Memory, Music and Movement: Inspiring and Facilitating Innovative Research in North Atlantic Fiddle and Dance Studies

We aim to energise a network of North Atlantic fiddle and dance scholars to initiate new and challenging directions of research in relation to the theme of memory. We are seeking AHRC funding for initiatives that will inspire new research and make existing research accessible to communities of practice as well as to the general public, and bring scholars and performers together to develop innovative collaborative research, including practice-based and practice-led research. Our proposal is for the following interrelated projects:
1) A series of four international interdisciplinary workshops. The first will be a 'scoping' exercise (laying the project's groundwork); the other three led by acknowledged experts from outside fiddle and dance studies will focus on cognitive psychology (how music and dance are related to memory), performance studies (how we remember music and dance through our bodies and how music and dance inspire memories), and digital humanities (how we can use digital technologies to document and later recall music and dance traditions).
2) A public lecture series building on Workshops II and III, with featured speakers from academic, performance, and heritage contexts.
3) A website platform hosting a variety of relevant content and interactive features, including:
a. The publication of all previous and future North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NAFCo, see below) conference proceedings online as open source publications, enabling a cumulative bibliography with hyperlinks where available;
b. An interactive moderated online forum to enable informal discussion among scholars, performers and other individuals, as well as research questions and observations seeded by keynote presenters;
c. An annotated list of relevant URLs/websites;
d. Video content featuring keynote presentations, workshops, and short, accessible 'snappers' describing and illustrating North Atlantic fiddle and dance research.
4) A project coordinator who will work with the two co-applicants to organise the various project elements, and who will engage stakeholders through social media and the interactive online forum (above), and will work with broadcast media in both Scotland and Canada to maximize the project's audience.
The North Atlantic Fiddle Convention is a uniquely structured event involving scholarly presentations, practical workshops, and live performance events, which brings together scholars and practitioners of fiddling, dance and related musical forms. NAFCo has been held every few years since 2001, in Aberdeen (2001, 2006, 2010), in Derry/Londonderry and Donegal (2012), and in St John's, Newfoundland (2008). The 2015 convention in Cape Breton will provide the springboard for our project. The project will culminate in 2017 when NAFCo returns to Aberdeen. Although new scholars and performers attend each NAFCo event, many delegates have participated in several, or even all, of the previous conventions. Consequently, an informal network of North Atlantic fiddle and dance scholars has emerged. With our proposal, we aim to be more deliberate in developing the network, creating opportunities for the network to interact, collaborate, and extend research in North Atlantic fiddle and dancing in innovative ways.
The project will benefit scholars, musicians, dancers, related stakeholders (e.g. archives, museum, and festival personnel), and the general public. The workshops and lecture series will involve both experts and participants from these various sectors, enriching collaborative research possibilities, inspiring new research projects, and motivating new research applications. The virtual resources will ensure that the network will continue to develop outside the face-to-face events while enabling those who could not attend them to participate as well.

Our proposed project will benefit not only academic researchers, but musicians, dancers, industry stakeholders, amateur scholars, and the general public. People from each of these sectors will be invited to participate in the proposed workshops and lecture series, and these events will be constructed to enable their differing perspectives and concerns to be heard. The proposed virtual resources will be open to all and will facilitate discussions among a broad and diverse community interested in fiddle and dance traditions, and create the conditions that will allow existing research to be applied in practical contexts as well as inspiring new research. By spotlighting three disciplinary approaches to memory from outside of fiddle and dance studies (cognitive psychology, performance studies, and digital humanities), we will create a coherent focus around which a diverse fiddle and dance studies network can coalesce.
Practitioners will benefit from research presentations that may inform their performance practices. Artists involved in music-making in the community will gain a deeper understanding of how the brain works in respect of memory and how it might affect their performance and practice, e.g. when working with people suffering from dementia. Similarly music teachers working with young people, e.g. through Fèis Rois, would be better placed to appreciate the value of memorisation from oral tradition and how web-based input might create new modes of learning. Interaction with and exposure to performers from other fiddle and dance traditions will deepen their understanding of the distinctive qualities of their own traditions and create the conditions through which future artistic collaborations could develop. They will have the opportunity to articulate performance-related issues that could inform future research projects.
Because of the nature of the networking project bringing together theory and practice, Arts/Heritage officers employed by the local and national bodies as well as those from third sector organisations involved in community education will be able to appreciate better how fiddle music and dance can contribute to the well-being of communities and groups. In this respect, policy in the arts and heritage sector as well as in social welfare will be influenced. For example, tutors of Scottish Culture and Traditions which runs over 20 classes a week for adults in traditional music-making and dance in Aberdeen will benefit in their approach to social inclusion, particularly their work with adults who have learning difficulties and are socially marginalised.
Industry stakeholders will benefit from current research which may inform their work in diverse ways. Those in the music and tourism industries will be exposed to new performers while research will assist them to contextualize the artists with whom they work (e.g. in liner notes and concert programmes). Representatives of the music industry, such as CD producers and festival directors, will be better placed to appreciate the value of the innovative initiatives and collaborations that will emerge to their own commercial and artistic development.
The general public has long demonstrated an interest in traditional music and dance, evident in significant attendance numbers at a plethora of folk music and dance festivals, fiddle camps and schools, folk/trad music industry awards events, fiddle and dance competitions, and concerts.
The networking project will provide, through the workshops, lecture series, and virtual resources, clear foci and pathways to inquiry regarding fiddle and dance traditions, their development, the creative synergies that will emerge, and how these can be resourced and energised. Participants in the project will be empowered by the interdisciplinarity of the approaches and the relevance to communities of practice, industry personnel, and an interested public.