Insular Practices, Archipelagic Networks
Artistic Research between Singular Autonomy and Social Resonance
Doctoral Symposium on Artistic Research and Improvisation Studies
May 11-12, 2026 – Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena, Italy
Insular Practices, Archipelagic Networks is the second edition of an annual event organized by PhD fellows at Siena Jazz, as a part of the PhD programme in Improvisational Languages in Contemporary Music, offered by a consortium comprising Siena Jazz, Conservatorio Frescobaldi – Ferrara, CPM Music Institute – Milan, Accademia Musicale Chigiana – Siena. Accademia Musicale Chigiana is co-organizing and hosting the event.
This year, the theme aligns again with the Chigiana International Festival theme, which concerns the metaphor of islands in music. It invites to view artistic research as an archipelago: a constellation of distinct territories held together by precarious yet fertile dialogue. Islands is not merely a geographical metaphor, but a way of questioning the relationship between isolation and connection, between identity and relation.
Each artist is an island: a private ecological system, with its own internal currents, its own rhythms of sedimentation, its own creative climates. A space where ideas, memories, techniques, and imaginations coexist and transform. In a similar manner, artistic research can be viewed as an archipelago: a constellation of connections and relationships shared among the individuals that constitute our communities of researchers and practitioners.
This symposium arises from the desire to trace connections between individual and collective practices, between the solitary gesture of the artist and the dynamics of a broader ecosystem.
Some questions arise from this reflection: can an artistic identity remain distinct without becoming self-referential? How can friction and disagreement become fertile ground for creation? In what ways do shared practices foster a sense of belonging without imposing uniformity? Can isolation be understood not as closure, but as a fertile condition from which to begin?
The symposium will feature keynote presentations by Fred Frith, Katt Hernandez, Gianni Bertoni and Silvia Bolognesi, who all embody the archipelagic metaphor. A number of presentations, performances and workshops has been selected through a call for contributions. Each contribution represents a unique, highly specialized “island” of practice, yet these are collectively bound by their commitment to the broader ecosystem of international artistic research. These will guide our shared navigation through the complexities of contemporary music and improvisation.
Activities will begin at 10 am on May 11th and will end with an evening solo concert (7:30 pm) by Fred Frith on May 12th.
For further information, contact bigonifrancesco@sienajazz.it or phd@sienajazz.it