Research

Publications

McPherson, D. H. J. (2024). Environmental Reciprocity in Improvising Practice. Cultures of Sound. Huddersfield University Press.

McPherson, D. H. J. (2023). Listening like an Improviser: Composing in the Studio with Collaged Acoustic Free Improvisations. CeReNeM Journal, No.8.

McPherson, D. H. J. (2023). More Than One Thing: A Practice-Led Investigation into Transdisciplinary Free Improvisation in Sound and Movement [PhD thesis]. University of Huddersfield.

McPherson, D. H. J. (2020). Considering the Fixed Naming of Entities: Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach to Free Improvisation. CeReNeM Journal, No.7 (Performing Stuff: Human-Entity Interactions in Contemporary Artistic Practice), 16–40.

Creative Research Outputs

McPherson, H. (2024). This, Here, Now: Invitations to Improvise. [artist book, creative output]. First creative iteration 2022. First published (UK) 2024

McPherson, D.H.J. (2022). String Quartet in Memoriam Béla Bartók. [album, creative output]

McPherson, D.H.J. (2022). Noise at the death of one beloved. Collaged studio improvisations [album, creative output].

McPherson, D.H.J. (2021). More Than One Thing [Digital Installation + Durational Film]. Huddersfield contemporary music festival, Huddersfield. [installation, film, creative output]

Conference Presentations

(forthcoming) McPherson, D.H.J. (2024). A Queer Way to Sound: Corporeality, Instruments, and Social Identity in Transdisciplinary Free Improvisation. AJIRN Conference 2024. Monash University (AU).

(forthcoming) McPherson, D.H.J. (2024). “Remember, you have a body”: developing presence with instrumental musicians through kinaesthetic methods in higher education improvisation pedagogy. Scenario Conference 2024: Presence in Performative Teaching, Learning and Research. Trinity College Dublin (IE).

(forthcoming) McPherson, D.H.J. et al. (2024). "Shaping the Moment Together: Training Residential Care Home Staff in Improvisation-Based Therapeutic Music-Making for Older Adults Living with Dementia." International Conference on Improvisation in Music Therapy. Leuven (BE)

McPherson, D.H.J. (2024). Sounding Care: improvisation and empathy [Workshop]. Care Aesthetics Project. Care Lab, Whitworth Gallery, University of Manchester. (UK)

McPherson, D.H.J. (2024). Where in the world is the improviser? Transdisciplinarity, ecology, and new ways of dreaming in contemporary free improvisation practice. Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation Symposium. Exploratorium Berlin (DE).

McPherson, D.H.J. (2023). Towards Ecological Improvisation: Listening with the Body. Beyond Listening Symposium, Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies (CENSE). Budapest (HU).

McPherson, D.H.J., Dowlen, R., Keady, J., Bithell, C., Gagatsis, A., Young, A., Hoskin, L., Thomas, M. (2023). Embedding music in care home contexts through staff carer training. Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum Conference, Liverpool. (UK). [poster presentation]

McPherson, D. H. J. (2021). Meanings in the Moment: Nonsense and Narrative Interactions in Transdisciplinary Free Improvisation. The Improviser’s Experience: Knowledge, Methodology, Communication, University of Huddersfield, in association with the Royal Musicological Association. (UK)

McPherson, D. H. J. (2021). Sounding-Moving Emergence in Transdisciplinary Free Improvisation. Emergence/y. A Sound Difference. Orpheus Doctoral Conference 2021. https://youtu.be/Ft_LakEKDqY

McPherson, D. H. J. (2021). “Spinning out world after world”: Considering transdisciplinary free improvisation as a practice of performative worlding. ReCePP/CMCI Research Colloquium, University of Huddersfield. (UK)

McPherson, D. H. J., & Sappho Donohue, M. (2021). Inventing the Language of Mush: How to Improvise a World. Cross-Genre and Locality. Rethinking Borders Symposium, Osaka University, University of Huddersfield [Online]. https://youtu.be/9crzJBhIgJU (UK/JP)

McPherson, D. H. J. (2020). Ways Without Words: Thoughts on Presenting About Improvisation. Vision 2020 - Postgraduate Conference, University of Huddersfield. (UK) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_YMSYvzTI&t

McPherson, D. H. J. (2020). Fighting Fisher’s Matrix: Hierarchies of Awareness and Improvising Freedom. Capitalist Realism: 10 Years On, Symposium (RMA). University of Huddersfield. (UK)

McPherson, D. H. J. (2019). Transforming, Translating, Transmitting : Stimulus to Response in Interdisciplinary Improvisation. Lines of Flight Seminar Series. Research Centre for Performance Practice, University of Huddersfield. (UK)