The New Lexicon I.
Philosophy of Music Culture [research group]
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WHY THE NEW LEXICON?
The title The New Lexicon names the need to reconsider the conceptual languages through which musical cultures are described, interpreted, organized, and evaluated. Terms such as music, culture, tradition, community, identity, authenticity, heritage, genre, scene, canon, participation, popular, contemporary, local, global, and musical value remain central to artistic, scholarly, institutional, and public discourse. Yet their meanings cannot be assumed to be stable, self-evident, or equally adequate in every context.
These terms carry histories formed within disciplines, political systems, technologies, markets, and relations of authority. They enable recognition and obscure alternatives. They may protect a practice from erasure while fixing it within an identity it cannot exceed, provide a language of continuity while casting disagreement as inauthenticity, or clarify activity while converting fluid relations into administrative categories.
A new lexicon does not mean replacing inherited vocabularies with one definitive system. Nor does it seek novelty for its own sake. Its task is to examine what existing words allow us to perceive, what assumptions they carry, where they produce confusion or harm, and where new distinctions become necessary. It asks when a category should be retained, historically specified, translated, pluralized, reworked, or refused.
Lexical work is inseparable from artistic and musicological work. To distinguish culture from community, access from participation, preservation from possession, influence from appropriation, visibility from agency, or circulation from exchange is not merely to refine discourse after the fact. Such distinctions alter the questions that can be asked and the responsibilities that can be recognized. Conversely, research and artistic practice may disclose experiences for which no adequate term yet exists.
The programme therefore treats vocabulary as a site of collective research. Participants will identify key terms within their projects, trace the assumptions and histories attached to them, compare their uses across different settings, and formulate alternatives where needed. The aim is greater conceptual precision without sacrificing the plurality and situatedness of music-cultural practices. A productive lexicon should make disagreement more intelligible and responsible, not eliminate it.
DATES
MENTORS
PROGRAMME FORMAT
RESEARCH PREMISE
WHY THE NEW LEXICON?
CENTRAL QUESTIONS
WORKING METHOD
PARTICIPANT VALUE
WHO THE PROGRAMME ADDRESSES
TOWARDS MULTIPLE PHILOSOPHIES OF MUSIC CULTURE
APPLICATION
APPLICATION FORM AND
PARTICIPATION FEES
The New Lexicon program is produced by .abeceda Institute
.abeceda [Institute for Research in Art, Critical Thought and Philosophy], a public-benefit NGO and non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing contemporary artistic practices and critical inquiry. Through its innovative programmes, .abeceda has gained international recognition as one of the leading platforms for contemporary music and artistic research in the Adriatic region and across Europe: www.abeceda.io