“Let the day Begin” / Methods III

An improv. by Vala Yates

This video started out as a tiny “first assignment” for Methods III (Video), so I randomly chose a recent improv I’d made in my living room. I quickly started getting ideas about how I’d like to edit it with colourful images I randomly found on the internet. Soon it was evident that this was going to be my final assignment for the course. I never really chose it, it just kind of happened. Lee reflected back to me what he saw in the video and to my surprise they were manifestations of my ideas about my PIP project. Which was not planned. But I quickly realized that this video was like an introduction to my PIP project, and an important opportunity for me to put my ideas into practice. I ended up deciding that this video would be a part of my PIP performance, and serve as the intro of the piece.

Manifesto / Creative Writing II

How to finish a masters degree without burning out:

• Finish the assignment.
• Take frequent breaks. Preferably always between tasks. Minimum 5 minutes.
• Watch your focus. Don’t focus too much.
• When you find it difficult to stop focusing on a particular thing, stop immediately.
• Breathe.
• Breathe.
• Breathe.
• Apply for a in yoga teacher course.
• Relax your nervous system with: yoga, breathwork, breaks/pauses, meditation, nature, sleep, boundaries with electronics/screens, drinking water.
• Drink water.
• Work every day. Not too much.
• Don’t be perfect. Just do something.
• Trust that you are brilliant and that you CAN do it, even when your mind tells you, you need to do more.
• Walk barefoot every morning in the grass. No matter the weather.
• When neighbours do construction/are loud, use earplugs.
• Organize your time and be persistent (do some work every day, use your time well, take well deserved, long pauses in between – allow yourself to enjoy your breaks to the fullest.
• Take care of your body and posture with yoga/trager/awareness of how you use your body.
• Don’t end a relationship in the middle of summer.
• Don’t carry your 9 year old daughter down steep stairs.
• Don’t get an injury in the end of summer.
• Do get accupuncture to recover.
• Rest for 2 months, get really anxious and confused about barely being able to do any work for those months.
• Do start working and find ways to recover and get your nervous system back to a primarily relaxed state.
• Make time for your wellness – so you don’t have to make time for an illness.

The final assignment for Creative Writing II was to write a manifesto. It was optional for it to be connected to our PIP. During this process I realized that I had a subgoal to my project. Not only doing the assignments, and putting my creative ideas into practice – but also taking care of my mental health while finishing my degree. To “not do it perfectly”, but to “just finish”, and rather than doing an excellent job and ending up exhausted and burned out, to just get it done, and keep my mental health and energy levels at a healthy degree.

Yin-Yoga Teacher Certificate

In November 2024 I was certified as a Yin-Yoga teacher from Salvör Davíðsdóttir’s Yin Yoga teacher training. I trained in Trager technique over a decade ago, a type of healing and body work, and have been wanting to combine my knowledge of the mind-body connection with my music and teaching for a while. Getting this certificate was an important step in order to have more credibility when I combine these elements in my workshops. Yin-yoga revolves around relaxing the nervous system, so my training served as an important part of the research for my PIP.

Affirmation songs

Inspired by the concept of the Mantra, where repetition can give rise to a meditative state, and positive statements can create uplifting emotions, I wrote some songs which I call “affirmation songs”. The lyrics are made from positive affirmations I either found or wrote. This one is called I Am Here.

Singing Circles / Affirmation songs

I held some events in the form of singing circles, sharing my “Affirmation songs”. They are based on events I have attended myself, where everyone gathers in a circle, and the leader teaches the songs to the participants. The goal is for the participants to experience emotional uplift, and leave the event feeling more uplifted, energized, hopeful and happy. These photos were taken by Sif Yraola at my first public singing circle, 29 November 2024. These events also served as an important part of the research for my PIP.

Protective Bubble Meditation / Creative Writing II

The assignment was to create a guided meditation. It was excellent practice in “not overthinking”, “not being perfect” and just “finishing the assignment”. It would have been enough to just read the meditation out loud in class. I’d intended to use some of the nature sounds in my PIP musical piece, and took this as a great opportunity to practice. I have been using this meditation for years, visualizing everything in my own mind, without using any guidance. I learned the basics from somewhere, but added most of the details myself. It took me a short time to put the sounds together in Ableton and I used my phone to record the guidance. The original version was shorter to fit the guidelines for the assignment. This is a slightly longer version I edited after the course ended. The original, which was 3 minutes, felt too rushed and not relaxing enough. I stretched it out so it would feel more relaxing to listen to.

Recordings: 

Water Flow (co-creative assignment with Daniela Amado in our 1st year of the NAIP programme.)

Skerpla: John Cage; Niður, an Icelandic Circus on Ljósagangur

My own nature recordings from B.A. studies & Master’s studies at IUA.

