Music Research Seminar: Dr Scott McLaughlin (University of Leeds)

This project <forkingpaths.leeds.ac.uk> explores how we can compose for contingent instruments that have their own ‘material agency’. This talk situates composition as the organisation of a ‘dance of agency’ (Pickering) between instrument and player around the emergence and negotiation in performance, especially in less stable zones of sound production.

About Scott McLaughlin

Scott McLaughlin is an Irish composer and improviser based in Huddersfield (UK). He started out as a shoegaze/experimental guitarist before studying music in his 20s at University of Ulster then MA/PhD University of Huddersfield (with PA Tremblay, Bryn Harrison). Currently, Scott lectures in composition and music technology at the University of Leeds, and co-directs CePRA (Centre for Practice Research in the Arts), as well as convening the RMA Practice Research Study Group. His research focuses on composing for contingency and indeterminacy in the physical materiality of sound. Scott is currently Co-I on the AHRC SPARKLE (Sustaining Practice Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Engagement), and recently completed an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, the ‘Garden of Forking Paths’ project, on composing for contingency in clarinets —forkingpaths.leeds.ac.uk. Read more.