P·u·s·h·i·n·g  S·c·o·r·e·s is a two-year artistic research project, initiated by DE PLAYER and graphic designer Remco van Bladel.
Throughout 2016 and 2018 this project will research the phenomenon of notation and the graphic representation of music. It unfolds through a nomadic program which includes the creation of newly commissioned artworks and public events that addres scontemporary questions and issues in this particular field.
G·r·a·p·h·i·c s·c·o·r·e·s and n·o·t·a·t·i·o·n have a long history, dating back to the tenth century, when the Gregorian chants of the s·c·o·l·a c·a·n·t·o·r·u·m were already being conducted through the writing of signs in the air. Later on this developed into the type of musical notation we are familiar with in Western music. In the early- and mid-twentieth century, the abstract developments in the visual arts played a vital role in new approaches to the question of music notation and contemporary avant-garde music. This continues to question the representation of sound in media; so what is the current state of the graphic score?
Throughout the project, Jacques Attali’s book N·o·i·s·e: T·h·e P·o·l·i·t·i·c·a·l E·c·o·n·o·m·y o·f M·u·s·i·c will function as a reference and inspirational guide; “pushing the score” in search of its current potential. It will seek concepts and configurations that produce new, previously unknown, relationships in the field of sound, visual arts, and performance. The discursive program for 2016–2017 will include lectures, presentations of newly commissioned artworks, concert evenings, and workshops. 

Pushing the Score is a project researching graphic notation, based on
a desire to update this form of music and sound notation for the 21^st
century. Starting from the motto ‘from Cage to JODI and beyond’ and
from the avant-garde music and sound art of the 20^th century, the
project researches new audio-visual languages, media and functions of
graphic notation in a contemporary context characterised by a
fundamental transformation of sound culture and visual culture. A
number of specific themes will be initiated, developed and presented
in the context of a public research programme in collaboration with
artists, designers and various cultural organisations such as the Piet
Zwart Institute, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, and
Sonic Acts./

/What are the possibilities of graphic scores, in a day and age in
which graphic notation is still usually seen as a ‘drawing’ serving as
some kind of sheet music? In an attempt to redefine this concept, we
will be compiling a programme in which artists, musicians,
theoreticians and practitioners are invited to participate. The
collective goal is to develop and present new audio-visual and
media-technical forms of graphic notation through artistic research
and development. Based on our compilation of the most contemporary and
innovative graphic notation practices in the fields of music, sound
art, performance art, e-culture, new-media art, graphic design and
media design, we will introduce artists and designers from various
creative disciplines to a national and international audience, with
the goal of collectively developing new forms of graphic notation./

/The incentive for this project is the belief that graphic notation in
20^th -century avant-garde music and sound art constitutes an
important, still radically innovative but wrongfully marginalised
form, which can play a key role in the development of new audio-visual
languages and media. Our ambition, and that of our collaborating
partners, is to emancipate graphic notation from the confines of the
modernist tradition, in such a way that it may remain an innovative
and provocative medium for decades to come./