Proceedings of International Symposium on Interdisciplinary and Progressive Arts & Education
5th International Symposium on Interdisciplinary and Progressive Arts & Education (ISIPAE) and Virtual Art Works Exhibition at 28 February 2026 will be held in Istanbul Turkiye (Zoom Online). Symposium Theme: Art and Humanity. Proceedings of International Symposium on Interdisciplinary and Progressive Arts & Education published per year, peer-reviewed, double-blended system. Proceeding pages limit at 7 pages. Journal for the Interdisciplinary Art and Education (JIAE) is an open access biannual journal published by Genç Bilge Publishing House, that publishes articles in the field of Art and Art Education an related interdisciplinary issues, with significant contributions to the understanding, discovering, creating new model, strategies, approaches and improvement of the performing, teaching and learning of arts. ISIPAE will be the third symposium where all problems related to the interdisciplinary and progressive arts and education will be discussed. The models, research and opinions of future trends of interdisciplinary and progressive arts & education who study on academicians in this field will be shared regularly on this platform every year. ISIPAE organized by Genc Bilge (Young Wise) Publishing. ISIPAE’s topics are opera, operet, contemporary dance, classic dance, vocal training, choir, musical theatre, painting, design, music, graphic, ceramic, art theory, philosophy of art, history of art, sociology of art, ballet, theatre, dance theatre, performing arts, photography, cinema, sculpture, architecture, literature, printmaking, fashion, poetry, contemporary art, postmodern art, progressive art etc. We would love to have valuable academicians in the field of art take part in the ISIPAE scientific committee. We expect you and your students to submit your papers. We thank you in advance for your contribution to ISIPAE and hope to meet you at the symposium. If you have any questions about ISIPAE, do not hesitate to contact us. With our best regards Web site: https://isipae.net/ Email: info@isipae.net Phone: + 90 505 383 5795 (Whatsapp)
The Mandolin Tradition in Gjakova, Kosovo: Historical Development and Cultural Identity
This study examines the tradition of the mandolin in Gjakova, Kosovo, tracing its historical arrival, institutional development, and deep integration into urban cultural life. The mandolin entered Albanian territories during the 1920s through trade connections with Italy, Western-oriented educational reforms, and foreign occupations. Its spread to Kosovo, particularly Gjakova, followed similar paths but developed unique local characteristics. In Gjakova, Catholic merchant families and students returning from abroad played a significant role in introducing and popularizing the instrument. Over time, the mandolin became central to the city’s musical identity, earning Gjakova the title “City of Mandolins.” Cultural-artistic societies such as SHKA “Gajreti” and SHKA “Bajram Curri,” along with the Ymer Riza society, incorporated the instrument into traditional “aheng” ensembles. The Normal School of Gjakova institutionalized mandolin education, forming orchestras that performed both Albanian and classical repertoires. Beyond formal institutions, the mandolin shaped family gatherings, serenade traditions, and youth initiatives. Groups such as AVI “Skofiarët,” AVI “Ashikët,” and AVI “Rilindja” demonstrate the continuity and revitalization of this tradition across generations. The mandolin in Gjakova represents not merely an instrument, but a living symbol of cultural memory and urban musical heritage.
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Connections between attitudes to music and religiosity among music students
Music is an indispensable part of daily life, serving many functions such as self-expression and fostering social belonging. To better understand musical behavior, it is necessary to understand other behaviors associated with music. Within this framework, this study aimed to examine the relationships between attitudes toward music (musical behavior and attitudes toward music education) and religiosity among music students. It will also reveal whether gender and age play a role in these relationships. A survey consisting of the author's attitude scales toward music and the religiosity scale (Ok, 2024) was administered to 144 students (62 males and 82 females) studying in the music departments of the Fine Arts and Education Faculties of a state university in their classrooms. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to descriptive statistics (means, frequencies, standard deviations) and correlation analyses. The results revealed a low but positive correlation between music listening and religiosity. This was interpreted as the possibility that music students might have reconciled their religiosity with their music education. Another finding, consistent with discussions in social psychology, was a low correlation between attitudes toward music and musical behavior. In other words, while students exhibited positive attitudes toward music, they failed to reflect this in their behavior. Furthermore, considering the negative correlation between religiosity and age, it can be argued that students become more secularized as they progress through the music department. In other words, music education fosters a secular culture. Furthermore, women generally have a more positive view of music.
