Plain Language Statement

Researcher details -
Name: Hilary Kleinig
Email: hilary.kleinig@gmail.com
Website: hilarykleinig.com

Project details:

'The Lost Art of Listening' is a major research, development and composition project by composer Hilary Kleinig in which she is investigating how people experience and value music in an age of 24-hour connectedness and distraction.

The research, of which this survey is a part, forms the starting point of a new 60min work for prepared piano and audience-played smartphone choir, partly inspired by an article by Anna Goldsworthy of the same name in which she questions ‘Has classical music become irrelevant?’

In this project Hilary is investigating if and how humanity’s increasing reliance on connected technology has affected:

- the relationship of and conversations between performer and audience
- what music means to us as humans on fundamental levels
- our ability to really listen, be present and engage
- our passive and/or active involvement as audiences
- our sense of occupation/dislocation as audiences

The research will inform the content of the smartphone choir parts, the structure and choreography of the music and performance and also the thinking and philosophies underlying the piece.

Hilary has received an Arts South Australia Fellowship to assist with the undertaking of this project and is also developing a smartphone choir app 'U N i T E' which will be available for public use in the near future as a part of this. She is working with pianist/composer Erik Griswold as a mentor and performer and envisages that this work will be performed at venues and festivals in Australia and abroad in 2018/19 and beyond.

Hilary is an Australian composer and cellist who writes for ensembles, theatre, dance and film and performs in a wide variety of ensembles. For more information about her work and to hear her music visit hilarykleinig.com

What will I be asked to do?

Should you agree to participate, you will be asked to provide your thoughts about music /sound & performance and the place of music and connected technology in your life.

Excerpts from your answers may be recorded and used in the composition to form part of the smartphone choir parts.

The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete.  You answers are completely anonymous and there is no way to link you with your submission.  Your involvement in the project is voluntary and you are free to withdraw at any time, simply by closing the browser.