The RMA Study Group Music and/as Process is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals as part of their tenth annual conference, which will take place at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on June 30th to July 2nd, 2023.

The conference will address processes of collective music-making and will include presentations, lecture recitals and performances.

The range and quality of the research and performances presented at our conferences since Music and/as Process began in 2013 led us, for this our tenth annual event, to address one of the most fundamental yet complex topics: making music together. This subject has been brought sharply into focus by the fact that our two most recent conferences have taken place online (due to the pandemic in 2021, and rail strikes in 2022). The resulting discussions and reflections on the need for communal and collective music making have given rise to this being the central subject for the conference that sees the RMA Study Group Music and/as Process mark its first decade.

At the heart of the 2023 conference will be an inclusive group performance that will be open for anyone to participate in (more details to follow).

The Music and/as Process Study Group invites proposal submissions in the following categories:

1. 20 minute papers (with a further 10 mins Q&A).
2. 30 minute lecture recitals (with a further 10 mins Q&A).
3. 45 minute workshops – e.g. pieces, practices or concepts for collective performance to be realised by delegates. (Q&A / discussion to be incorporated into the workshop).

Proposals may address the following topics: 

• Group dynamics.
• Distributed creativity.
• Co-composition.
• Collaborative improvisation.
• Spontaneous processes.
• Performer autonomy.
• Creating community within a performance context.
• Inclusive processes for group performance.
• Musicking as a guiding principle.
• Devised processes.
• Using liminal spaces as a tool for participation.
• Using technology and/or live electronics as a tool to mediate and facilitate participation.

All submissions must be submitted as PDFs, and include:

• Details of which category the submission is to be considered for.
• A short abstract / description (250-300 words).
• A short biography (100 words). 
• An email contact.
• Where relevant, documentation such as scores and permalinks to audio / video. 
• Where relevant, information such as instrumentation, performance space requirements, and technological and set-up logistics.

Please send submissions to: musicandasprocess@gmail.com

Deadline for submissions: Friday 13th January, 2023 at 23:59 (UTC). 

We will acknowledge receipt of submissions within seven days. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your submission, please resubmit it, or contact us via social media: 

• Facebook: Music and/as Process
• Instagram: @musicprocess
• Twitter: @musicprocess

The Study Group aims to communicate its decision for all submissions the week commencing 13th February, 2023.

RMA Study Group Music and/as Process 2023 committee: 

• Dr Seán Clancy (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)
• Dr Andy Ingamells (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)
• Dr Steve Gisby (Independent composer / researcher)  
• Dr Richard Coffey-Glover (Independent composer / researcher)
• Dr John Hails (Edinburgh Napier University)
• Dr Sophie Stone  (Independent artist / researcher)
• Maureen Wolloshin (University for the Creative Arts)
• Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent composer / researcher)

Announcing our First Keynote Speaker: Emmanuelle Waeckerlé

Announcing our Second Keynote Speaker: Iris Garrelfs

Call for Papers

On Friday 16th and Saturday 17th of September, 2022, the Music and/as Process RMA Study Group  will be holding their ninth annual conference at the University for the Creative Arts – Farnham campus. 

The conference will address interdisciplinary practices and processes, and will include papers, workshops, discussion, a keynote, and a final event sharing some of the works from the two days.
The Study Group invites papers and proposals for installations, audiovisual works, pieces, and works in progress, which involve interdisciplinary practices. 

Topics can include, but need not be limited to:

• Audiovisual composition and installation
• Interdisciplinary processes
• Politics of interdisciplinarity 
• Processes and practices between music and other discipline(s)

Paper proposals:

Papers must be 20 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&A.

Workshop proposals:

Workshop proposals can include completed works, and works in progress. These must be realisable by conference delegates or organised by the presenters themselves.

Workshops must be 30 minutes.

Performance/installation proposals:

Proposals for performances, screenings or installations must be relevant to the conference theme. Pieces involving performers will be realised by conference delegates or organised by the presenters themselves. Open and fixed duration works will be considered.

The Study Group is unable to guarantee the availability of specific instrumentation or number of performers. Complicated electronic set-ups may also be unfeasible due to logistics. 

Proposals must include:

• A short biography (100 words)
• A short proposal/description (250 words)
• Any additional information such as instrumentation, resources and tech requirements for performance and installations.
• Where submissions include audio or video, this should be provided via a link rather than as an attachment. 

Please submit proposals to: musicandasprocess@gmail.com

We will acknowledge receipt of submissions within seven days. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your submissions, please resubmit it, or contact us via social media: 

• Facebook: Music and/as Process
• Instagram: @musicprocess
• Twitter: @musicprocess

Deadline for submissions: Sunday 1st May 2022, 23:59 (UTC)

The Study Group aims to communicate its decision for all submissions by Monday 30th May.

The conference will be free of charge to attend but, with regret, the Study Group is unable to provide any form of financial assistance.