The effect of diaphragmatic breathing training on cardiovascular recovery in professional classical ballet dancers
This study investigates the effect of diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing training on cardiovascular recovery in professional classical ballet dancers. Ballet requires exceptional physical and mental endurance, with dancers frequently experiencing elevated heart rates during intensive training and performance. Efficient cardiovascular recovery is essential for maintaining performance quality and preventing fatigue-related injuries. While diaphragmatic breathing has been shown to enhance parasympathetic nervous system activity and improve heart rate variability in various populations, its specific application to ballet dancers remains underexplored. This research addresses this gap by examining whether a structured two-week diaphragmatic breathing intervention can improve post-exercise heart rate recovery in professional ballet students. Twenty professional classical ballet students (15 female, 5 male; aged 15-21 years) from Istanbul University State Conservatory participated in this quasi-experimental study. All participants had 6-10 years of ballet training experience and were at intermediate to advanced performance levels. The study employed a pre-test/post-test design with heart rate measurements taken at rest and at 0, 10, 30, and 60 seconds following 64 repetitions of changement jumps. All measurements were conducted in the same ballet studio at the Conservatory during morning hours (9:00-11:00 AM) on different days to ensure consistency. Room temperature was maintained at 20-22°C, and participants were instructed to maintain consistent diet and hydration habits throughout the study period. Following baseline measurements, participants received theoretical instruction on respiratory physiology and diaphragmatic breathing mechanics. The two-week intervention consisted of daily supervised diaphragmatic breathing practice (6 days per week), progressing from supine positions with hands on the abdomen to standing practice integrated into regular ballet training. Post-intervention measurements replicated the pre-test protocol under identical environmental conditions. Heart rate data were analyzed using paired-samples statistical tests to assess changes in cardiovascular recovery patterns. Statistical analysis revealed significant improvements in cardiovascular recovery following the diaphragmatic breathing intervention. Pre-test measurements showed a mean heart rate of 112.00 ± 28.96 bpm immediately post-exercise (0 seconds), which decreased to 103.75 ± 15.59 bpm in the post-test condition, representing an 8.25 bpm reduction (7.4% improvement). The most substantial improvement occurred at the 10-second recovery point, with heart rates decreasing from 113.15 ± 28.80 bpm to 101.20 ± 13.00 bpm, a reduction of 11.95 bpm (10.6% improvement). At 30 seconds post-exercise, heart rates improved from 107.25 ± 27.85 bpm to 101.15 ± 11.66 bpm (6.10 bpm reduction, 5.7% improvement). The 60-second recovery measurement demonstrated a decrease from 100.95 ± 22.48 bpm to 90.35 ± 12.21 bpm, representing a 10.60 bpm reduction (10.5% improvement). Notably, the standard deviation decreased substantially across all measurement points, indicating more consistent recovery responses across participants. The reduction in variability ranged from 45.7% to 58.1%, suggesting that diaphragmatic breathing training benefits dancers with varying baseline cardiovascular fitness levels. These findings support the hypothesis that structured respiratory training enhances parasympathetic reactivation and cardiovascular efficiency in ballet dancers. This study provides empirical evidence that a brief, two-week diaphragmatic breathing training program significantly improves cardiovascular recovery in professional ballet dancers. The intervention’s effectiveness suggests that respiratory training should be integrated into standard ballet pedagogy and conditioning programs. Enhanced cardiovascular recovery has important implications for injury prevention, performance sustainability, and overall dancer wellness. The standardized nature of the intervention makes it readily implementable in conservatory and professional ballet training settings. Future research should examine long-term retention effects, optimal training duration, and the integration of respiratory training with other performance enhancement strategies.
Graffiti Against the Void Liberalism's Crisis in Georgia
In the last decade, graffiti and stencil art have become increasingly prominent elements of Tbilisi's urban landscape. As an anonymous and site-specific visual practice, graffiti reconfigures city walls into provisional exhibition spaces while transforming passersby into unintentional viewers. Georgian writer Givi Margvelashvili famously characterized graffiti as a "wall newspaper," emphasizing its narrative immediacy and responsiveness to social and political events. While some inscriptions remain personal or mundane, a significant portion of street interventions directly engage with moments of crisis, collective trauma, or political confrontation. Graffiti differs from institutional visual art through its ephemerality, illegality, and anonymity – qualities that intensify its political potential. Its brief existence allows it to bypass censorship and function as an unmediated form of public speech. Although anonymity recalls traditions of religious wall painting, contemporary graffiti reverses their function: rather than sanctifying enclosed interiors, it symbolically reclaims urban space itself. Through these temporary interventions, street artists participate in shaping the visual and ideological identity of the city, prioritizing urgent social concerns. One such concern emerged after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which prompted a large-scale relocation of Russian citizens to Georgia. This demographic shift dramatically altered economic conditions, particularly in Tbilisi, where housing prices and living costs surged. In response, anti-Russian graffiti proliferated, seemingly articulating a decolonial stance. This article examines these visual narratives and questions their political efficacy, asking whether decolonial critique can function meaningfully outside a coherent ideological and economic framework. It argues that within Georgia’s entrenched neoliberal order, much of this graffiti functions as “empty protest” – a symbolic performance that circulates in virtual urban space while leaving material structures of domination unchallenged.
Musical references of intermedial images in the films based on the drama-extravaganza Lisova Pisnya [“The Forest Song”] by Lesya Ukrainka
The presentation examines the specific features of musical imagery in the screen versions of Lesya Ukrainka's drama-féerie Lisova Pisnya (The Forest Song). Films with music by Igor Shamo (1961), Boris Buevsky (1976), and Yevhen Stankovych (1980) mark a significant evolution in the interpretation of Lesya Ukrainka’s masterpiece: the light pastoral gives way to the symbolization of the figure of the poetess. It is taken into account that the movies have different emotional colors and express the trending social moods of the last three decades of the Soviet era - the «spring arising» and hopes of the 1960s, the disappointment of the 1970s, and the total «Brezhnev depression» of the 1980s. The processes of semantic transformation of Lesya Ukrainka's work in film are realized through various intertextual connections between the text of «Forest Song» and artifacts of musical culture, literature, and cinematography. The conceptual differences of the screen versions are related to the forcing of a specific genre component of the literary extravaganza drama (fairy tale, allegory, or mystery). The image of sopilka playing (folk flute playing) is the conceptual focus of the musical solutions of the film versions. This image has an intermedial character and appeals to diverse musical references – from improvisations-imitations or folklore tunes to metaphors of sopilka playing in professional music. In general, the musical references of the intermedial images of «Forest Song» became an essential indicator of the transformation of the canon of perception of «Forest Song». Y. Stankovich used the folk tunes notes by Lesya Ukrainka in the film score. In 1980, it was significant. Strengthening the connection of music with the author's text of the drama renewed a certain authenticity of the legendary text. This strengthening also emphasized resistance to Soviet ideology's oppression in the cultural aspect. In the presentation, the comparative analysis methods are general for studying musical references of intermedial images. The inseparability of music from the integral image system of the film and the ability of different film versions of «Forest Song» to form a common dialogic space are taken into account.
