Title: HÉR! An Exploration of Artistic Agency

Live performance: 18 June, at 18:00, location: Red Room

PhD public defense: 19 June, at 10:00, location: Red Room

Opponent: Professor Jan Schacher, Department of Music and Technology at the Sibelius Academy.

Link to the thesis in the research portal LUCRIS

Exhibition: “HÉR! An Exploration of Artistic Agency”, location: Black Room, Café/Research Platform
18 June, opening hours: 16:00-20:00 (TBC)
19 June, opening hours: 10:00-15:00

The thesis is about the agencies at play in artistic processes. It is explored through the work of a performer, curator, and composer active within the fields of contemporary music and sound art. Starting with the proposition that agency is emergent and forms through sociomaterial relations, this PhD project sets out to explore how such acts may unfold in relation to the concert hall, the recording studio, in the virtual domain, and as ecological sound art. The thesis highlights the need for contextual sensitivity where agency is concerned while building on such knowledge to explore ‘other’ ways of connecting and relating through sound and music.

Violinist, composer, and curator Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir is born in Iceland but based in Malmö, Sweden. She has been the artistic director of Nordic Affect since its inception in 2005 and made numerous appearances with the ensemble at festivals and concert venues in Europe and USA. Her compositional output and commissions have spanned everything from electroacoustic compositions to sound and media installations. Stefánsdóttir’s playing and compositions are featured on albums by the Carrier Records, Brilliant Classics, Musmap, Bad Taste Records, Tally, and Sono Luminus labels.

For more information about her project, please visit the Research Portal at Lund University – portal.research.lu.se