When arts and science meet: Digital technology in artistic research

Abstract

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.