Artistic Research Lecture Series: Scott McLaughlin
Di. 25.11.2025
Vortrag
Eintritt frei!
The Artistic Research Lecture Series explores diverse perspectives and methodologies within the field of artistic research. Invited speakers—artist-researchers and scholars from adjacent fields—present their work and engage in discussions on how artistic processes generate knowledge. The series serves as a forum for critical discourse on artistic research, both within and beyond Mozarteum.
Scott McLaughlin
Contingency, Indeterminacy, and New Knowledge in Composition and Performance
Indeterminacy is commonly accepted as an artistic method, but is something unpredictable automatically 'new knowledge'? What are the pathways of knowledge in experimental music? How do we differentiate usefully between 'new for me/us' and 'new for all' and disseminate ideas effectively? I will discuss approaches to criticality around the 'site' of indeterminacy as a way to explore and situate differently unpredictable material as entangled with the human techniques and embodied understanding that interact with it, how contingency and consequences can feed-back into the processes of composition and performance, and how this can be disseminated as research. How we can use artistic practice to challenge hegemonies of knowledge, and offer alternative paths for new knowledge that doesn't necessarily alienate the old but rather creates space for plurality and equity.
Scott McLaughlin (b.1975) is an Irish composer and improviser based in Huddersfield (UK). He started out as a shoegaze/experimental guitarist before studying music in his 20s at University of Ulster then MA/PhD University of Huddersfield (with PA Tremblay, Bryn Harrison). Currently, Scott lectures in composition and music technology at the University of Leeds, and directs CePRA (Centre for Practice Research in the Arts), as well as convening the RMA Practice Research Study Group. His research focuses on composing for contingency and indeterminacy in the physical materiality of sound. Scott was Co-I on the AHRC SPARKLE project (Sustaining Practice Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Engagement – 2022), and recently completed an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, the ‘Garden of Forking Paths’ project, on composing for contingency in clarinets
Contingency, Indeterminacy, and New Knowledge in Composition and Performance
Indeterminacy is commonly accepted as an artistic method, but is something unpredictable automatically 'new knowledge'? What are the pathways of knowledge in experimental music? How do we differentiate usefully between 'new for me/us' and 'new for all' and disseminate ideas effectively? I will discuss approaches to criticality around the 'site' of indeterminacy as a way to explore and situate differently unpredictable material as entangled with the human techniques and embodied understanding that interact with it, how contingency and consequences can feed-back into the processes of composition and performance, and how this can be disseminated as research. How we can use artistic practice to challenge hegemonies of knowledge, and offer alternative paths for new knowledge that doesn't necessarily alienate the old but rather creates space for plurality and equity.
Scott McLaughlin (b.1975) is an Irish composer and improviser based in Huddersfield (UK). He started out as a shoegaze/experimental guitarist before studying music in his 20s at University of Ulster then MA/PhD University of Huddersfield (with PA Tremblay, Bryn Harrison). Currently, Scott lectures in composition and music technology at the University of Leeds, and directs CePRA (Centre for Practice Research in the Arts), as well as convening the RMA Practice Research Study Group. His research focuses on composing for contingency and indeterminacy in the physical materiality of sound. Scott was Co-I on the AHRC SPARKLE project (Sustaining Practice Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Engagement – 2022), and recently completed an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, the ‘Garden of Forking Paths’ project, on composing for contingency in clarinets