Thinking Sounds
Besides teaching BA and MA classes at Leiden University and supervising PhD candidates doing artistic research both in Leiden and Ghent, a third major component of Marcel Cobussen’s activities is (of course) doing research.
In November 2012, Cobussen, senior researcher and lecturer at ACPA, published his latest book called Music and Ethics (Ashgate) in collaboration with the UK-based Professor Nanette Nielsen. The main aim of the publication is to investigate how music as music, that is, as a non-discursive sonority, is able to contribute to the discourse on ethics and to concrete moral behavior. Quite a hazardous project but definitely worth reading.
Currently Cobussen is working on two extensive new projects. The first one is an (e-)book on musical improvisation and complex systems. In some 60 short reflections, mostly based on concrete musical examples, Cobussen tries to make clear how in each improvisation there is a unique interaction taking place between several actants, both human and non-human. Ideally the book will contain audio samples and visual materials next to text.
The second project is the editing of a companion on Sounding Art - sounding art are those cultural artifacts, including music, that use sound as one of its main materials, as medium, or as its subject matter – in collaboration with Vincent Meelberg (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Barry Truax (Simon Fraser University Vancouver). This companion will take Cobussen busy for several years LJ.
More information on Cobussen’s teaching activities, his publications, and his current projects can be found on his website Thinking Sounds.