Research: practice research in England – reports publication

Today marks the publication date, after nearly three years of work, of two reports, written as part of a collaborative post-doctorate with Dr Özden Şahin, on the subject of practice research in England, commissioned by the Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK) and funded by Research England. Published by PRAG-UK and the British Library.

The two Bulley-Şahin reports are published by the Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK) and are available Open Access here.

.pdf download here

Writing in the foreword to What is practice research?, Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England says: “Practice research is a new way of thinking about and engaging in research and so needs new structures and systems to maximise its impact within and outside the academy.”

He adds: “These reports are a seminal contribution that draws together current thinking relating to practice research in all its diversity. They provide consistent language to talk about practice research across multiple disciplinary contexts and clarify the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the full potential of practice research. Notably, the reports span and provide linkages between the theoretical and practical.” 

“This range is essential. If there are to be better tools for hosting and communicating practice research, they need to align with the ways practice researchers conceptualise their work.”

Practice research has a history stretching as far back as the earliest human experiments: practice is a method of discovering and sharing new findings about the world that surrounds us. In recent years, scholarly communication has undergone a series of changes that have led to a broadening of the landscape of academic research, due in part to the emergence of practice research in the academy. The formulation and dissemination of practice research affords an important opportunity for researchers in England across all research disciplines, offering a research field that conveys ways of knowing from practice, operating within, across and beyond disciplines in manners that go far beyond traditional research types. In practice research, forms of sensory, tacit and embodied knowledge can be conveyed, and its sharing presents an opportunity for the modernising and revitalising of research communication, uncovering novel dissemination routes in the digital era.

(from an article about the reports found here)

Bulley, James and Şahin, Özden. 2021. Practice Research - Report 1: What is practice research? and Report 2: How can practice research be shared?. Practice Research Advisory Group UK (PRAG-UK), London. https://doi.org/10.23636/1347

'Ayouni' Guardian Review

A 4 star review for ‘Ayouni’ in the Guardian Newspaper today, written by Peter Bradshaw.
It is good to see the film getting the recognition it deserves:

Director Yasmin Fedda, who is from a Palestinian and Syrian background and lectures in film at Queen Mary University of London, has created a powerful and urgent documentary tribute to those who have been “forcibly disappeared” by the Assad regime in Syria, estimated to be around 150,000 since 2011.

To watch Ayouni please see the official website to find the platforms it is available on: https://ayounifilm.com/watch

'Island' now available online

Island is now available to download via iTunes, Vimeo, Google Play and Amazon Prime Video

Watch on demand via Vimeo

Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. We observe bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology. Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, Island is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this an enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.

★★★★★  – The Sunday Times
★★★★  – The Guardian

“Poetic; disarmingly intimate” – Sight & Sound

“Probes uncharted territory with great intelligence and sensitivity” – Little White Lies 

'Ayouni' online launch

Ayouni is now available to watch worldwide at www.ayounifilm.com

It was a great privilege to compose the score and sound design for the film, directed by Yasmin Fedda..

At a time when the dictatorship in Syria is still in power, and its position is being normalised, it feels crucial to respond to the crimes that have been committed in its name, and in the wake of the destruction it has created across the country. Since 2011, government forces, and other armed groups, have forcibly disappeared at least 100,000 people – making them absent, silenced, invisible.

Families and friends of the disappeared still face the difficult tasks of finding answers. In this context, it is essential to build and preserve a portfolio of war crimes that can be used for accountability and for eventual justice. Ayouni is a small contribution to this effort, bringing intimate stories and realities in focus.

'Ness' by Adam Scovell

Recently released is Ness, directed by Adam Scovell with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood. I loved doing the sound design and soundscore for Adam’s exploration of Orford Ness. The film features the haunted radiophonics of Drew Mulholland.

You can read Adam Scovell’s thoughts on the film here.

You can read more about Ness on Elsewhere Journal here.


Orford Ness Lighthouse in 1942

Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990)

Very pleased to announce that the fully digitised archive of Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990) is now openly available online, with all articles and issues free to access in perpetuity: https://www.contactjournal.gold.ac.uk/ – a huge thanks to everyone involved in this three year long project, in particular to Dr Fiorenzo Palermo and Gregory White who did so much work on making this all possible.

Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1990)

Horniman x Goldsmiths, 21 March 2019

I am co-curating two installation pieces at the forthcoming Late at the Horniman Museum as part of my work as Research Associate in the Department of Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Firstly, there will be a spatial Longplayer Listening Post installed for the evening. Longplayer is a 1000-year long composition by Jem Finer, for which I am a trustee. More information here.

‘Longplayer Detail’ Copyright: Debbie Bragg

Secondly, I’ve been working with the artist Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Black Tower Projects on a new iteration of Boakye-Yiadom’s ‘Adaptive Rhythm’ spatial audiovisual work. We’ve been working with the Horniman Musical Instrument collection and the phenomenal Taiko drummer Aki Fujimoto in realising the project.

