This output comprises 4 collaborative music-related concerts, film and installation works, responding to the refugee crisis resulting from the Syrian Civil War: 1) Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (orchestral concert); 2) Lento (three-channel HDV: 30min); 3) Fugue (composition and score for solo violin); 4) Triptych (moving-image, site-specific installation). The first three were commissioned by international art quinquennial, documenta 14 (2017), and the fourth by the Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF), 2018. Following documenta, the research was disseminated in solo and group exhibitions at: Remise of Palais Bellevue, Kassel, 2017; Edinburgh Art Festival, 2018; Charged!, MoCA Virginia Beach, Sept 2019 -Feb 2020.

The research asks: How might a collaborative process of polyphonic orchestration with professional musicians who are refugees offer insights into political questions of conflict and coexistence? Birrell’s methodology draws on the theory and philosophy of music in relation to politics and society (Nietzsche, Deleuze & Guattari) and collaboration and co-existence (Bakhtin, Bishop, Haraway). Methods include: literature surveys on the philosophy of music, politics and society (Nietzsche, Deleuze & Guattari); processes of polyphonic orchestration and delegated performance; and performance/exhibition as a test bed for installation and audience response.

Music as Model builds on Birrell’s previous music-related projects, responding to situations of political conflict. It contributes to the field of ‘art as cultural diplomacy’, examples of which include Banu Cennetoğlu’s The List (2018), recording the deaths of more than 34,000 migrants on the borders of Europe since 1993; and Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow (2017) on the ‘kinopolitics’ of mass migration. As part of ‘the acoustic turn in international relations’ (Bergh & Sloboda, 2010), Birrell’s research deploys musical forms that present a model of listening to the other to posit the necessary relations of subject and counter-subject in addressing contemporary humanitarian crises.