Key words: film music, intermediality, Ukrainian composers of the 20th century, Gesamtkunstwerk, myth, intertextuality, national symbolism
Educating for Humanity through the Arts: The Role of Musical and Interdisciplinary Creativity in Shaping a Humane School Culture
In a time of increasingly rapid change, when educational priorities are shaped ever more by demands for measurability and predictability, it is necessary to reconsider the role of the arts in creating a more humane school environment. This presentation addresses the question of how music and other art forms can contribute to shaping an educational approach in which creativity, relationships and interdisciplinary connections are central components of pedagogical practice. It is grounded in the understanding that artistic activities in schools should not be viewed merely as tools for developing skills or aesthetic awareness, but as vital spaces that support children's emotional, social, and ethical growth. Particular emphasis is placed on musical experiences such as improvisation, composition, listening and collaborative performance as opportunities to nurture emotional expression, empathy, self-confidence and a sense of belonging. The second part of the presentation explores how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches – linking music with literature, visual art, drama, movement and broader social or environmental themes – can open up embodied and imaginative ways for students to engage with complex ideas about identity, difference and care. Examples from classroom practice and teacher education illustrate how learning environments can be designed so that children do not only learn about the arts, but also through and with the arts, finding personal and meaningful ways of being in the world. The presentation concludes by proposing foundational principles for humanising education through the arts: empowering students’ creative agency, fostering collaboration and community, and resisting narrowly instrumental perspectives in favour of deeper human and societal purposes.
music education; arts education; children's creativity; interdisciplinary connections; humanisation of education
Calculated Perfection vs. Humanity: The Industrialization of the Piano Competition
The global outcry following young Georgian pianist David Khrikuli’s performance at the recent 19th Chopin Competition – where his display of profound artistic authenticity was met with a jury’s decision to snub an artist who stood out in an “ocean of sameness” – serves as a poignant case study for a discussion of the current state of classical music worldwide. This keynote explores the tension between Art and Humanity within the high-stakes world of elite piano competitions, such as the Chopin, the Cliburn, the Tchaikovsky, or the Leeds. While these competitions are marketed as the ultimate launchpads for talent, they increasingly function as industrial filters that prioritize mechanical reliability over poetic risk. I will first examine the dehumanization of a young virtuoso, who is trained from childhood with the singular focus of an elite athlete. This rigorous preparation often leads to a “disposable” career model: namely, young artists are thrust into the competition circuit only to be discarded by major agents and record labels if they fail to secure a top-tier prize. In this ecosystem, the musician is treated as a seasonal commodity, easily replaced by the next edition of the hype cycle. Another dehumanizing issue is the systemic lack of support for those who do succeed. The case of 2015 Chopin medalist Kate Liu illustrates the fragility of this success; when physical injury strikes, the industry’s “sink or swim” attitude offers no safety net, forcing even celebrated prize-winners to claw their way back into relentless competition and concert circuits. This reveals a chilling indifference to the physical and psychological well-being of a human being behind the instrument. Ultimately, the tendency of juries to favor “safe” candidates – those with flawless technique but predictable interpretations – stifles the very authenticity that audiences crave. By rewarding conformity over originality, the competition circuit risks transforming a living art form into a standardized product. This keynote calls for a re-evaluation of how we value artists, moving away from the “Hunger Games of the keyboard” toward a system that honours the human spirit over the marketable prize.
Parabolic Language as a Method of Coexistence with Censorship
This paper examines the development and function of parabolic language in Soviet Georgian cinema as a sophisticated creative response to ideological censorship and political repression. Under the totalitarian conditions of the Soviet Union, of which Georgia was a constituent republic, the state exercised pervasive control over artistic production, rendering art a vehicle for ideological conformity. Films that deviated from officially sanctioned frameworks risked prohibition or outright destruction — a fate that befell early masterworks such as Kote Mikaberidze's My Grandmother (1929) and Mikheil Kalatozishvili's Jim Shvante (1930) during the suppression of the Georgian avant-garde. Faced with these constraints, Georgian filmmakers progressively developed a distinctive allegorical and parabolic cinematic language — a system of encoded expression that enabled directors to articulate dissent, critique power, and explore prohibited themes while evading censorship and its consequences. This oblique mode of address simultaneously preserved authorial integrity and invited the viewer into an active interpretive role, transforming the audience into a co-conspirator tasked with decoding layered subtexts, irony, and allusion. The emergence of this language is most prominently associated with the generational movement of the 1960s, when young directors — among them Giorgi and Eldar Shengelaia, Otar Iosseliani, Merab Kokochashvili, Mikheil Kobakhidze, and Lana Gogoberidze — introduced non-idealized protagonists and formally innovative narratives that implicitly challenged Soviet orthodoxy. Yet parabolic language was far from exclusive to this decade; it remained a vital cinematic strategy through the 1970s and 1980s, as evidenced by the work of Eldar Shengelaia and Tengiz Abuladze. Drawing on close analysis of specific films across these periods, this paper traces the historical, ideological, and aesthetic conditions that shaped parabolic expression in Georgian cinema, illuminating its mechanisms, its evolving forms, and its enduring significance as an act of cultural resistance.
