MIRRORING CREATIVE LAB: Become Aware of Your Body in Performance
A Futuristic Laboratory to Improve Stage Presence and Creativity in Music Performance
- MOVEMENT AND GESTURE CONTROL
- SELF-STUDY, SELF-OBSERVATION AND SELF-EVALUATION
- CONCENTRATION, MEMORY, STAGE PRESENCE AND POSTURE
- METHODS IN ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND MUSIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
- STRATEGIES FOR INSTRUMENTAL DISTANCE LEARNING
- PREPARING AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING SESSIONS AND AUDITIONS
“I put a mirror next to my piano… I began to notice the rotation, the vibration, the use of arm weight, and so on.” – Claudio Arrau
[Victoria von Arx, Piano Lessons with Claudio Arrau. A Guide to His Philosophy and Techniques. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014].
WORKSHOPS SERIES
Mirroring Creative Lab offers a holistic method to improve observation and evaluation of the gestural approaches related to score interpretation and sound results during music performance practice [Caruso et al. 2021, Caruso et al. 2016].
These series of workshops want to take advantage of a creative application of technologies (mostly open sources) as augmented mirrors for self-study and the development of an artistic identity in music performance.
Respect to a simple mirror, that can capture only an elusive moment of a performance, cutting-edge software, for the audio/video/motion analysis, provide a major feedback that can stimulate students and professionals to an aware self-reflection and self-analysis of posture, gesture, sound, stage presence etc. This approach attempts to refresh the traditional teaching approach, mostly based on a passive professor-student mirroring imitation. Especially in response to the new life condition, in which there can be repeated lockdowns, students and professors have to deal with the challenge of distance learning and technological applications.
Discover the potentialities of a creative method based on mirroring technologies to reach a better performance!
#Module 1: Documenting
Objectives: 1. Strategies for systematic documentation in music performance analysis. 2. A performance model to structure observation and documentation of music performance practice. 3. Self-reports based on mirroring technologies and written self-reports
- In front of a camera: camera positioning and performing strategies
- Writing a PERFORMANCE MODEL: gestural and score annotation (performer-based analysis method)
- Writing a self-report
#Module 2: Analysing
Objectives: 1. Technological applications for self-evaluation in music performance practice. 2. How to apply audio/video feedback to enhance strategies for self-study, review and assessment during instrumental learning
- Collecting a video/audio archive
- Visualization and analysis of video/audio recording archives by using open sources [ELAN, PHYSMO2, SONIC VISUALISER]
- Introduction of the use of biofeedback technology in music performance (*optional: workshop on motion tracking system).
*THE MOTION CAPTURE WORKSHOP IS HELD IN COLLABORATION WITH IPEM ASIL LAB (GHENT UNIVERISTY) AND LWT3 (MILANO)
#Module 3: Reflecting
Objectives: 1. Enhance the individuality of the students, as performing artists, in respect to their own creativity and interpretation of the scores. 2. Improve cognitive and sensorimotor skills on stage by exploring mind-body connection through YOGA meditation and posture (asanas).
- Stage presence and posture
- Body visualization, relaxation and control
- Concentration and memorization
#Module 4: Experimenting
Objectives: 1. Overview of methods in artistic research (qualitative and quantitative approaches). 2. Application of technologies in music performance analysis. 3. Technology-enhanced mirror for instrumental distance learning.
- Methods in Artistic Research and music performance analysis
- Strategies for instrumental distance learning in high music education
- Preparing audio/video recording sessions and auditions
Artistic Research 