Extra Source: on composition, adaptation, and art in GLAM

N.B. ‘Sounding the archive: composition as translation and adaptation’ was the working title for this project, and the one listed on The Leverhulme Trust’s website.

The overall aim of this practice research project was to explore a variety of interactions between the themes of music composition (including concert hall works and sonic art), adaptation studies, and GLAM collections/institutions. The objectives were:
Artistic knowledge: To investigate the potential for new perspectives on composition by placing the practice within the frame of adaptation studies, with a particular focus on enriching artistic knowledge regarding relationships with extra-musical source material (from GLAM collections and elsewhere).
Theoretical knowledge: To investigate the potential for new insights in adaptation studies realised through composition, with a particular focus on issues related to the incorporation of non-verbal ‘target texts’ (e.g. instrumental music) into the field.
Public & audience engagement (composition): To explore new ways of presenting compositions using a) the potential for adaptational relationships to provide paratexts and (b) the public engagement activities of GLAM institutions.
Public & audience engagement (GLAM): To present GLAM collections outside the conventional frames of curators and innovate their public engagement agenda.
Practice research community: To promote adaptation as a productive frame for artists who share their work within research institutions.
These objectives directed the creation of a portfolio of artistic outputs, with insights shared via research colloquia and research-led teaching. A day-long symposium was organised in collaboration with ResearchWorks at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in aid of objective 5. The primary findings of the project were as follows:
Music’s ability to convey meaning has often been problematised and outright dismissed by many composers (notably Stravinsky), whilst work in musical semiotics has provided more nuance on the topic. However, the ambiguity of meaning in music is better treated as a feature, not a bug. In particular, drawing from multiple sources in a single target text can catalyse and/or productively disrupt the creative process, integrate heterogeneous allusions through abstraction, and enrich intertextual interpretation.
Engagement with source materials creates possibilities for the presentation of artwork, not just the process. There is an analogy with GLAM exhibition curation here, although the insight extends beyond the GLAM context. For instance, a collection of sources that inform a research subject can be used as illustrative artefacts in an exhibition on that topic. Similarly, sources such as text and images can form part of the ‘heterocosm’ of an artwork when revealed, providing a metaphorically illustrative paratext as well as a glimpse into the creative process.
An artist-led response to GLAM collections allows flexibility in making decisions that are primarily aesthetic and not beholden to research/curator/exhibition narratives. This is an extension of the above point regarding the integration of heterogeneous sources, as a freeform artistic brief allows an expansive, eclectic approach to a collection. Artwork as the exhibition narrative in-and-of-itself is a unique addition to arts in GLAM, offering a sensory and non-didactic form of public engagement.
‘Extra Source’ was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship project, funded by The Leverhulme Trust.