What Does Mersenne Owe to Bacchius?On the Revival and Reception of Late Ancient Theories of Harmony in Seventeenth-Century French Discourse
French polymath Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) was a prominent figure in the development of early Enlightenment music theory in France. As a mathematician, he belonged to a line of music scholars who sought to apply the natural sciences to the concepts of music theory and, above all, to early classical harmony. If this concept does not appear novel, that is not accidental. Similar ideas not only existed among ancient theorists but were quite prevalent well into the early Eastern Roman Empire, ranging from Pythagoras to figures such as the enigmatic Bacchius. It is precisely this figure that caught Mersenne's attention, to the extent that he edited and supervised the publication of some of Bacchius's theoretical works in the original Ancient Greek. Despite multiple attempts to study Bacchius, musicologists have still been unable to define his persona. It remains possible that he lived at any point between late Hellenism and the thirteenth century, given that some of his most notable works survive only in late Byzantine copies. While the revived interest in ancient theories during the Renaissance and Baroque periods is not surprising, what is particularly striking is that, seemingly under the influence of Bacchius, Mersenne largely disregarded the medieval discourse on scales and counterpoint. This paper seeks to explain how Mersenne, by using Bacchius as a model, may have laid the foundations for theories that emerged only in later decades, without explicitly naming the emerging tonal referential system or recognizing the chord as an independent entity.
Posthumanism in Art & Art in Posthumanism: Art as a Laboratory of Posthumanist Thinking
Abstract. Over the past decades, philosophical, technological, and ecological shifts have disrupted established anthropocentric assumptions for understanding subjectivity, agency, and embodiment. Posthumanism has become a major framework for interpreting these transformations, yet its relationship to contemporary art is often treated as derivative: artworks are cited as illustrations of theory rather than as sites where posthumanist thinking is materially tested. This paper argues for a bidirectional exchange between art and theory: artistic practices not only reflect posthumanist ideas but actively participate in their formation by experimenting with the possible and making nonhuman agency perceptible at the level of experience. Building on key philosophical and theoretical positions (Ferrando, Wolfe, Braidotti, Marchesini) and on Stefan Lorenz Sorgner’s typology of posthuman art, a methodological gap can be identified: existing approaches rarely distinguish the depth and mode by which posthumanist ideas are implemented in artworks. To address this, an analytical matrix is proposed that connects five conceptual nodes—bodily hybridity, technological mediation of experience, relationality, expansion of subjectivity, and de-hierarchization—to three dimensions of artistic realization: aesthetic (imagery and motifs), structural (material/technological/compositional organization), and communicative (authorship, participation, and interaction). The model is demonstrated through three cross-media case studies: Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch (material agency and environmental temporality), Philip Beesley’s Hylozoic Ground (sensor-driven environments and distributed technical agency), and The [Uncertain] Four Seasons (data-driven musical recomposition shaped by climate projections). Mapping how each project activates posthumanist nodes across the three dimensions, the paper differentiates symbolic references from deep structural collaboration with nonhuman agents, and outlines the model’s further potential as a comparative and interpretive tool for analyzing posthumanist transformations across media.
Orthoepy as a cross-cultural determinant of performer interpretation of vocal music
The relevance of the proposed topic is due to numerous political events that have changed the lives of many people around the world over the past few years. In 2022, music became one of the essential channels of social support for Ukraine. Opera houses, concert halls worldwide, and the digital space of social networks contained numerous professional and amateur performances of Ukrainian songs and the National Anthem. Let us pay attention to the technical side of this process. Orthoepy became a key technical detail in the performance of Ukrainian music. World-famous musicians sought specialist consultants to help regulate the proper pronunciation of Ukrainian texts in vocal music. The example of supporting Ukraine through music is only an aspect of a more complex issue related to the ability of words in music to symbolize a particular culture. The correct pronunciation of words in a vocal work is essential for understanding the text, but not only for this. When a singer performs a composition in a foreign language, he overcomes the language barrier and begins a specific dialogue of cultures. Beyond personal performances, orthoepy plays vital roles in preserving collective memory and cultural heritage. In the history of music, genres, styles, and manners of performance connected with a particular language are well known - for example, opera seria, bel canto (Italian), zingspiel, gezang (German), solospivy (singing), holosinnia (lamentation) (Ukrainian), etc. Thus, orthoepy today is an essential aspect of a musical work that takes on artistic and expressive functions and becomes a symbol of a particular musical vocal tradition
Rethinking R.U.R. by Karel Čapek Nowadays: A Practical Case Study of Adaptation in Rotondi and Bar-Amotz
This paper presents a contemporary adaptation of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, developed by artists Guy Bar-Amotz and Armando Rotondi as an interdisciplinary, site-specific performance work. Originally written in 1920, R.U.R.introduced the term “robot” and inaugurated a new cultural imagination around mechanisation, synthetic life, and industrial modernity. Bar-Amotz and Rotondi’s version revisits Čapek’s dystopian vision through the lens of contemporary concerns: automatism and freedom, participation in civil society, and the concept of “social sculpture” as an expanded field of artistic practice. Integrating living sculpture, spatial sound design, son-et-lumière stagecraft, interactive programming, and performers wearing mechanimated robotic masks, the project proposes an adaptive and collaborative model of performance. Conceived as engaging and site-responsive, the work invites local partners and communities to co-produce the artistic experience, thus transforming the theatre event into a participatory civic platform. Adapting R.U.R. poses substantial dramaturgical challenges. Čapek’s original text unfolds in four acts, populated by numerous allegorical characters—Domin (dominus), Helena Glory, Alquist (the alchemist)—whose dialogues articulate philosophical, social, religious, and economic tensions of early industrial modernity. Despite the radical innovation of its themes—comparable to works such as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or Ruggero Vasari’s L’agonia delle macchine—the play’s conventional dramatic structure complicates reduction and contemporary staging.
