In November 2025, a symposium for instrument building will be organised here at Notam.
The symposium is a collaboration between the Norwegian Academy of Music, Camilla Vatne Barrat-Due, nyMusikk and Notam.
How do instrument building practices affect the boundaries between music and technology, mechanics and the body, bio-economy and culture, singularity and the post-singular?
The Instrument Building Symposium is a platform to reflect on technological diversity and technology as practice. In November 2025, a group of instrument makers will gather at Notam to showcase works, instruments, installations and reflections to explore the post-digital landscape where instrument making functions as both an activist and technological practice.
In connection with the symposium, Notam and Camilla Vatne Barrat-Due will set up a reading group to read and discuss the literary works. On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects by Gilbert Simondon and The Real World of Technology by Ursula Franklin. Music philosopher Patrick Valiquet will lead the reading, exploring how these works are in dialogue with each other and how they relate to the different instrument building practices presented at the symposium. More information about the reading group can be found here.
The symposium is initiated by Camilla Vatne Barrat-Due in connection with her PhD project Vocal non-identities in a pneumatic post-instrumentality at NMH.
Photo: Kari Jahnsen
