In the RITMO Centre, Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo, the researcher trained in Embodied Music Cognition methods, and the use of cutting-edge tools such as Motion Capture, sensors, and analysis of biodata (obtained from people’s body movements).
To develop INTIMAL, she developed a rich methodology incorporating new knowledge and her previous experience in Deep Listening and telematic sonic performance, leading to the following actions and results:
a) Annotation of an oral archive containing testimonies from Colombian migrant women affected directly by the Colombian conflict, leading to the creation of an ontology of four spheres of migratory memory to navigate through: body stories, social body, native land and host land.
b) Fieldwork with the nine Colombian women, including: 1) online Deep Listening sessions with emphasis in dreams; and 2) an intensive Deep Listening workshop in Norway, which led to a structure for each participant to improvise-perform her “migratory journey”.
c) Motion Capture experiments using infrared markers, breathing sensors and EMG (electromyograms), that recorded participants’ “migratory journeys” and improvisatory expression derived from listening to the oral archives.
d) Analysis of the fieldwork’s emerging narratives, and motion data, leading to the conceptual design of the INTIMAL system. This, emphasised on the exploration of body movements such as walking and displacement, to navigate through the oral archive, and to share memories as if in search for place; and breathing, which potentially brings a sense of togetherness and presence between improvisers across distant locations.
e) The artistic and technological implementation of the telematic sonic performance, involving the creation of two interfaces: MEMENTO and RESPIRO. These were developed in collaboration with researchers at RITMO, Research Assistants, and students from the Masters in Music, Communication and Technology (University of Oslo and NTNU, Trondheim).
INTIMAL was tested in three pre-performance workshops with other Colombian women, and the public performance took place on May 7, 2019, bringing online and physical audiences in each city. It involved them and improvisers in a Q&A session reflecting on the experience. The event received logistic and technical support from Melahuset and VoxLab (Oslo), Fundación PHONOS and University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), Iklectik ArtsLab and CRiSAP – University of the Arts London (London).
The researcher was invited as a keynote speaker in the Sonology conference, University of São Paulo, Brazil, and presented INTIMAL in conferences such as NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) at Rio Grande do Sul University, Brazil; the RE:Sound, Media, Arts and Technology, in Aalborg University, Denmark; and the NowNet Arts Conference in Stony Brook University, NY. She also offered academic presentations with peers at Musikkteknologidagene (Norwegian Academy of Music), NIME Reader Launch, FourMs, Erratic Bodies workshop, and “Faglig-pedagogisk” day, at the University of Oslo, and participated online in a round table of the IV Symposium Archives and Education, at the National Archive of Brazil. Four peer-reviewed articles were published in: Somaesthetics Journal, Acervo (from National Archive of Brasil), JONMA Journal of Network Music and Art, and in the NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) Proceedings. For the later one, the researcher was awarded with an honorary mention with the Pamela Z award. Another paper has been submitted to the eWic Journal. INTIMAL reached non-academic audiences through a workshop in ULTIMA Festival of Contemporary Music, in Oslo.
