Practice, Tradition and Technology Research Group

This research group is primarily based at the Department of Traditional Art and Folk Music, but also has members from Telemark Research and the Norwegian Centre for Folk Music and Folk Dance (Trondheim). The research has an overarching focus on traditional art (including folk music and dance, folk art, traditional crafts, and tradition-based art), and is predominantly practice-oriented and practice-based.

The research group is practice-oriented through an interest in and focus on traditional cultural practices, and it is practice-based in that much of the research is closely integrated with the researchers' own practice/performance.

What do we research?

The research profile is largely defined by an interest in various aspects and dimensions of tradition (traditional culture, tradition and transmission processes, tradition-based expressions, etc.) and the implications of this. The concept of tradition is often associated with the preservation of cultural elements from the past. But to an equal extent, tradition is about continuation, change and use in the present; about how knowledge and skills are transferred and shaped by the transfer. In a similar way, the relationship between cultural expressions, new technology, and other societal and contextual factors is often described in terms of cause-effect relationships and associated with something that breaks with tradition. This can lead to important continuities in cultural practices and ways of thinking being overlooked. Against this background, we seek new insights into the dynamic relationship between tradition as a process and the society around us.

Research disciplines

The research group has a distinct interdisciplinary approach with a broad range of themes, methods and perspectives, including ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological research on music and dance traditions/environments with ethnographic methods; exploration of issues related to repertoire, playing style, design, craft, aesthetics, materials and techniques through own performing practice; tradition analysis and reconstruction; research on traditional art in the perspective of sustainability, new technology, intangible cultural heritage or cultural identity; music analysis; performance and movement analysis; discourse analysis with gender, power and cultural-political perspectives; and research on learning and transmission processes.

Activities

Weekly academic writing hour (shut up and write with discussion of ongoing research/writing work).

Monthly meeting/seminar with activities such as:

  • Presentation of and work with planned and ongoing research projects and applications.
  • Seminars on academic writing focusing on developing research ideas, including practical writing of abstracts and eventually extended abstracts.
  • Writing/article seminars where everyone reads and comments on a draft from one of the group members.
  • Seminars on publishing channels and the review process, research ethics and academic integrity, literature searches and reviews, and more.
  • Work in smaller groups with project development, co-writing projects and application work.

Collaborators and networks

  • RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion
  • Tallinn University of Technology
  • Dundalk Institute of Technology (ERASMUS and research)
  • International network within rhythm research
  • Telemarksforskning (through the project Participatory Culture as Cultural Participation)

Ongoing PhD projects

Michelle Collins

Contemporary keening: Experience, affect and transformation.

Linn Sigrid Bratland

The merge of new technology in traditional craft: Towards sustainable practice.

Group leader

Members