Juan Posada Abal, ’26
Major: Ethnomusicology and data science
Project title: 鈥淥耻产濒颈别迟迟别鈥�
The idea for Juan Posada Abal鈥檚 research project came from a trip to the basement of the School of Music.聽
There, he saw the more than 400 instruments that the Ethnomusicology Instrument Collection had amassed over the years. When the University hosts a guest artist, they often purchase instruments for those visitors to use when they perform. Once they leave, the University stores the instruments for later use, but sometimes, it can take years before they are needed again.
Many of these instruments then sit untouched and falling out of tune.
Posada Abal wanted to hear what these instruments sounded like. He started recording instruments like the Zimbabwean mbira, the Mexican requinto, the guzheng. He asked his friends and musicians in the community to play them, and he incorporated the sounds of the basement, like door hinges or ambient noise, to create a composition. Slowly, his project came to life and he gave it the title: 鈥淥ubliette,鈥� which is an old French dungeon. The word comes from the verb that means 鈥渢o forget.鈥澛犅�
鈥淔orces, nature, spaces have agency,鈥� he said. 鈥淢any often think it鈥檚 neglect that changed these instruments, not nature. This piece is my comment on that.鈥澛�
Through this process, he learned how to better communicate with an instrument and how to use a room and the surrounding space as part of the recording. It鈥檚 work that he hopes more students replicate in the future.
鈥淭hinking about the methodology of the work, even if it鈥檚 happening within the performing arts and not the classical sciences, is really important,鈥� Posada Abal said. 鈥淚t鈥檒l be cool to see if people do a similar project in the future.鈥澛�
The Symposium helped turn what was once an abstract idea into an actual research project with a clear focus, Posada Abal said.
鈥淭his was a really good process of feeling sometimes existentially challenged, like I was never going to get this all done, to actually putting it all together in a presentation,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 have to be this massive write-up or crazy documentary. It could just be as simple as, 鈥楲et me invite my friend over, record something and have a good time.鈥欌��
About the Symposium
This undergraduate research project was presented in the 29th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium on May 15, 2026. The Symposium is one of several opportunities 91爆料 undergraduates have to engage in the transformative experiences research provides. It鈥檚 produced by the Office of Undergraduate Research and is one of the many ways the Office connects undergraduates to the 91爆料鈥檚 research ecosystem.
Read the overview of the 2026 Symposium here.