ontgin en bloot te lê. In die Vierde Stroom word kontakimprovisasie as ‘n komplekse sisteem bespreek en die eienskappe van nie-liniariteit, paradoks, ontluiking en addisionele kapasiteit wat in die Tweede en Derde Strome bespreek is, is verder op die voorgrond geplaas. Die Vyfde Stroom toon die sameloop en ooreenkomste aan tussen teorieë oor tussenkoms, verpersoonliking en transformasie soos van toepassing mag wees op opvoeders in ‘n tersiêre opvoedkundige performance konteks. Hierdie bespreking is afgewissel met vertellings van die navorser se eie pogings - deur haar uitvoerende kunste opvoedkundige praktyk – om agentskap en transformasie as werkbare elemente te verstaan. Die Sesde Stroom word aangebied as ‘n persoonlike filosofie van handeling. Die implisiete waardes en strategieë van die navorser, soos bloot gelê in die vorige Strome, word hier gesuiwer en aangebied as bekragtiging en Aksies vir die volgehoue gebruik, deur die navorser in haar eie gelokaliseerde opvoedkundige konteks, van kontakimprovisasie as ‘n grondleggende somatieke benadering vir performers. As deel van hierdie verhandeling se posisionering as artistieke navorsing word ‘n Voorwoord en Slotwoord gebruik om die leser se aandag te vestig op die verpersoonlikte aard van die onderwerp onder bespreking.

Thesis (MDram)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the field of choreography, there are many different emerging theories and methodologies. One such theory uses the individual and unique performers to create and generate movement vocabulary. For the student-choreographer, who is still developing their artistic voice, certain markers need to be put in place in order to evaluate a creative process. The aim of this study is to critically reflect on a particular practical process, develop a language with which to structure improvisations, create the appropriate environment in which effective exploration can take place and finally deliver criticism on the process. This research study has a strong empirical component, focusing on my personal practice as a choreographer. This study also makes use of secondary source material that discusses the choreographic process in general, and more specifically the use of improvisation in choreography, with particular reference to the he theories and definitions of Michael Klien (2007) and Lavender and Predock-Linnell (2001), as and the choreographic innovations and methods of Merce Cunningham. Finally, this study makes use of primary source material, in the form of first-hand observations and personal interviews with a modern Physical Theatre Company, PUSH Physical Theatre Company in Rochester, NY, USA. Through the combination of the theories of Michael Klien (2007) and Lavender and Predock- Linnell (2001) both a philosophical and practical methodology develops and emerges. The results will show how the choreographic environment is engaged to not only simplify and shorten the choreographic process, but also to enhance it. The intangible energetic rapport between people, space and ideas can be harnessed as part of the process of choreography. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskeie teorieë en metodologieë word tans binne die veld van choreografie ontwikkel. Onder andere gebruik een so ‘n teorie die individu en unieke deelnemers om beweging en bewegingsfrases te genereer. Vir die studente-choreograaf, wie tans nog in die proses is om ‘n kunstige stem te ontwikkel, is sekere merkers nodig om ‘n kreatiewe proses ten einde te evalueer. Die doel van hierdie studie is om krities oor ‘n spesifieke praktiese proses te reflekteer. Die proses behels die ontwikkeling van ‘n taal waarmee improvisasies gestruktureer kan word; om die gepaste omgewing te skep waarin effektiewe eksplorasie kan plaasvind en eindelik om kritiek oor die proses te lewer. Die navorsingstuk het ‘n sterk empiriese komponent wat meestal op ‘n persoonlike praktyk as choreograaf fokus. Hierdie studie maak van sekondêre material gebruik wat die choreografiese proses in die algemeen, en meer spesifiek, die gebruik van improvisasie in choreografie, bespreek. Daar word van die teorieë en definisies van Michael Klien (2007) en Lavender en Predock-Linnel (2001), sowel as die choreografiese inovasies en metodes van Merce Cunningham, melding gemaak. Derdens maak hierdie studie gebruik van primêre bronne in die vorm van eerste-handse observasies en persoonlike onderhoude met ‘n moderne Fisiese Teater geselskap, PUSH "Physical Theatre Company" in Rochester, New York, VSA. Deur die kombinasie van die teorieë van Klien en Predock-Linnell, word beide ‘n filosofiese en praktiese metodologie ontwikkel. Die resultate wys hoe die choreografiese omgewing aangewend word om beide die choreografiese proses te verkort en te versterk. Die verweefde energieke dinamiek tussen mense, spasie en idees kan gebruik word as deel van die proses van choreografie.

Studien syftar till att få djupare insikt i hur professionella musikers övning i fri improvisation kan se ut. I bakgrundsavsnittet ges en överblick av begreppen ”improvisation” och ”fri improvisation” och därefter följer en presentation av tidigare litteratur och forskning inom ämnesområdet. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt utgörs av det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande och kommunikation. Studiens datamaterial består av kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra professionella musiker inom fri improvisation. I resultatavsnittet beskrivs informanternas syn på improvisation, fri improvisation och frihet, deras redskap för övning samt deras användande av tillägnade färdigheter. Det framkommer att de intervjuade musikerna ser det som viktigt att öva mycket, att ha en egen metodik, att kunna koppla bort intellektet när de improviserar och att samla erfarenheter i en metaforisk ryggsäck. I det avslutande diskussionsavsnittet lyfts studiens resultat till diskussion i relation till tidigare forskning och till det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande. Här framkommer att ryggsäcksmetaforen är i linje med det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande, att lärande sker ständigt. En slutsats är att en improvisation aldrig kan vara helt fri. En musikers frihet i improvisation skulle kunna beskrivas som att denne är fri till något, inte från något. / This study aims to create deeper insight in how professional musicians practice free improvisation. The background chapter provides an overview of the concepts of “improvisation” and “free improvisation” and then followed by a presentation of previous research in the field. The theoretical basis for the study is the socio-cultural perspective on learning and communication. The data consists of qualitative interviews with four professional improvising musicians. The results show the musician’s view of improvisation, free improvisation and freedom, their practicing tools and their use of acquired skills. It reveals that the interviewed musicians regard it important to practice a lot, to have a personal method, to be able to disconnect the intellect when improvising and to collect experiences in a “metaphorical backpack”. In the concluding discussion chapter the results is discussed in relation to the previous research and to the socio-cultural perspective on learning. A conclusion is that the backpack metaphor is in accordance with the socio-cultural perspective on learning and that learning happens constantly. Another conclusion is that an improvisation never can be completely free. A musician´s freedom in improvisation could be described as being free to something rather than from something.