Music and/as Process Study Group committee: 

• Dr Steve Gisby (Independent composer / researcher)  
• Dr Richard Glover (University of Wolverhampton)
• Dr John Hails (Edinburgh Napier University)
• Dr Sophie Stone (Canterbury Christ Church University)  
• Maureen Wolloshin (University for the Creative Arts)
• Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent composer / researcher)  

musicandasprocess.org

The year at the 9th annual Music and/as Process conference, held at University of the Creative Arts (Farnham campus), we are very privileged to have two keynote speakers. We are delighted to introduce our second keynote speaker and interdisciplinary composer Iris Garrelfs.

Iris Garrelfs

Iris Garrelfs works on the cusp of music, art and technology across improvised performance, multi-channel installation and fixed media projects.  

Often using her voice as raw material, performance and compositions have been compared to artists such as Yoko Ono, Henri Chopin, Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk and Arvo Part. Works have featured internationally, e.g Tate Britain, National Gallery, Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Visiones Sonores Mexico, Gaudeamus Amsterdam, MC Gallery New York, Musikkens Hus Aalborg. Releases in include “Bedroom Symphonies” on Linear Obsessional and “Breathing Through Wires” on Pan Y Rosas Discos. 

Garrelfs convenes the MMus Sonic Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she also co-heads the Sound Practice Research Unit. Elsewhere she is the commissioning editor of the online journal Reflections on Process in Sound.

Iris garrelfs Website

f/t/i = @irisgarrelfs.com

The year at the 9th annual Music and/as Process conference, held at University of the Creative Arts (Farnham campus), we are delighted to announce our keynote speaker and interdisciplinary composer Emmanuelle Waeckerlé.

Emmanuelle Waeckerlé

Emmanuelle Waeckerlé is a London based academic, artist, composer and improviser interested in the materiality and musicality of language. She is Reader in Fine Art and Relational Practices and director of bookRoom at UCA Farnham.

Her practice evolves across multiple interconnected work zones – conceptual writing, performance, new musical composition, artist-publishing. Her music and scores are distributed by Wandelweiser editions. Latest publications include A Direction Out There: Readwalking (with) Thoreau (MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, Edition Wandelweiser, 2021) and Walking in air in Thornton Heath (CDLA 2021). She is involved in on-going collaborations with Will Montgomery (writer, sound artist, academic), N.O. Moore (improviser, guitarist, electronics), Petri Huurinainen (guitarist, improviser) and Harry Whalley (composer, academic).

Website, UCA profile , bookRoom (bookRoom is an experimental post-digital research and publishing platform within the School of fine Art and Photography at University for the Creative Arts in Farnham).

Keynote Speakers: Emmanuelle Waeckerlé and Iris Garrelfs

Call for Papers

On Friday 16th and Saturday 17th of September, 2022, the Music and/as Process RMA Study Group  will be holding their ninth annual conference at the University for the Creative Arts – Farnham campus.

The conference will address interdisciplinary practices and processes, and will include papers, workshops, discussion, a keynote, and a final event sharing some of the works from the two days.

The Study Group invites papers and proposals for installations, audiovisual works, pieces, and works in progress, which involve interdisciplinary practices.

Topics can include, but need not be limited to:

• Audiovisual composition and installation
• Interdisciplinary processes
• Politics of interdisciplinarity 
• Processes and practices between music and other discipline(s)

Paper proposals:

Papers must be 20 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&A.

Workshop proposals:

Workshop proposals can include completed works, and works in progress. These must be realisable by conference delegates or organised by the presenters themselves.

Workshops must be 30 minutes.

Performance/installation proposals:

Proposals for performances, screenings or installations must be relevant to the conference theme. Pieces involving performers will be realised by conference delegates or organised by the presenters themselves. Open and fixed duration works will be considered.

The Study Group is unable to guarantee the availability of specific instrumentation or number of performers. Complicated electronic set-ups may also be unfeasible due to logistics.

Proposals must include:

• A short biography (100 words)
• A short proposal/description (250 words)
• Any additional information such as instrumentation, resources and tech requirements for performance and installations.
• Where submissions include audio or video, this should be provided via a link rather than as an attachment. 

Please submit proposals to: musicandasprocess@gmail.com

We will acknowledge receipt of submissions within seven days. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your submissions, please resubmit it, or contact us via social media: 

• Facebook: Music and/as Process
• Instagram: @musicprocess
• Twitter: @musicprocess

Deadline for submissions: Sunday 1st May 2022, 23:59 (UTC)

The Study Group aims to communicate its decision for all submissions by Monday 30th May.

The conference will be free of charge to attend but, with regret, the Study Group is unable to provide any form of financial assistance.

