Virtual reality (VR) brings radical new possibilities to the empirical study of social music cognition and interaction. In the present article, we consider the role of VR as a research tool, based on its potential to create a sense of “social presence”: the illusory feeling of being, and socially interacting, inside a virtual environment. This makes VR promising for bridging ecological validity (“research in the wild”) and experimental control (“research in the lab”) in empirical music research. A critical assumption however is the actual ability of VR to simulate real-life social interactions, either via human-embodied avatars or computer-controlled agents. The mediation of social musical interactions via VR is particularly challenging due to their embodied, complex, and emotionally delicate nature. In this article, we introduce a methodological framework to operationalize social presence by a combination of factors across interrelated layers, relating to the performance output, embodied co-regulation, and subjective experiences. This framework provides the basis for the proposal of a pragmatic approach to determine the level of social presence in virtual musical interactions, by comparing the outcomes across the multiple layers with the outcomes of corresponding real-life musical interactions. We applied and tested this pragmatic approach via a case-study of piano duet performances of the piece Piano Phase composed by Steve Reich. This case-study indicated that a piano duet performed in VR, in which the real-time interaction between pianists is mediated by embodied avatars, might lead to a strong feeling of social presence, as reflected in the measures of performance output, embodied co-regulation, and subjective experience. In contrast, although a piano duet in VR between an actual pianist and a computer-controlled agent led to a relatively successful performance output, it was inadequate in terms of both embodied co-regulation and subjective experience.
After the Bologna Declaration (1999) and the institution of artistic research in music (i.e., PhD in the Arts) in European conservatories, higher music education is facing a revolution. The renewed study program within today's international music scene is oriented to give students the possibility to be trained and prepared as both professional musicians and/or artist-researchers. Therefore, the current debate at European conservatories is strongly focused on how to activate a nexus between performance practice and artistic research within bachelor's and master's programmes. This paper presents and discusses a case study of a workshop in music performance practice integrated in the Research Practice Program at Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. It consists of a series of teaching modules inspired by the mirroring method I developed during my PhD at University Ghent -Institute for Psychoacoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM) -and I implemented, as a postdoctoral artist-researcher, in my teaching at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (2021Antwerp ( -2023. The goal of this method is to assist students in growing up their own artistic identity and trajectory and become professional performers with a possible path on artistic research in music. Students are guided on how to structure music performance practice as a research activity through a systematic documentation, analysis, and dissemination of their own creative process. Outputs can be identified in the improvement of students' body awareness while playing in relation to score analysis and the achievements of research questions that arise from their reflection in and on their practice. An impact of this approach is retrieved in the elaboration of bachelor's and master's theses that can ultimately constitute a bridge for future artistic research proposals.
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In recent decades, advancements in digital technologies have become a rich source of inspiration for artists, who seek to leave the trodden paths and find novel ways of expression. In addition, digital technologies are increasingly implemented in the development of artistic skills, providing new means to develop the artists’ reflection on their own development. As such, they hold great potential to shape artistic research. Moreover, digital technologies offer possibilities to capture the learning process based on quantitative measurement, thereby becoming a potential interface between artistic and scientific approaches to investigating artistic growth. This contribution presents two artistic projects illustrating the potentialities of the art–science encounter. Embedded in the research paradigm of embodied music cognition, both projects explore the role of the body in music performance (interpretation and improvisation). The first project investigates the relation between gesture and interpretative intentions in a contemporary piano composition. The second project concerns the development of one’s musical language through kinemusical improvisation. A mixed methodology and the use of technology as ‘an augmented mirror’ to monitor artistic practice were applied. Both projects illustrate how the implementation of digital technologies may boost the evolution in artistic research and facilitate novel approaches to music teaching and learning.
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