Identity : Sound portraits

Abstract

Excerpt This thesis is an MA research project based on my final work Identity: Sound Portraits, completed in the Music Department at LHÍ/IUA. It begins with a personal reflection on identity through my artistic journey and the many roles that have shaped me. I trace my path from childhood music training, to my focus on visual art in my twenties, and eventually back to music—finding the NAIP program at LHÍ a natural fit with its emphasis on improvisation and interdisciplinary practice. Pivotal moments in my studies included my five-month internship in Kassel, Germany, in 2022, as well as personal changes such as my children coming out as trans and my work in journalism and media. Together, these experiences deepened my commitment to activism as a central part of my artistic practice. My final project in NAIP was a video and sound installation based on four in-depth interviews with women from marginalized groups, focusing on the topic of identity. In the conceptual chapter, I discuss the ethics of this project and of music more broadly. I connect certain key interview questions to my own life and reference Erik Erikson’s theory on the psychosocial development of identity. I also explore activism, which is closely linked to self-image and identity. In my project I asked my interviewees how they experience identity—through appearance, culture, names, or nationality—and here I reflect on the influence of motherhood and music. I also discuss earlier works that address identity, and in the chapter Project I include inspirations such as 52 Portraits by Burrows and Fargion, and STAR by Sólrún Trausta Auðunnsdóttir. I describe the compositional techniques used, including the methods and realization of the installation—how the sound images and videos were executed, and the final production process using a sound image as the basis for the intro and outro of an interview. I conclude the thesis with a final reflection on how fragile and complex identity becomes when mediated through art, despite the richness of sound—spoken or sonic in any form—as a source for exploring the matter.