Music and/as Process Study Group committee: 

• Dr Steve Gisby (Independent composer / researcher)  
• Dr Richard Glover (University of Wolverhampton)
• Dr John Hails (Edinburgh Napier University)
• Dr Sophie Stone (Canterbury Christ Church University)  
• Maureen Wolloshin (University for the Creative Arts)
• Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent composer / researcher)  

musicandasprocess.org

The RMA Music and/as Process Study Group are happy to present our eighth conference which will take place from 10am Friday 25th until Saturday 26th June, 6.30pm. This year’s conference will be entirely online using the Zoom application and will feature paper presentations, performance/papers, and group participatory performances. See below for list of delegates presenting and/or performing at this year’s conference.

Download Schedule

Register for conference via Eventbrite

Since the initial lockdown in February/March 2020, there has been a growing appearance of online forms of music making as communal events for collective music making, or as an alternative to the live, public concert. Due to the lack of live music making, both in concert and privately, we consider this to be a burgeoning and emergent form of music making, that has had to develop in a short space of time to identify and therefore adapt to the many technical challenges. 

This emergent form of experimental music making comprises, but not limited to: 

• The consideration of practicalities under lockdown circumstances.
• The influence these online technologies have on aesthetic considerations.
• The growth of online concerts.
• The engagement with a communal form of communication and interaction with software that is by its very nature prone to glitches and latency.
• The wider international potential of any online collaboration. 
• Working within these parameters has contributed to defining an aesthetic environment that sets itself apart from the conventional live situation, from which potentially genuinely new musically creative work can appear.

The RMA Music and/as Process Committee:

• Dr Steve Gisby (Independent researcher)
• Dr Richard Glover (Reader in Music at the University of Wolverhampton)
• Dr John Hails (Senior Lecturer and Reader in Music at Edinburgh Napier University)
• Dr Sophie Stone (PhD candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University)
• Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent researcher)

Facebook event page: Networked Collaborative Processes 

Our Networked Collaborative Processes event will take place on Friday 25th June.

This may be extended to include Saturday 26th, depending on response and time zone considerations.

For full details of the Call for Proposals, please see below.

Deadline reminder: 23:59 (GMT) on 26th of March, 2021.

Since the initial lockdown in February/March 2020, there has been a growing appearance of online forms of music making as communal events for collective music making, or as an alternative to the live, public concert. Examples of such work includes: Free Range Orchestra, Montrose Composers Club, Bastard Assignments, Pan Y Rosas Discos, Jefferson Park EXP, Peter Nagle’s digital drone orchestra using highfidelity.com and the Free Range Concert Series.

Due to the lack of live music making, both in concert and privately, we consider this to be a burgeoning and emergent form of music making, that has had to develop in a short space of time to identify and therefore adapt to the many technical challenges.

This emergent form of experimental music making comprises: 

• The consideration of practicalities under lockdown circumstances.
• The influence these online technologies have on aesthetic considerations.
• The growth of online concerts.
• The engagement with a communal form of communication and interaction with software that is by its very nature prone to glitches and latency.
• The wider international potential of any online collaboration. 

Working within these parameters has contributed to defining an aesthetic environment that sets itself apart from the conventional live situation, from which potentially genuinely new musically creative work can appear.

In June 2021, Music and/as Process will be hosting an online event that focuses on new work that has been specifically composed for remote/collective forms. Alongside performances, the event will feature discussions focusing on the process(es) and experiences of realising such works.

You are invited to submit sketches / pieces / papers that address and explore the technological challenges and aesthetic considerations of remote network performance.

These may include, but are not limited to:

• Critical aesthetics from within the medium itself.
• Creative work which addresses latency, glitches, synchronisation of multiple audio streams, software and hardware issues. 
• Collaborative creative practices, in which, for example, projects have developed over time amongst teams of performers/composers/improvisers.
• Issues regarding the quality of participation, and their possible solutions. 
• Networked music performance practises including the functionalities of individual platforms.

We are looking to present music which is created bespoke for the remote networking medium, rather than arranging pre-existing music for this format.

Proposals should include, as appropriate:

• A copy of the score / sketches, as a PDF.
• A short description (250 words) of the way/s in which the practice explores online performance and remote communication.
• A 250 word abstract if delivering a paper.
• Links to documentation (video or audio) of previous performances.

For proposals featuring live performance, the piece can involve between 2 to 10 people – including yourself. Pre-recorded performances can involve as many people as you wish.

There will be approximately 30 minutes for each presentation, which can be used as desired.

Please send your submissions to musicandasprocess@gmail.com

Deadline for submissions: 23:59 (GMT) on 26th of March, 2021.

Decisions will be communicated mid April.

The RMA Music and/as Process Committee:

• Dr Steve Gisby (Independent researcher)
• Dr Richard Glover (Reader in Music at the University of Wolverhampton)
• Dr John Hails (Senior Lecturer and Reader in Music at Edinburgh Napier University)
• Sophie Stone (PhD candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University)
• Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent researcher)

Registration for our conference at the ICMP on July 26th is now open.

To register, or for further information, please contact Steve Gisby at steve (dot) gisby@icmp (dot) ac (dot) uk

We look forward to welcoming you to London this summer.