Papers and research
Journal articles
- Rivoal, D., Portelli, D., Goeschke, F., Kostourou, F., & Hasegawa, T. (2023). “Ecologies of Embodiment: Video Essays II.” Journal of Embodied Research, 5(2), 3. https://doi.org/10.16995/jer.9823 [PDF]
- Portelli, D. (2020). “Music Gesture and the Correspondence of Lines: Collaborative Video Mediation and Methodology.” Leonardo Music Journal, 30. MIT Press. [PDF]
- Portelli, D. (2015). “Mapping Australia.” In D. Pocknee, B. Flanagan, & B. Sherouse (Eds.), CeReNeM Journal, 5.
Public writing
- Portelli, D. (2023). “Cutting Edge: What the River Doesn’t Say About Itself.” Limelight Magazine, September. [PDF]
- Portelli, D. (2022). “Mutual Entanglements in Collaboration: A Journey in Cosmic Time.” Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre.
- Portelli, D. (2022). “Prestigious Works of Animated Instability: A Reflective Review of Cat Hope’s New Album Decibel.” Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre.
- Portelli, D. (2021). “Music in Impossible Spaces.” ADSR Zine, 13. [Project] [PDF]
- Portelli, D. (2021). “Review: Decibel New Music: 2 Minutes from Home, An Internet Opera in 20 Parts.” Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre.
- Portelli, D. (2020). “Video Practices in Art Music, Scoring for Dreams and Empathy in Oceanography.” Resonate Magazine, Australian Music Centre.
Theses
- Portelli, D. (2016). Mapping the Dynamic Life of Lines in a Multimodal Compositional Practice. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. [PDF]
- Portelli, D. (2012). Breath Through Water: Personal Cross-Cultural and Multimedia Processes Flowing Towards Dao in Composition. M.A. (Hons.) dissertation, University of Western Sydney. [PDF]
Talks and presentations
- Portelli, D. (2024). “Towards the Multimodal Sensorium: Experience, Wellbeing and Creativity.” Symposium, University of New England.
- Portelli, D. (2021). “Memory, Raw Materiality and Transformation: Fracturing Through Hybridity of Experience as Authenticity.” Bold Transition Seminar, Music & Music Therapy Discipline, Western Sydney University.
- Portelli, D. (2020). “Culture in a Time of Crisis: Critical Cartography, Counter-Mapping and Aesthetics.” Creative Resilience Seminar, Western Sydney University.
- Portelli, D. (2018). “Mapping the Dynamic Life of Lines in a Multimodal Compositional Practice.” Composer Lecture Series, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
- Portelli, D. (2013). “Between Film, Music and Natural Phenomena: My Expansive Journey Towards Cultural Complexity in Dao-Inspired Composition.” Interventions & Intersections Postgraduate Conference.
- Portelli, D. (2012). “Daoistic Flow of Video and Sound Collaboration as Cross-Cultural Dialogue.” 19th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association, Knowing Asia: Asian Studies in an Asian Century.
Further documentation of my practice-led research and compositional output is available through News, Compositions and my Linktree.
‘The Dialogue: Arts and Women’ — Magazine Editor / Translator
I proofread the English-language edition of The Dialogue: Arts and Women, published by jwcm. The magazine addresses gender discrimination and the rewriting of music history through interviews with composers including Shoko Shida In and Mieko Shiomi.
In one contribution, Mieko Shiomi discusses the short documentary Shadow Piece (2020), in which a feminist Japanese filmmaker meets Shiomi and encounters tensions between her place in the 1960s Fluxus movement and her views on feminism. The documentary’s title refers to Shiomi’s 1963 work of the same name. Contributors to the magazine also include Chikako Morishita, Yukiko Watanabe, Ai Watanabe, Akiko Yamane and Reina Ashib.
Building Communities
I organise regular online meetups for alumni and friends of the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM). The network connects composers across more than seven countries and provides a forum for sharing music, methods and ideas.
Sessions have addressed the musical traditions of Latin America, games in and as music, soundscapes from a Tim Ingoldian perspective, sound as a physical medium, music and landscape gardening, humming, extended cello practice, the history of the Mandarin character for listening, music-making in dreams, whale ear bones and non-literary forms of intellectual practice.
Composer Series
I founded and curate a Composer Series in partnership with Inner West Council, presented at Marrickville Library and other libraries across the Inner West. Every three months, a composer gives a public talk about their music and ideas, combining audio and video examples with live performance. Speakers are also invited to discuss a favourite book about music and demonstrate distinctive musical instruments.
Conference history
- Towards the Multimodal Sensorium: Experience, Wellbeing and Creativity, University of New England, 2024.
- Research Creation Showcase, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University, 2023.
- Bold Transition Seminar, 2021.
- WSU Seminar Series: Cultural Resilience in a Time of Crisis, 2020.
- Guest Lecture Series, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 2018.
- Finding Democracy in Music, University of Huddersfield, 2017.
- Touching Sound Symposium, City University, 2017.
- Sound::Gender::Feminism::Activism, CRiSAP, London College of Communication, 2016.
- Colloquium, University of Huddersfield, 2016.
- Music and/as Process Conference, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2015.
- Noise In And As Music Symposium, University of Huddersfield, 2013.
- 19th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association, Western Sydney University, 2012.
- Interventions & Intersections Conference, Western Sydney University, 2011.
- Aspen Composers Conference, Colorado, USA, 2010.
- Australasian Computer Music Conference, Queensland University of Technology, 2009.
- Ring Di Alarm Workshop, CRiSAP, London College of Communication.