MUSICAL FUTURES
The UCL Institute of Advanced Studies and the UCL European Institute are joining forces for Musical Futures, a one-year cycle of activities dedicated to thinking, writing and performing music. In the absence of a dedicated department of musicology, we want to bring together UCL academics working on and with music in a wide range of disciplines, in order to foster a new cluster of scholarship and creativity in this space. This could include research about music - be it in literature, history, philosophy, technology, law or elsewhere - as well as research qua creative or performative practice. In line with the general remit of both our Institutes, we will encourage critical interdisciplinary work on music, especially projects that aim to bridge the gap between humanistic approaches and the rapidly expanding work in cognitive science and neuroscience. Musical Futures will also aim to draw in musicians, composers and performers external to UCL, in order to explore with us the epistemologies of creative practice.
We are planning three distinct areas of activity:
1. A preparatory and a closing roundtable: The opening roundtable, held remotely on 24 June 10-11:30, will seek to give short glimpses into UCL research engaged with music, to bring out expertise in this field wherever it may be located at UCL, and to create a first community of interest at UCL. The year's cycle will then be closed by a second roundtable, looking into how the project can have a lasting impact.
2. An open call for proposals, jointly funded by the IAS and the EI, which will seek to give support both to the very small and to the very big ideas, as long as they seek to explore, with a sense of sustainability, how work on music at and/or with UCL might develop in the future.
3. A curated series of three public performance-conversations and/or short film or creative projects, bringing together musicians and academics in a joint space of exploration - live, if pandemically possible. We will explore partnering for this element with one of London's established music and performance spaces.
If you would like to express your interest in this initiative, please get in touch!
Further details to follow.
Nicola Miller, IAS
Claudia Sternberg, EI
Uta Staiger, EI
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Nina Quach
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