Task2

Artistic Research(Liang-Chu Chi)

1 We construct theories about how the world works all the time as we explain
things and come to understand them. In other situations, theories are based on
experience and knowledge, which helps us understand more complex things. This
kind of theorizing involves research, which is an adaptive process of human thinking
and acting that is informed by our experiences and encounters.
What is research? According to the UNESCO definition, research is " any creative
systematic activity undertaken in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including
knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this knowledge to devise new
applications. " Research therefore means do not know, or not-yet-knowing and desire
for knowledge . Research also seems to be no unique between research and science, but
to include many activities that made research by artists. (OECD Glossary of

Statistical Terms, 2008).

As JULIAN KLEIN mentioned, research means search for knowledge, I would say
"Research" comprises the main purposes of basic research are discovering knowledge,
proving and revising fault, or developing of methods for the advancement of human
knowledge. There are several forms of research : scientific, humanities0, artistic,
economic, social, business, research, etc, Most researches begin with a general
statement of the problem that nobody did before, state in detail of the purpose of
research, following with the direction that name questions relate to the subject, then
collecting and analyzing the data via several methods to test your questions, method is
so important for discovering new thing, and the result still have to be challenged,
corrected.
Artistic research mostly made by the artist, sometimes it happend naturally none
force it to happen,In jazz history, for instance, the two big figures of modern jazz
period, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, they composed "Giant steps","So What"
influenced by Arnold Schoenderg,inventor of "Twelve-Tone",they imitated
Schoenderg's concept of breaking the functional harmony system into "Free
atonality", and they did make a innovation for development of jazz.
2
3
In my opinion, artistic research can be both "artistic " and
" scientific "
research even the others, because the attributes do a same idea, the aim for knowledge

within research.
Artistic research has a main goal : it's all for art, in this concept you can't not say
science has nothing to do with it, and in this principle, we can easily eliminate the
relative scientific researchs that are not in this case. For example : research for the
transformation of improviser's brain, this case classify in scientific research, not
artistic research.
Mostly artistic research made by artist, contribute to the art domain and somtimes
open new perpectives for other artists, on the other hand, scientific research also let
artists know precisely how to be better or another posibility. As i know, there are lots
of research for piano touch and tone in classical music, for example, " Ortmann, Otto
Rudolph " wrote two books - " The physical Basis of piano Touch and Tone (1925) '',
and " The Physiological Mechanics of piano Technique(1929) ".
The book is divided into three categories :
1. Organism physiologically :
To investigate the bones, muscles, nervous system, circulatory system, the lever.
2. General idea of physiological movement :
The nature of physical exercise : muscle use, coordination, relaxation, weight
applications, weight transfer, action and reaction, active and passive, independent,
fixed, rotation.
He believes that the key elements of the movement are : strength, direction, time,
distance.
3. Touch the piano keys in the form of skills
We can recognise obviously this research uses physical analysis, principle to
discover the possibility of piano's sound. This can be used to explain a phenomenon in
piano adjustment. When the pianos sound seems too bright and sharp, piano
technicians usually use emery paper to grind the hammer. When the head of the
hammer becomes appropriately flat, the tone will be softened. Sometimes overgrinding will cause the tone to be dark and dim.
It's not important to draw a distinction between the forms of artistic research and art
as science in the sense of an scientific discipline. We can see that the artistic research
study programs are focused specifically on putting art on a scientific basis. It assumes
that art is based in theoretical knowledge, that art can be learned, and that it can be
further developed through scientific practice. We must have critique for that. In the
course of a research, artistic experience can occur at different times, be of different
durations and different motivation.

I think every outstanding artist must be good researcher, for a jazz musician, we
learn everything by listening to recording (the balance of the band, sound, voicing,
improvisation, or reharmonization...etc) , everything's just there, so when I start
learning a standard, I collect different versions of same tune as much as I can, then
take idea put into my own version of standard and try don't lose myself, jazz
musicians consider " Uniqueness " as important attitude, so some pianist evan created
their own theory, vocing or scale (out of jazz theory) in order to set up thier styles, I
mean I regard all these searching process as the goal of research,it happend in all time
of artistic history, that's why we seperate the period of jazz,swing, big band, modern,
cool..etc. In painting as well, impressionism, romanticism, Realism ...etc, pioneer
created them in certain situation before stylistic definition.
Conclusion
In my opinion, artistic research happens from anytime, anywhere,from different
culture lifestyle, religion...etc, it's not possible to have the whole materials, but you
can take the specific certain element from them, and put into your own expression.
Like jazz, spirit of fusion, ''steal" element (rhythm,harmony,technique) from all kinds
of music then construct new musical style (Latin jazz,Fusion,Gospel,Afro-cuban
jazz...etc), it's a huge process of artistic research contributed by all human beings, not
only musicians.
So what are modern genertions doing ? Mostly as we can see is to project multiarts, could be film - comebine audio and studio, and technology. With the process of
th time, science and technology change rapidly, almost everything turn into
digitization, nowadays it's easy to make music or painting on the computer, so
technology set a new milestone of art to us, technology are largely applied in several
areas like midi composing, applied music,audio engineering, that's why I think artistic
research very often including scientistic research.

References
1 Ortmann , Otto Rudolph ,
" The physical Basis of piano Touch and Tone '' (1925)
2 Ortmann , Otto Rudolph , " The Physiological Mechanics of piano Technique ''
(1929)
3 Klein , Julian , What is artistic research ? Published in German in : Gegenworte 23,
Berlin-Branden burgische Akademie der Wissenschaften 2010.
4 Lai-Mei Nie , Analysis on the relations between piano touch and tone A thesis
presented to Department of Physics in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the
course General Physics Tsinghua University May, 2008
5 Coessens Kathleen , Excerpt of pre-print of THE ARTISTIC TURN , Crispin Darla
and Douglas Anne , University of Leuven Press 2009
6 Borgdorff , Henk , The Conflict of the Faculties - On Theory , Practice and Research
in Professional Arts (2004)