Dr Sam Salem | Practitioner in Residence of the Warburg Institute

Dr Sam Salem appointed as a Practitioner in Residence of the Warburg Institute from 1 May to 31 July 2023 – the first composer to take up this role at the World-leading research centre.

31 May 2023

The Warburg Institute is part of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, and is considered one of the world’s greatest resources for the study of the propagation of symbols and images in European art and architecture, and home of Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne – a prototypical “digital” artwork famed for its “associative, atemporal logic… that is highly intuitive and metaphorical”.

This residency will see Dr Salem immersed within the institute’s open-stack Library, Photographic Collection and Archive, whilst researching new relationships between musical practice, symbols and mythology, as well as algorithm-driven technological advancements.

The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Dr Sam Salem, RNCM PRiSM Senior Lecturer in Composition

Dr Salem tells us:

“As a composer of colour with an interest in psychogeography and esoteric philosophy, my artistic research is concerned not only with sound, instrumental virtuosity and technology, but also, crucially, with history, mythology and cultural identity. This perspective is deeply embedded within my work, which draws upon the broad field of Computer Assisted Composition, a field – like much of human activity – which is being revolutionised by Machine Learning / AI.

As a composer who works with technology including ML – who relies on algorithms as creative partners – I would like to conduct research into myths and symbols pertaining to non-human creative partners, with a view to conceptualising new positions they might hold in the future.”