Tragedy And The Grotesque In Modernist Opera: An Examination of Berg, Britten and Shostakovich
This paper examines how the human being is constructed as a subject influenced by social, political, and ideological structures in the modernist and post-war opera repertoire of the 20th century. The study employs document analysis, a qualitative research method. The research is limited to the operas Wozzeck and Lulu by Alban Berg, Peter Grimes and Billy Budd by Benjamin Britten, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and The Nose by Dmitri Shostakovich. Through these selected operas, the tragic and grotesque forms of narrative in modern opera are discussed; the focus is on how the fate of the characters and the relationship between the individual and the system are dramaturgically constructed. In this context, the final scenes are particularly evaluated in the context of the physical annihilation and dissolution of identity of the individual. In Alban Berg’s operas, the individual suffers both spiritual and physical destruction. In Benjamin Britten, the conflict develops more between the individual and society, on a moral and conscientious level. In Dmitri Shostakovich’s work, tragic and grotesque elements are used together. Wozzeck’s drowning in the lake, Lulu’s violent death, Peter Grimes’ disappearance, Billy Budd’s execution and Katherine’s suicide demonstrate the weight of tragic endings in modernist opera. In contrast, The Nose, with its ironic and absurd structure, presents a grotesque ending based on the shattering of identity, without physical death. Consequently, it has been observed that in the operas examined, the modernist narrative is often constructed with dramatic endings that lead the viewer mostly to tragic annihilation or a grotesque disintegration of identity.
Zlata and Yefim Tkach: A Composer and an Ethnomusicologist in Search of Their Jewish and Moldovan Musical Roots, Under the Soviet Regime
The names of Jewish-Soviet-Moldovan composer Zlata Tkach (1928-2006) and her husband musicologist Yefim Tkach (1926-2003) are not commonly mentioned today among the academic and artistic communities—neither in Moldova nor in the West—despite their significant joint interdisciplinary contribution to the notion of Moldovan and Jewish folklore. The output of Yefim Tkach consists of several monographs and various articles on different subjects concerning the musical life in the Soviet Union, with special focus on the music, history, and culturology of Moldova. The musical oeuvre of Zlata Tkach includes numerous compositions in a sheer variety of styles and orchestrations, with a deep and sophisticated essence, yet highly communicative and idiosyncratic. Her works from the 1970’s extensively incorporate materials from the Moldovan folklore, transforming the linguistic, musicological, and culturological study of Moldova conducted by her husband to musical creations. Since the 1980’s both Zlata and Yefim channeled their exploration towards Jewish music and the Yiddish language, as well as the documentation of art and history related to the Holocaust. My paper aims to mark several key moments and accomplishments in their individual and collective journeys and stress out the brave enthusiasm to explore their cultural ethnic roots in times when the collective ethos (and pathos) towards those cultures was declining under the Communist regime. The paper calls to revive the recognition Zlata and Yefim Tkach deserve for their musical and academic achievements, which might inspire current studies on cultural identity in the ex-Soviet Republics and Eastern Europe.
From Oral Memory to Artistic Humanism: Reframing Akan Folklore Through Asɛmpayɛtsia
Across my academic journey, I have observed that artistic excellence in African contexts is often judged by Eurocentric standards that overlook the deep human aspect of Indigenous creative intelligence. In response, I intentionally turned to my cultural roots, grounding my work in Sankɔfaism, the Akan principle that one must return to ancestral knowledge to move forward with integrity. Guided by the idea of epistemic disobedience, I approached Ghanaian-Akan-Mfantse artistic knowledge not only as material for preservation but as a living human inheritance capable of inspiring new artistic visions. My doctoral research revived Kodzi, a group of Mfantse storytelling traditions that have long in????uenced community ethics, identity, and intergenerational memory. To adapt this heritage into modern artistic forms, I developed Asɛmpayɛtsia, a compositional framework based on cultural excavation, symbolic or compositional translation, and audiovisual reinscription. This model aligns with international heritage principles, especially the UNESCO 2003 Convention and AU Agenda 2063, Aspiration 5, which emphasises protecting African heritage through innovation, community-centered practices, and cultural continuity. The framework also draws on the WIPO (2001) Traditional Knowledge Principles, emphasising respect, accuracy of representation, and the ethical handling of community knowledge. Rather than treating creation as separate from humanity, Asɛmpayɛtsia positions artistic research as an act of cultural care, ensuring that oral traditions continue to breathe within contemporary artistic landscapes. By reframing Akan folklore through composition, narrative, and digital visualisation, this work argues that in a rapidly globalising world, the arts remain one of humanity’s essential spaces for grounding identity, memory, and meaning. Asɛmpayɛtsia demonstrates how heritage and creativity can coexist, transform, and sustain the human spirit.
Rast Maqam and Form in Azerbaijani Âşık Music: A Modal–Intonational Analysis of Selected Airs from the Epic “Âşık Garip”
This study examines selected âşık airs performed within the epic Âşık Garip through a theoretical analysis of their modal–intonational, melodic, metro-rhythmic, and formal structures. Among the thirty-two airs constituting the narrative framework of the epic, fifteen are based on the Rast maqam; five representative examples—“Çukur Hava,” “Dastanı,” “Gülabi,” “Güllü Göyçe,” and “Kerem Köçtü”—were transcribed and analyzed in detail. The findings demonstrate that although these airs are grounded in the Rast maqam and particularly its Şikeste-i Fars section, their modal identity is dynamically articulated through shifting cadential tones, sectional expansion, and performance-based variation. The analyses reveal that recurring melodic nuclei—especially the “a” episode and its variants (a1, a2)—function as primary form-generating elements, ensuring structural coherence across multi-sectional designs. Metro-rhythmic organization plays a decisive role in shaping expressive character, often combining stable metric accompaniment with Ad libitum declamatory vocal delivery. Furthermore, the dialogic interaction between vocal and instrumental parts expands the harmonic and timbral field through saz-based quartal and quintal sonorities. Although the airs frequently appear in two- or three-sectional formal schemes, their underlying structural logic reflects a unified melodic core shaped by the semantic and narrative demands of the epic text. The study concludes that âşık music, as a syncretic oral art form integrating poetry and music, embodies structural flexibility, modal richness, and content-dependent formal variability within the framework of the Rast maqam tradition.
