(Concordia University Montréal)
For a new 3-year grant project in artistic research in music called” ECSTASIES OF INFLUENCE (short: EoI – more on this below), matralab intends to hire an
ANARCHIVIST in MUSIC
(starting Sep 1, 2017 for a maximum of 36 months)
Research Associate Position for Masters or Ph.D. Students or recent graduates.
For those unfamiliar with the term “anarchive”: it is a relatively recent practice that sees ongoing responsive documentation as an essential factor within a creative research process. This makes documentation and reflection instantly accessible, as well as offer avenues of critical and analytic (self-)comprehension, and thus provides a constant feedback loop for all participants in a project (also: see
this definition on the website of another Concordia research project). As anarchival needs and affordances may vary greatly from project to project, you will also help define and structure what the anarchive for
EoI will look like – and devise a protocol for all participants on how to provide you with useful documentation.
JOB
The job will involve coordinating and overseeing the documentation of all research-creation activities related to the grant, which may include writing and editing project texts, archiving relevant correspondence, archiving music notation (e.g. tracking several evolving versions of a score), audiovisual recordings and their valorization and activation (editing, cross-referencing, hyperlinking, contextualizing) within the grant team, as well as the continuous publication on a structurally evolving website. Some of the tasks may include: developing a project glossary, interviewing participants, co-developing theoretical descriptions of our research-creation processes, co-designing and maintaining the EoI website, helping researchers prepare papers and publications arising from the project, or publishing research papers on the project yourself.
DESIDERATA
You should be an elegant and fast writer and a competent, sharp-eyed editor of English-language texts, have a good understanding of how to edit video and audio for research purposes, as well as have a keen interest in experimental art and music traditions since WWII.
You should be well-organized and reliable, meticulous and conscientious. You should also be able to plan ahead, event-coordinating the actual documentation teams in three locations around the globe (Montréal, Berlin, Pune).
As this is a music-heavy project, you must be able to read and understand contemporary music notation well enough to contextualize its contents. You would want to quickly pick up on the terms and concepts musicians and other artists use to describe their work. You should also have a good grasp of audio and video editing tools. Ease and skill in using music, website and admin softwares would be a plus, as would be a working knowledge of French or German or Hindi/Marathi.
WORKFLOW & PAY
You would work closely with the grant coordinators, the documentation teams, the guest artists and the researchers on this team. Your workflow would be event-driven and thus uneven: Preparing and debriefing documentation teams during workshops, a fast turnaround phase after each workshop to publish edited and annotated documentation within 2-3 weeks of the event, collecting/cross-referencing/a
rchiving ongoing information during conceptual working phases in between workshops. The expected average number of weekly hours will lie somewhere between 5-10hrs, but it should be clearly understood that this may mean both intense periods with up to 10h workdays and more tranquil periods with only one or two hours per week. We pay according to Concordia’s
TRAC union rates.
LOCATION
The job is not site-specific, and can in principle be done from anywhere – but it will always require closely working with the matralab team in Montréal. We also cannot at this stage promise to provide an office infrastructure elsewhere than in Montréal, nor pay for frequent trips to any of the three project locations.
Primary Deadline: July 9, 2017. Skype interviews will be conducted between July 10 and 15, but applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled.
About ECSTASIES OF INFLUENCE
EoI is a three year research creation grant financed by the Fonds Quebecois de Recherche – Société et Culture. Three experimental music ensembles (in Montréal, Berlin and Pune) will collaborate with leading artists (architects, poets, choreographers, film makers, storytellers etc) to create new musical works that realize creative strategies from the collaborator’s artistic discipline.
EoI is led by composer, conductor, music researcher and matralab director
Sandeep Bhagwati, and comprises a team of artist-researchers from various Montréal universities as well as from universities in India, USA, Australia, and Germany.