Shruti box Improv Practices

I was given the shruti box as a Christmas present from my family in 2023. It’s an Indian instrument, and I connect it to healing-music, and the tradition of the mantra. I wanted to experiment with my voice, improvising with the beautiful drone music, and as part of my research, I regularly sat down and improvised with it. I also thought it was important to try out different keys, and I even tried improvising over a very dissonant key. I recorded some of these practices as part of gathering data for my research.

The shruti-box serves a vital role in the intro of the sound journey.

I also ended up making a midi-instrument out of the shruti-box, recording each note and sampling it, so it could be played on a midi keyboard. I used this instrument to create the sound journey.

Sigrún Sævarsdóttir and Korda

Sigrún has been one of my mentors since spring 2024, after I did a workshop with her at Ísakskóli school, writing music with 9-year-olds over a period of a week. Learning about her work with The Messengers in London, and what she stands for, I just knew I had to learn more from her. I also joined one of her workshops for people in rehabilitation in Selfoss in spring 2024, along with her nephew, Sævar.

Sigrún’s project Korda Samfónía is Iceland’s most unconventional musical ensemble, bringing together 35 individuals aged 20-70+ from all walks of life and with varied backgrounds, with the objective of working together to create new music. 

The members of Korda Samfónía span all sectors of society: highly-qualified and experienced musicians, students of the Iceland University of the Arts, self-taught musicians, and people who have never been involved in music before, as well as individuals who have been through difficult experiences in life and are at different stages of rehabilitation under the aegis of rehabilitation centres around Iceland. Within the ensemble, every voice has equal value – and the outcome is spectacular!

I audited Korda’s rehearsals in May 2024. That experience changed my life, and I was determined to join the ensemble the following semester. I have been an active member in ’24-’25. I have already learned so much from Sigrún, about collaborative work, being an effective leader, giving clear instructions and writing interesting music with groups of people from different backgrounds.

In January 2015 I also attended her workshop “Skapandi tónlistarstjórnun”, where I acquired a deeper look into her methods when holding workshops with different groups of people and kids.

Echoes by Masaya Ozaki

“Echoes for Grótta Lighthouse and Five Performers” is a site-specific musical composition by Masaya Ozaki, based on the sound resonance spectrum of the Grótta lighthouse. By musically investigating the architecture of the lighthouse, Masaya created a score in three movements. As the musicians on the five floors of the lighthouse choose notes from the score they are given, a dialogue between the musicians and the lighthouse occurs. By bringing together “pure and artificial material” – pure being the resonance sound and artificial being the lighthouse – he creates a contrast that results in echoes, followed by silence.

Working with Masaya and the other performers in this piece was a unique experience for me. Within the echoes and the silences, the people walking around trying to be quiet, and trying not to sing too much – but most of the notes being quite long, it felt meditative, calming and healing to me. Which are all keywords I can connect to my own project. In addition it was a great example of how to make a musical piece based in part on improvisation, and that “more is not always more”. To allow the silences and the simplicity to speak for itself and take its own space.

What Now? by Michael Hendrix -Design March Opening Performance 2023

“What Now?” is a composition about listening and dialogue, composed by R. Michael Hendrix (R.M. Hendrix) and performed in Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, May 3, 2023 as part of the DesignMarch (HönnunarMars) programme.

I learned a lot from this project, particularly because it is based on improvisation, and Michael wrote the piece in the form of a graphic score, which was a very helpful example for me to learn from. Performing it, I felt it was based on co-creation, improvisation, trust, and flow – which are all keywords that I can connect to my own project.

The 2023 theme for DesignMarch DesignTalks was “What Now?”, recognizing that society is emerging from years of disruption due to a pandemic, stepping into increased global polarization, and facing the growing consequences of climate change. War has taken the global stage. Mental unhealthiness is on the rise. Individuals carry internal struggles within these contexts.

Hendrix used this theme as the inspiration for the piece, creating a series of instructions that begin with call and response and then turn to improv. He remarked prior to the performance: “In the framework of the score, it is up to the musicians to decide how to respond to one another, to ask, ‘What now?’ I suspect there will be anxiety and peace, discord and harmony, frantic energy and calm. However it starts, it will move from inspiration to dialogue to harmony. And then it will slowly unravel.”

Since the composition is designed rather than traditionally composed, its score has been written as illustrated instructions, inspired by works of Steve Reich and John Cage. 

Niður – íslenskur sirkús um Ljósagang eftir John Cage

​​Niður an Icelandic Circus on Ljósagangur, is the Icelandic premiere of a 1979 work by John Cage, which transforms a book into a concert and an installation.  In this Icelandic version, the book Ljósagangur (2022) by Dagur Hjartarson was selected. The work was performed at the Nordic House in Reykjavík, 11 June 2024, near the places where the book is set, by musical ensemble Skerpla, directed by Berglind María Tómasdóttir. This recording was originally published by RÚV.

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