Musical Instruments and Wedding Performance Practice in 16th-Century Azerbaijan: An Iconographic Analysis of a Safavid Miniature
This study examines the 16th-century Safavid miniature entitled “The Ceremonial Display of the Wedding of Zuleykha and Aziz” as an iconographic source for Azerbaijani wedding music and performance practice. Although the painting visually illustrates a scene derived from Abdurrahman Jami’s masnavi “Yusuf and Zuleykha,” it simultaneously functions as a historical document reflecting musical ensemble structure, instrumental typology, and ceremonial acoustics in Safavid-period Azerbaijan. The primary aim of the research is to identify and analyze the musical instruments depicted in the miniature and to reconstruct the performance practice represented in the wedding scene. The study employs an interdisciplinary qualitative methodology combining iconographic analysis, organology, historical-literary interpretation, and performance-based examination. The spatial arrangement of musicians, the hierarchical placement of loud and soft instruments, and the relationship between instrumentalists, vocalists, and dancers are systematically evaluated. The findings reveal the collective performance of twelve musical instruments, including wind, percussion, and string instruments, organized within a structured ensemble model. The differentiated acoustic positioning of performers indicates a deliberate understanding of sound projection in open-air ceremonial settings. Furthermore, the presence of the ashik–balaban pairing and the sazanda ensemble demonstrates the integrated character of Azerbaijani wedding music, where ashik art, mugham elements, dance, and festive ceremonial music coexist within a syncretic performance framework. The study concludes that the miniature should be regarded not merely as a literary illustration but as a valuable musicological and organological source documenting ensemble organization, acoustic awareness, and wedding performance practice in 16th-century Azerbaijan.
Reclaiming Somatic Intelligence: A Sumerian Minahasan Embodied Framework for Music Education in the AI Era
This study strengthens embodied musical cognition through Directional Chord Symbols (DCS), a spatial kinesthetic system synthesizing Sumerian sexagesimal principles with Minahasan cosmology, responding to concerns about diminishing human somatic intelligence as Artificial Intelligence becomes increasingly central in musical creation and performance. Music education faces institutional crisis worldwide, with UK universities closing music departments and Indonesia cutting arts funding by eight trillion rupiah, reflecting precarious institutional positioning dominated by STEM disciplines and perpetuating talent gatekeeping that excludes learners who believe they lack musical gift. The research employed Arts-Based Research integrated with Participatory Action Research to privilege embodied knowledge production through collaborative inquiry with participants and educators. Purposive mixed-ability sampling recruited eighteen middle school students (ages 12-15) from Central Java, Indonesia, including nine students with formal music training and nine self-identified non-musicians. Video analysis documented trajectory adherence and tempo maintenance, while participant reflections, focus group discussions, and educator field notes captured qualitative dimensions of embodied learning experiences. Thematic analysis employed constant comparison methods, with descriptive statistics characterizing spatial navigation patterns and triangulation across multiple data sources enhancing validity. Students achieved 92.3 percent plus minus 5.8 percent accuracy in directional trajectories and maintained tempos of 118.2 plus minus 3.9 BPM, with qualitative findings revealing talent barrier dissolution, heightened motivation, and cultural resonance among Minahasan learners associating movements with Lumimuut rotational knowledge. The study recommends positioning music departments as Embodied Cognition Centers to secure STEM alignment, institutional resilience, and relevance in the AI era while promoting epistemic justice and expanding access for diverse neurotypes.
Robert Sturua's Shakespeare Interpretations in the 21st Century
Today, the history of Georgian theater is unimaginable without Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. Shakespeare has been known in Georgia since the first half of the nineteenth century, and his popularity is directly related to the growth of Georgian theater culture. To open up a classical play in a timely manner means to find great problems that can stir passion in today’s audiences. Shakespeare’s dramaturgy is one of the classic works that a director can apply to modern problems. Specifically, in this case, we are talking about Robert Sturua’s 21st-century Georgian Shakespeareana. On the plays performed by the director at the Rustaveli Theater: The Twelfth Night of Christmas, Hamlet, Julius Caesar. In his works, Robert Sturua explores the problems of tyranny, human freedom, personality and society in a tyrannical state. With his performances, he exposes the inhuman essence of tyranny. Among the performances staged at the Rustaveli Theater, these issues were most acutely revealed in the productions of classical playwrights, including Shakespeare’s plays.
Effects of the First World War on European Cinematic Culture
It is widely known that cinema as a new technical invention (it was not an art field yet) had gained the greatest popularity at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, especially in Europe, where several countries like France, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Italy had achieved many successes in the film industry and in the film culture too. Meanwhile, Americans attempted to protect the local film market from foreign competitors while preparing to promote their films globally. They began to build vertically integrated structures (production, distribution, and demonstration), which for that period only some European film companies (Pathe, Gaumont, and Nordisk) had. The Americans adopted the block booking system from Denmark and used it at first in the American film market and then in the international film markets. The onset of the First World War drastically altered the situation. Many European film companies and cinema halls were closed; the market relations between the leading cinematic European countries were destroyed, etc. In the first months of this war, some countries completely halted film production. It was resumed after a time, but on a minimal scale. European movie theatres preferred showing one full-length motion picture, preceded by a short war documentary, instead of film programs with several films. Of course, there was a huge need for that. Such practice existed throughout the war. In addition, the number of films in the popular genres was shortened. For example, the Frenchmen minimized the comedies because they believed that there was no time for laughs. Instead, patriotic-adventure films showed heroic acts on the battlefront or the search for and exposure of enemy spies.
