Norient: Getting Close to Phenomena through Music and Sound (TIM Master Class / Videogram)

How can we get closer to phenomena, music and musicians in research? How can we add more perspectives, and produce deeper, more nuanced knowledge? What are new formats to discuss contemporary culture, music and societies with? And how can we communicate research to diverse publics? This lecture is based on ethnographic research from London (2000), Beirut (2006-2010), Ghana (2013-2019), and Kenya (2020). It will use examples from my recently 2019 documentary «Contradict», about musicians in Ghana. Further it draws on experiences and thoughts from the launch (2002) and re-launch (2020) of the platform Norient – Performing Music Research. The re-launched Norient offers «ethnography as a collage», as James Clifford called it (Clifford, 1981). Its intention is to create space and place(s) for scholars, researchers, journalists, artists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines, worldwide, established and young – a community of practice, multi-disciplinary, multi-sited, multi-lingual, multi-authored, on- and offline.

Overall, the lecture offers thoughts and insights in what new digital technologies and experimental formats can bring to understand people, music and culture. Thomas Burkhalter (Norient) is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Switzerland. He is the founder and director of Norient (Norient.com), co-directed documentary films (e.g. “Contradict”), AV/theatre/dance performances, and is the author and co-editor of several books. Currently, he is working on a new music project, and on the experimental podcast series’ Timezones and South Asian Sound Stories.

The lecture is organized by Theory of Interactive Media, Faculty of Arts, MU within the TIM Master Class course and in cooperation with Faculty of Fine Arts BUT.