My goals have been formulated as two main areas of research:
a) “To explore new possibilities and roles as a vocalist, working with the combination of electronic processing of voice sound and acoustic voice sound in real time improvisation.” (From my revised project description, translated from Norwegian)
This exploration and development has led to a change in my music, in my musical thinking and acting, and in my situation in the interplay. All of this has taken place with reference to my musical background and within the genre to which my music is related, and in that regard I will say that I have certainly reached my goal. It is, however, important here to underline that I have not “finished” this process. There is still considerable potential, both in the further development of my personal skills and expression, and in how I can meet other improvising musicians in different ways with my instruments and music. Moreover, there is also a potential for challenging the borderlines of my genre by searching for new possibilities in sound and the manipulation of sound outside the borders of my musical field. This is something that I hope to be able to investigate further in my future artistic work.
My second goal was:
b) “To explore artistic possibilities for the vocalist in the continuum ranging from narrative storytelling to ‟abstract”, processed sound, within the same performance/form.” As part of this, I wanted “to examine what happens with the relationship between the audience and the performer when the voice moves back and forth in this continuum between referential meaning and ‟pure sound”. (From the revised project description and appraisal for final assessment.)
The idea that led to the “short story of sound “ was based on my experience of nearness in storytelling, especially personal stories. This was also partly what represented one of the challenges in the project, because this nearness was strongly connected to the naturalness and the personal character of the narrative. This, again, laid premises for how the music and sounds could work together with the narrative as a whole, and I experienced a tension between the language of music and sounds and the language of the story. As I see it, this tension also represents an exciting artistic potential in this performance form, so rather than “abstracting the story” to loosen the tension, I will continue to seek the necessary tension and balance between the personal story and the musical expression. The work with this project has thus been a valuable exploration of this “continuum”, and has also established a model for new performances that I plan to develop in the future.
One goal that was pronounced during this project: “to examine what happens with the relationship between the audience and the performer “, as cited above, could be seen as both vague and ambitious. It turned out –in ways that I have described in Chapter 7 – to be more complicated than I thought. Still, by taking part in the performative research collaboration with Bergsland, this has provided me with profound knowledge about the audience’s multi-faceted perceptions of my performance of the “short story of sound”. This has been very valuable, both in the development of this performance, and also in general, in creating an increased sensitivity for the audience’s experience as such.