Should We Be Afraid of New Life? Fear and Moral Dilemmas in 21st-CenteryGeorgian and Turkish Drama
The present paper investigates the socio-psychological aspects of society raised in contemporary drama. Specifically, attention is focused on the phenomenon where fear dictates the "rules of the game," turning morality and the instinct for self-preservation into a destructive force. The research is based on a comparative analysis of two significant plays of the 21st century: The Little Giant (Tsitskna Goliati) by Georgian playwright Irakli Samsonadze and Avalanche (Çığ) by Turkish playwright Tuncer Cücenoğlu. In these plays, it is evident that both cultures await tomorrow not as survival, but as a verdict. The main objective of the research is to demonstrate how fear transforms the birth of a child — traditionally a symbol of hope — into a death sentence. The paper attempts to answer the question: why has silence become the only means of survival, and why is the "new generation" perceived as a threat rather than a continuation of life? In Cücenoğlu's Avalanche, the community is forced to maintain silence to avert catastrophe, where an infant's cry is equated with destruction. Similarly, in Samsonadze's The Little Giant, parents fear that their child's existence will betray their hiding place. The analysis reveals that in both narratives, paranoia compels parents to view their child not as an heir, but as a "prosecutor" who threatens their safety and comfort. The research concludes that when society is ruled by fear, moral degradation is inevitable. Parents are willing to sacrifice the child — the symbol of the future — to maintain a "safe" and "silent" present. This reflects a modern tragedy where an instinct for physical survival suppresses moral humanity.
Art and Humanity in Wartime: The Musical and Pedagogical Legacy of Hanna Havrylets (1958–2022)
This presentation examines the artistic and educational contributions of Hanna Havrylets, one of Ukraine’s most distinguished contemporary composers and teachers. Her passing on February 27, 2022, during the first days of Russia’s invasion, symbolized both a personal tragedy and a rupture in Ukraine’s cultural memory. Havrylets’ oeuvre—spanning symphonies, concertos, chamber works, and choral compositions—embodies a profound dialogue between tradition and modernity. Works such as Stabat Mater (2002), Chorale for Strings (2005), and Symphony No. 1 (1989) reveal her ability to transform folk elements and ritual incantations into contemporary idioms that resonate with themes of resilience and humanity. Equally significant was her role as professor at the Kyiv Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music, where she mentored a generation of composers. Her pedagogy emphasized technical mastery, cultural responsibility, and the integration of national identity into creative practice. Through her teaching, Havrylets cultivated a community of artists who continue to shape Ukraine’s musical landscape, ensuring continuity even in times of war and displacement. This study also draws on interviews with eleven Ukrainian women composers—Asmati Chibalashvili, Bohdana Frolyak, Hanna Kopiika, Kira Maidenberg-Todorova, Olena Morozova, Olena Ilnytska, Viktoria Polyova, Renata Sokachyk, Anna Stoyanova, Karmella Tsepkolenko, and Alla Zagaykevych—whose testimonies illuminate Havrylets’ influence as mentor, colleague, and cultural beacon. By situating her dual legacy within the broader context of conflict, the presentation highlights how art and education together sustain humanity, affirming the enduring power of cultural memory to resist erasure and nurture hope.
Signs of the Theatre of the Absurd in Greek Mythology
The study of the Theatre of the Absurd has not lost its relevance to this day. Emerging in the 1950s, this literary movement—which later expanded to encompass nearly all branches of art—proved to be a major catalyst for cultural transformation. The environment and the epoch, that is, the context, have always played a decisive role in shaping dominant artistic trends. After two world wars, humanity was immersed in nihilistic disillusionment, and the sense of futility that overwhelmed human existence reached its peak toward the late 1950s and early 1960s. To articulate this condition most effectively, a new artistic current was born and soon spread across the entire cultural world: Absurdism. Yet this movement had its antecedents. In this article, we will briefly review the early stages of the development of Absurdist thought, the authors who established and refined the movement, and, most importantly, demonstrate a fascinating discourse that reveals clear and distinctive signs of the [1]absurd already present in ancient Greek mythology.
Refracting the Local: How Digital Streaming Platforms Mediate and Redefine African Musical Identities
The rise of global music streaming platforms as a democratising force, is granting African artists unprecedented access to the international arena to share their music. However, this new digital space presents a paradox that is worth scrutinising. Despite these platforms creating pathways for globalisation, they also represent very deliberate and consequential mediators, ‘The New Jim Code’, that refract local musical identities through the competing forces of algorithmic biases, homogenisation and the economic infrastructure of digital colonialism. Anchored on Digital Colonialism, this mixed method study explores this dualism. A quantitative analysis, using Music Information Retrieval (MIR) tools, will assess the sonic features (e.g., tempo, harmonic complexity, instrumentation) of the top 50 songs from Spotify's African Heats playlist for each of the past five years (n=250) to identify patterns of musical convergence. For the qualitative arm, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a purposive sample of approximately 5-15 Nairobi-based artists and producers with the final sample size being determined by the point of data saturation. Preliminary research analysis suggests that the curatorial nature of algorithms and playlists places pressure on artists to create a global by-passable, and, often homogenised, sound. This study proposes that these platforms are not just neutral conduits, but rather, neocolonial mediators that may continue to distort, misrepresent and invade how African musical creativity is constructed. This therefore necessitates a critical rethinking of the role of technology, culture, and economic power in the digital world. Given these potential risks that may arise, this paper recommends algorithmic transparency, the creation of digital cultural quotas, and creation of African artist-oriented digital platforms, that can better preserve and disseminate the multiplicity of African music in digital context.
