On 20 and 21 November, Axel Vatne Barratt-Due, Notam, the Norwegian Academy of Music and nyMusikk are organising a symposium for instrument making. Established instrument builders will meet to share knowledge and discuss their instruments and work processes. The symposium will take place at Notam and will present works by Cathy van Eck, Thorolf Thuestad with Alwynne Pritchard, Marije Baalman, Cecilia Jonsson, Harald Jordal Johannessen, Simon Løffler with Tanja Orning, Axel Vatne Barratt-Due, and Christian Blom.
Thursday November 20th
Presentations and performances
Doors open at 11:30.
12:00 - 16:00:
Harald Jordal Johannessen
Simon Løffler with Tanja Orning
Christian Blom
Cecilia Jonsson
Marije Baalman
17:30 - 20:30
Cathy van Eck
Axel Barratt-Due
Thorolf Thuestad with Alwynne Pritchard
Friday November 21st
Seminar and panel discussion
Doors open at 09:30.
Panel discussion chaired by philosopher and musicologist Patrick Valiquet.
10:00 - 14:00:
Seminar and panel discussion.
The role of the instrument in contemporary music research has shifted, from simply translating a person’s ideas into sounds, to dramatizing music’s diverse relationships with the broader social forms of communication, desire, labour, power and time.
What do we gain by understanding musical instruments not as the causes of this shift, but as its limits, manifesting the breakdowns and imperfections inherent in specific technical forms of feeling, mind, perception, belonging and tradition? How must we redefine the ‘progress’ of music technology for a time when there is no more nature to master, and when humans are no longer marked as exceptional in terms of authenticity, creativity or intelligence? What can instrument builders do to subvert contemporary myths of technological salvation and annihilation?
Concepts from the writing of twentieth-century researcher-activists Ursula Franklin and Gilbert Simondon will inform moderated discussions with invited artists about the evolving boundaries of instrument building practice.
The symposium follows a reading group initiated by Axel Vatne Barratt-Due in collaboration with music philosopher Patrick Valiquet, which took place at Notam from March to November 2025.
The event will be held in English. The symposium is a free event.
Participating artists at the Symposium for instument building 2025
Harald Jordal Johannessen
During the symposium, Harald Jordal Johannessen will present his latest work. In his practice, Jordal Johannessen works towards reduction, essence and a pared-down expression. During the presentation, the audience will hear about the work with this piece and the way into a new material.
Cathy van Eck
During Symposium you can experience the performance Empty Chairs (2019) by Cathy van Eck. Cathy van Eck (1979) is a composer, sound artist and researcher. In her practice, she works with compositions based on the relationship between everyday objects, human performers and sound.
Simon Løffler
During the Symposium, Simon Løffler will present various instruments from his practice, as well as show excerpts from a new commissioned work, performed by Tanja Orning, premiering in 2026.
Tanja Orning
Tanja Orning is a contemporary cellist, musicologist and composer from Oslo. Orning specialises in working with and performing new and experimental music, including both notated and improvised music.
Marije Baalman
During the Symposium you can experience the performative lecture Composing an Interaction with Marije Baalman. In this performance, Balmaan demonstrates how artists can utilise her book Composing Interactions in the process of creating interactive artworks.
Cecilia Jonsson
During the symposium, Cecilia Jonsson will give a presentation of her artistic practice, with a special focus on her investigation of the environmental legacy of iron. During the presentation, Jonsson will show previous works such as The Original Arrangement was for a Solo Violin and a String Orchestra (2012), and Contemporary Diagram - Berlin (2018).
Thorolf Thuestad & Alwynne Pritchard
During the symposium you can experience Inscription by Thorolf Thuestad and Alwynne Pritchard. The work explores how non-representational kinetic objects can create emotional responses. The project is based on the idea that the affect experienced when encountering art in general, and time-based musical compositions for kinetic objects specifically, may be related to our inherent tendency to animate.
Axel Vatne Barratt Due
During the symposium for instrument building, Axel Barratt Due participates with the performance De motu cordis (about the movement of the heart). In this work, a circuit of pneumatic technique is built with compromised air and fake blood. The instrument is used to track the physical substances of the music in motion. An external organ that hunts the internal organs of music.
Christian Blom
During the symposium, Christian Blom will exhibit a new kinetic and sculptural instrument. At the opening, Blom will share key points in the working process, aesthetic considerations and technical solutions.
Header photo: Detail from process photo "Inscription" by Neither Nor (Alwynne Pritchard and Thorolf Thuestad).
Photo Cathy van Eck: Marije Baalman
Photo Harald Jordal: Koka Nikoladze
Photo Marije Baalman: Pieter Kers / beeld.nu
Photo Tanja Orning: Juliane Schütz
Photo Thorolf Thuestad: "For one - for many - for all" - Thor Brødreskift
Photo, Cecilia Jonsson: Contemporary Diagram - Berlin (2018). Process photo at the sewage research facility of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Germany. 2018 Cecilia Jonsson, Singuhr e.V., Roman März. Photo_ Roman März.
Photo Christian Blom: Koka Nikoladze