24-6-26: Embodied Research Methods in Music and Sound: Sensing and Feeling 

Embodied Research Methods in Music and Sound: Sensing and Feeling

24 June 2026 (10am—5.30pm), University of York

Convenors: Catherine Laws and Emily Worthington

‘Feeling’ and ‘sensing’ in practice research can refer to a wide range of experiences, from the sensory and somatic through to the affective, apparently intuitive and instinctual feelings that guide the development of practice. While music psychology and the cognitive sciences offer approaches to studying these phenomena, their methods and the kinds of data generated do not always help us to better understand and account for the significance of felt experience in the complexities of musical performance and reception. On the other hand, researchers citing sensed and felt experience as part of their research narrative may fear criticism of being overly subjective or lacking rigour.

The aim of this day is to explore how practice researchers in music can account for the role of sensing and feeling in their embodied practice. What are the challenges of incorporating, interrogating or accounting for feeling and sensing into embodied research? What role can sensory engagement with instruments, objects and practices play in the research process? When is ‘intuition’ a form of embodied knowledge, and when does ‘just a feeling’ signal expert insight? How can we discuss and document these crucial aspects of practice research in a way that is academically meaningful, and yet acknowledges their essentially subjective and non-linguistic nature?

Embodied practice and embodied research have become thematic hotspots in recent musical discourse, affording researchers the means to recognise and articulate technical, sensory, affective, perceptual and tacit knowledge forms as investigative territories. We recognise embodied research as a relatively new methodology within the academic discipline of music, and note that musicians still often articulate their insights by drawing substantially on conceptual frameworks external to music—e.g. from theatre, dance and physical performance, social epistemology, and philosophy of science. We hope this event will clarify and highlight some of the novel embodied methods at work in musical practices, and begin to establish the keystones that are distinct to embodied research in music.

We invite participation from practice researchers in music and sound, for whom embodiment forms a significant methodology in their research process, for example:

·       where the insights of the research process are themselves embodied: e.g. new techniques, relational methods, training paradigms, etc.

·       where embodied work serves as a substantial organising principle in a research process, leading to various modes of insight: e.g. new compositional or technological approaches, frameworks of access and inclusivity, etc.

Submission:

Participants are invited to submit proposals to present a 10-minute provocation: a discussion point for the session. This might be a research position statement, or a ‘think piece’ focusing on a question or a problem relating to methods, or an example of a specific methodological approach/idea. Work-in-progress and interdisciplinary perspectives are particularly encouraged, as are both contemporary and historically-based projects. Presentations can take any form as long as they fit within the timescale and resources available. 

Please send proposal abstracts of up to 250 words, or a video of up to 3 minutes, plus a short biography (100 words), to the convenors:

catherine.laws@york.ac.uk

emily.worthington@york.ac.uk

Questions can also be emailed to either Catherine or Emily.

Deadline for Proposals: 13 April, 2026

Confirmation of selection: 27 April, 2026