Universalism in Film – Remarks Based on the 2023 Film "Chłopi" ("The Peasants"), directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman
Władysław Reymont wrote the novel Chłopi (The Peasants) before World War I, but won the Nobel Prize for it in 1924. It is believed that the concept and narrative of this book were a polemic against La Terre, written by Emile Zola (although Reymont could not have been familiar with it, as he did not know French well enough). The artistic premise of Reymont’s novel was not a realistic tale of a Polish village – it was to create a universal peasant epic, describing the peasantry as a specific state of consciousness of various European peoples. To this end, he utilised the genre of the novel, which at the time offered the greatest possibilities for combining multiple spheres of human activity: physical labour, interpersonal interactions in a quasi-closed community, entertainment, politics, religion, love as a feeling, and love understood as a guarantee of formal social relations. Reymont did not use a realistic description of folk clothes – he combined elements of costumes from different regions, employed a mixture of folk dialects, and even the topography of the village of Lipce in the novel does not correspond to that of the actual settlement. Today, we would describe the premise of Reymont’s work as a panorama of broadly defined peasant culture. The novel Peasants has been filmed before, but the primary focus was on its realistic portrayal and the “sinful” love story. Nearly a century after The Peasants was awarded the Nobel Prize (2023), a new film adaptation of the novel has appeared, produced using painted animation. It not only presents the perennial themes of love, hatred, sacrifice, and conflict between blood ties and cultural customs in a peasant setting, but also seeks to underpin this content’s universality with formal universality. Bringing to life over 30 outstanding paintings by European artists (in addition to Chełmoński, Wyczółkowski, Fałat, Ruszczyc, but also Breughel, Vermeer, van Gogh, and Millet), translated into over 1,800 painted frames produced picture by picture by over 100 artists (over 40,000 frames hand-painted), is the pictorial power of this project. The result is a true Gesamtkunswerk for the 21st century. Finally, the film’s strongest point, in terms of its universal appeal, is its soundtrack. The music creators—led by Łukasz Rostkowski (L.U.C.)—have meticulously blended elements of Polish folk music with Balkan, Slavic, and Baltic folklore, early musical instruments, and even contemporary elements such as rap, club rhythms, and so-called “shamanic rhythms.” As a result, diegetic music in the film’s world is perceived as universally “authentic”—without defining what that means. A prime example is the universalised “ocepiny” ritual ([wedding capping ceremony] emphasised by the song Rozczesała, rozpuściła [She combed and let her hair down]). At the same time, nondiegetic music appearing in key scenes (e.g., the frenetic Wedding Mazur or the hit song Jesień – tańcuj [Autumn—dance]) imbues the story with a surreal, comprehensive meaning. This essay will demonstrate and discuss these examples of musical universalism in the film The Peasants.
Even Death Is Humane; the Human Being Is Not (Contemporary Georgian Theatre in the Context of the Crisis of Humanism)
Art has historically functioned as one of the most significant spaces of humanism, a domain in which the individual confronts ethical boundaries, responsibility, and the meaning of human existence. In the contemporary world, however—particularly against the backdrop of global wars, systemic violence, and the erosion of spiritual values—the crisis of humanism has become increasingly visible, not as a failure of the idea itself, but as a failure of human practice. This presentation examines how contemporary Georgian theatre reflects this crisis and how it interrogates the very possibility of humaneness in the modern age. The research focuses on three productions from the most recent theatrical season, staged in different theatres and cities across Georgia: The Robbers, directed by Saba Aslamazishvili (after Friedrich Schiller, Marjanishvili Theatre, Tbilisi); The Birds, directed by Antonella Cornici (after Aristophanes, Rustavi Theatre); and Who Are You?, directed by Zaza Sikhulidze (based on the life of Niko Pirosmani, Batumi Music Centre). The presentation employs a comparative-analytical methodology, combining theatre studies with philosophical and cultural analysis. The analysis demonstrates that in these productions humanism is not presented as a harmonious or stable value, but rather as a tense, problematic, and often failed process. In The Robbers, violence committed in the name of justice transforms into tyranny; in The Birds, the pursuit of peace generates new hierarchies and conflicts; while in Who Are You?, death emerges as a humane interlocutor who poses an ethical question to the human subject. Collectively, these works articulate a striking paradox: death often appears more humane than the living human being The presentation concludes that contemporary Georgian theatre actively responds to the crisis of humanism by refusing consolatory narratives and instead confronting the audience with ethical responsibility. In this context, theatre functions as a moral mirror, revealing the audience’s own involvement in the broader ethical breakdown of contemporary society.
Eschatomusicology: Based on the Ideas of Richard Wagner and Alexander Scriabin
The concept of Eschatomusicology emerges from the intersection of music, philosophy, and eschatology—the study of ultimate meanings, transcendence, and the destiny of humanity. This approach interprets music not only as an aesthetic phenomenon but as a medium through which composers express metaphysical visions of the end, renewal, or transformation of existence. The present research aims to investigate the eschatological dimensions in the artistic philosophies of Richard Wagner and Alexander Scriabin, two composers who viewed music as a path toward spiritual revelation and universal harmony. The primary goal of the study is to define Eschatomusicology as a theoretical field that explores the relationship between musical expression and eschatological consciousness. The main tasks include analysing Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork) as a redemptive synthesis of art and religion, and examining Scriabin’s mystical project Mysterium as a vision of collective transcendence and cosmic unity. The research also seeks to reveal how both composers transformed musical language and structure to embody metaphysical and spiritual ideals. As a result, the study demonstrates that Wagner’s mytho-Christian and Scriabin’s theosophical-cosmic ideas converge in their shared belief in the transformative power of art. Both envisioned music as a sacred act capable of guiding humanity toward enlightenment and renewal. Eschatomusicology thus offers a new framework for understanding music as a force of ultimate revelation, where sound becomes a means of transcending material reality and approaching the metaphysical “end” of human evolution.