[theoriae doxa] I.
 

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PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The residency unfolds through three consecutive stages. Each stage has a distinct function: establishing a shared intellectual context, developing projects through sustained critique, and bringing the resulting work into public discourse at the festival.

 

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Stage I. | October 2026
2 online seminars

Stage I establishes the intellectual and methodological foundations of the cohort. Participants introduce their practices, selected previous work, current projects, and principal research questions. These presentations make visible the disciplinary assumptions, conceptual vocabularies, evidentiary bases, and public contexts informing each proposal.

Individuals and groups present drafts, papers, research projects, or portfolios. Artistic directors and curators may introduce programs, institutional models, commissioning practices, mediation strategies, or organizational questions as objects of inquiry. Participants identify the specific problems their work addresses and distinguish among descriptive, interpretative, evaluative, and normative claims.

Discussion addresses each project’s scope, the relationship between method and material, the adequacy of its concepts, and the evidence required. The seminars also establish protocols for constructive, exacting, and reciprocal feedback.

 

Stage I includes:

– 2 online seminars

– Presentation of participants’ intellectual, critical, and curatorial practices

– Introduction of selected previous work and current projects

– Presentation of drafts, papers, research materials, and portfolios

– Discussion of methods, concepts, sources, contexts, and intended publics

– Identification of historical, theoretical, editorial, institutional, and ethical questions

– Initial development plan for each participating project

– Introduction to IDEALS, REALITY, SURPRISE: A New Introduction to New Music

– Q&A

 

Stage I does not seek premature consensus or finalized projects. It establishes a precise basis for development: what each project claims and presupposes, which materials it requires, and how collective scrutiny may transform it.

 

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Stage II. | December 2026
2 online seminars

Stage II concentrates on critical inquiry into the edition’s framework and on the substantive development of participants’ work. Revised drafts, arguments, case studies, archival materials, program concepts, and methodological reflections are circulated where appropriate and examined in detail.

Participants test arguments, the relationship between evidence and interpretation, the historical specificity of categories, and the consequences of editorial or curatorial form. Discussion may address historiography, terminology, citation, translation, disciplinary location, narrative structure, audience, institutional context, programming, ethics, and public effects.

Peer and mentor feedback is expected to be analytic rather than merely affirmative. It should identify the strongest claims, locate unsupported transitions, distinguish productive ambiguity from conceptual vagueness, and propose concrete avenues for revision. Participants remain responsible for their own intellectual positions while demonstrating responsiveness to counterargument and counterevidence.

Stage II includes:

– 2 online seminars

– Critical inquiry into IDEALS, REALITY, SURPRISE: A New Introduction to New Music

– Presentation and discussion of developed drafts, papers, research, and project materials

– Collective reading, source analysis, and conceptual examination

– Evaluation of methods, evidence, argumentation, structure, and terminology

– Editorial, scholarly, philosophical, and curatorial feedback

– Reflection on the public and institutional implications of each project

– Identification of questions requiring further research, clarification, or revision

– Development of lecture, paper, symposium, or working-group formats

– Preparation for the on-site residency and festival presentations

– Q&A

 

By the conclusion of Stage II, each project should possess a clearly articulated question or proposition, an appropriate method, a defensible relationship to its sources, and a feasible format for public presentation. Completion is not required; intellectual readiness for concentrated exchange is.

 

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Stage III. | June 2027
On-site residency at the seventh Bled Contemporary Music Week in Bled, Slovenia

The final stage brings participants’ work into the artistic, institutional, and public environment of the festival. Research presentations and lectures are complemented by working groups and symposia dedicated to collective inquiry, critical debate, and interdisciplinary exchange.

The on-site phase is not the delivery of conclusions fixed in advance, but a continuation of research through public articulation. An argument may change when spoken, questioned, or placed beside a performance; a curatorial proposition may disclose consequences invisible at the level of intention; and a historical claim may acquire new significance through artistic practice and testimony. Presentation, listening, and discussion remain methods of inquiry.

Working groups sustain shared inquiry across projects. Symposia situate individual contributions within broader debates on musical value, historical narration, institutional responsibility, technological change, and public culture. Participants contribute as presenters, respondents, interlocutors, and members of a temporary research community.

Stage III includes:

– On-site residency at the seventh Bled Contemporary Music Week

– Research presentations, papers, and public lectures

– Working groups organized around shared questions

– Symposia supporting critical debate and interdisciplinary exchange

– Discussion among researchers, writers, philosophers, artistic directors, practitioners, and audiences

– Engagement with festival performances, programs, and institutional contexts

– Editorial, methodological, and conceptual reflection

– Further development of participating projects through public response

– Opportunity for selected contributions to be considered for publication in Tempo: The Quarterly Review of New Music, published by Wolke Verlag

 

Selection for consideration does not constitute an offer or guarantee of publication. Any contribution advanced toward publication remains subject to the journal’s independent editorial criteria, revision requirements, and review procedures.