‘Before: Adaptive Rhythm, Black Tower Projects, 2018’ Copyright: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom

More information on the whole event here, including a link to get hold of tickets.

The Horniman x Goldsmiths late event will take place from 6.30–11pm on 21 March 2019.

Talk: Daphne Oram and Optical Sound, Camden Arts Centre, 3 February 2018

Writer Frances Morgan talks with contemporary composers Tom Richards, James Bulley and Sarah Angliss about optical sound and its framing in history, considering the work of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram (1925–2003).

Writer Frances Morgan talks with contemporary composers Tom Richards, James Bulley and Sarah Angliss about optical sound and its framing in history, considering the work of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram (1925–2003).

Longplayer Day 2017

This year, on 21 June, I'll be celebrating the longest day of the year with the inaugural edition of Longplayer Day. I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to curate proceedings with the wonderful Helen Frosi (see Helen's Soundfjord project here). The day features some extraordinary artists, writers and screenings. Some of those involved include: Steve Beresford, Rosie Bergonzi, John Cage, Angharad Davies, Jem Finer, Cathy Haynes, Charles Hayward, John Latham, Michael Morris, Dominic Murcott, Áine O’Dwyer, Pauline Oliveros, Tim Spooner, Blanca Regina, Dan Richards, Adam Scovell and Robert MacFarlane, Siswå Sukrå, The Study Group, John Tilbury, John White, Richard Wilson (with Ansuman Biswas and Sean Dower).

You can find up to date information about the programme on the Longplayer website here, and a Facebook event page here. The image below is of the limited edition artwork for the day by graphic designer Joe Hales.

 

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The woman who could 'draw' music

Some nice words about Daphne Oram, a recent play on Oram's life in Glasgow, and a section about last year's performance of Still Point (from the BBC's Holly Williams) here: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170522-daphne-oram-pioneered-electronic-music?ocid=fbcul

The Oram Award was launched this month in her honour by the PRS Foundation and the New BBC Radiophonic Workshop to “celebrate women innovating in sound and music”. An Individual Note was reprinted recently as a coffee table book and her archive is available to study at Goldsmiths University in London. The Science Museum exhibited the original Oramics machine and Apple has released an Oramics app. Last summer, her mythical composition Still Point – conceived in 1949 but never performed – finally came to life thanks to Shiva Feshareki, James Bulley and the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Oram was only 23 when she wrote Still Point. A wildly ambitious piece, it predates equivalent experiments by the likes of Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The piece is a sort of warped call-and-response between the orchestra and 78rpm records, using turntables and microphones to live-manipulate the sound. Its long-delayed debut was hailed as a triumph, Oram’s visionary take on electro-acoustic composition finally unleashed.
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'Longplayer' partnership with Goldsmiths

Over recent months, I've been fortunate to have been involved in the creation of a partnership between Goldsmiths, University of London (where I am currently completing my PhD) and 'Longplayer', a beautiful work by Jem Finer that currently finds physical presence at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London. 

A memorandum of understanding has recently been publicly announced, which will be the start of many exploratory projects surrounding the ideas that underpin the piece, and its longterm preservation.

 

BRICKS FROM THE KILN #2 Launch Event

BRICKS FROM THE KILN #2
Edited by Andrew Lister & Matthew Stuart

Book Launch / Exhibition 30th March, 5–8.30pm
Exhibition on view from 28th March–3rd April

at

umlaut
53 Fashion Street
London, E1 6PX
United Kingdom
http://www.umlaut.london/

The exhibition opens on 28th March and remains on view until 3rd April. It presents issue 2 as both unbound sheets and a bound publication, and is accompanied by a soundscape of field recordings made by Daphne Oram in Trinidad & Tobago and compiled by James Bulley. This latest issue of BFTK features contributions from (in order of appearance) Ryan Gerald Nelson, James Bulley, Daphne Oram, Céline Condorelli, James Langdon, Scandinavian Institute for Computation Vandalism, Mark Simmonds, Dave Whelan, Flights and Fissures, Ron Hunt, and Rose Gridneff. And includes pieces on, among other things, the sound-film work of Daphne Oram and Geoffrey Jones; monuments to Kazimir Malevich, Rosa Luxemburg and Walter Benjamin; the relocation of a defunct bookshop from Amsterdam to Epsom; a conversation on the politics of display and ‘Agatha Christie smoking Asger Jorn’s cigar’. 


Copies of BFTK#2 are available for a limited preorder price (£10 standard edition / £12 with limited edition signature-wrap print / £18 combo: BFTK#1 + #2) through the website up until the beginning of April. On the night, copies will be on sale for £10.

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