Researching Frisian engraved silver spoons
In a research with Han Nijdam at the Fryske Akademy, we focus on the question how the decorated silver spoon developed as a gift tradition through time, and how it became such a custom for Frisians to record memorable events — like births, marriages, funerals, matches, or winter sleigh rides — in silver, while it slowly faded out of use elsewhere. These spoons can be passed on in Frisian families for several generations, and are therefore intimate pieces of cultural heritage. For us, it’s not so much about the silver, but about the meaning of the spoons.
Link: www.fryske-akademy.nl/leppel
Recording folk singers and musicians from the Dinaric Alps
Recording vernacular songs and melodies in villages in the Western Balkans, and mapping variants of a distinct and disappearing polyphonic music aesthetics that is specific to the Dinaric Alps.
Richard de Boer 