ObEMMA: Mapping Underground Music Scenes [abstract]

Abstract

This abstract presents the Observatory of Electronic Music and Media Arts (Ob.EMMA). Established in 2019, is a pioneering initiative dedicated to monitoring, mapping and promoting research in electronic music scenes and media arts in Portugal. Ob.EMMA operates under the ID research center CITCEM (Center for Transdisciplinary Research on Culture, Space, and Memory). Its research focuses on two primary areas: Electronic Music and Media Arts, which are explored both independently and in conjunction with each other. The observatory's key objectives are monitoring and mapping, diagnosis and research, preservation and dissemination, educational outreach and public engagement, and collaboration and networking, contributing to knowledge and promoting academic/artistic reflections on both themes and possible intersections. Currently, there is an archive and consultation platform being developed as part of a pilot project, focused on Media Arts, to be made available on the web. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the observatory brings together artists and academics from a wide range of fields, including communication sciences, social sciences, technology, humanities, and the arts. Ob.EMMA encourages the incorporation of alternative research methods such as autoethnography, considering that the proximity of the researcher to the object adds value to the research process and its outputs, and pratice-based-research where the practice and its results are fundamental for the entire process.