Category: Works

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Memory Dream Encounter 2 Micro-Commissions

The Memory Dream Encounter micro-commissions emerged during the development phase of Night Vision in 2021 as part of my research. I invited five composers/sound artists to respond in sound to a visual prompt – each received a variation on a sketch I made during that phase.

As part of this production phase of Night Vision 2022-23, I was delighted to organise another series – with Clara de Asis, Liew Niyomcarn, Ryoko Akama and Go Sing. The visual prompt this time was a photo from film explorations during a residency for Night Vision early in the year. In November 2023, we met to listen to our works and chat.

Many thanks indeed to everyone involved – it was so wonderful to connect and listen together. The pieces are standalone but also a collection that may be aired in the future.

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Radio Art Zone – a new publication

Radio Art Zone – curated and edited by Sarah Washington

“Radio Art Zone explores the central themes and techniques of artist-made radio, emerging from over 20 years of practice in the field by a multitude of artists. It is a reflection of the world’s largest exhibition of radio art, also title Radio Art Zone, a project by the artist duo Modile Radio (Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann) in collaboration with Luxembourg community station Radio ARA, which broadcast for 100 days as part of the program of the European Capital Culture Esch 2022.”

Book Cover, Radio Art Zone, published by Hatje Cantz

I’m thrilled to have two drawings and a micro-essay included in this new book Radio Art Zone, curated & edited by Sarah Washington. The experimental publication contains a stunning array of visual & textual contributions from artists worldwide.

The book is available in bookshops, online, and direct from the publisher at:

https://www.hatjecantz.com/products/65229-radio-art-zone

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New release with Ali Roberston / Chocolate Monk

Delighted that recordings made via the internet during lockdown 2021 by Ali Robertson and me have been released by the consistently wonderful Chocolate Monk.

The always excellent Chocolate Monk has turned this collaborative effort into a limited edition of 60 limited edition CD-Rs with gorgeous artwork by Karen Constance. You can get them at: https://chocolatemonk.co.uk/available.html

The Longest Forty Miles

“The last train is at 11:30pm and I wouldnae recommend the night bus. It’ll be full of Lothians troglodytes, Cumbernauld carbuncles and folks what like their improv idiomatic. Best hop in our taxi. It willnae be cheap and, with two drivers pulling in opposite directions on the same wheel, you’ll be unsure which way is up let alone which is East or West. Ensure you’re wearing your seat belt on this tour of the Scottish Central Belt as your escorts are predisposed to unleashing belters for strings, gobs & kerfuffle and you’ll get pure pelters if you dinnae subscribe to their version of the Highway Code.”

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Interzone Release on Nonclassical

New album Interzone was released on Nonclassical label on 15th June 2023, and is currently available in CD and digital formats.

https://nicholascrutton.bandcamp.com/album/interzone

The Interzone series of tracks on the album were composed with voice, field recordings and archive materials by Nichola Scrutton in her studio, then mixed and mastered by Jim McEwan of Bark Bark Dog Studios. The second second series of voice tracks were recorded live in Solas Sound Studios by Jim McEwan, and then mixed and mastered by Jim at Bark Bark Dog Studios.

Cover art: Nichola Scrutton

Interzone has been supported by the PRS Foundation Open Fund for Music Creators, Creative Scotland and Nonclassical.

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Night Vision Released on Bandcamp

The Night Vision album is now available to buy on Bandcamp in both limited edition CD and digital formats.

https://nicholascrutton.bandcamp.com/album/night-vision

Night Vision is a project I’m working on through 2023, and it has several iterations. At the core of Night Vision is a large body of text written in the middle of the night lying down in a semi-conscious state over a two-year period – a very different approach for me as a composer and artist. 

On the album, excerpts are performed by five vocalists in chronological order, set in a soundscape I composed with ensemble voices and my own voice/studio recordings.

Vocal performers on the release are:
Alison Peebles, Louise Montgomery, Nalini Chetty, Ian Spink and Mairi Morrison.

The live voices were recorded by Jim McEwan at Solas Sound Studios. All tracks were mixed and mastered by Jim McEwan at Bark Bark Dog Studios.

Many thanks to Sarah Praill for the cover design, which includes a few drawings/marks from the original journals.

Night Vision is supported by Creative Scotland.

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Dream Stream

Dream Stream – a Radio Art Zone Commission

Dream Stream was commissioned by Radio Art Zone as part of their 100-day programme inviting 100 artists to create 22-hour long radio works for European Capital of Culture at Esch 2022, Luxembourg. https://radioart.zone

Programme Note

Dream Stream weaves together field recordings, voice, fragments of text, visualisations, stories, performance and archive materials in a sonic contemplation of inner / outer landscapes. The sound of water is a thread across the whole duration. From that constantly shifting ‘surface’, various other sound worlds emerge and recede in a transient dream-like encounter.

In case it’s of interest, I have a Mailing List for occasional news updates – Join Mailing List

Many thanks indeed to Sarah, Knut and all at Radio Art Zone.

Artwork © Nichola Scrutton

@RadioArtZone
@Mobile_Radio
@RadioARA
@NicholaScrutton

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Night Vision

2022-23 – Phase 2

I’m thrilled to say that I have been awarded Creative Scotland funding for the Night Vision project over 2022-23.

As part of a general website overhaul, I have temporarily removed background information, credits and plans for Night Vision so I can update all the details.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting news about select performances and a recording, to be released first on Bandcamp in early April and then across all music platforms on 28th April so please do connect / follow for updates. Many thanks.

Many thanks indeed to everyone who has supported Night Vision.

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Salt Cellar with Zoë Strachan

Salt Cellar – live-to-broadcast performance – Zoë Strachan and Nichola Scrutton

Salt Cellar – a collaborative radio art work

Zoë Strachan and I first performed Salt Cellar as a live-to-air broadcast on Radiophrenia, 11th February 2022, in the Creative Lab at the CCA Glasgow.

Programme Note

What is a prompt? It’s an inciting, a bringing forth, an augury, an urge, a bringing to light. In this live to broadcast performance, Nichola Scrutton and Zoë Strachan employ a cootie catcher (also known as a salt cellar) to provoke a series of discreet but interlinked improvisations based on texts, photographs and physical objects. Thus they seek to enact an archaeology of embodied memory within the palimpsest of a time-limited performance space.  

Zoë and I collaborate to make sound art/experimental radio combining newly written and found text, composed sound, field recordings, found sound, voice and improvisation.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Memory Dream Encounter 1 Micro-Commissions

In another strand of research that emerged during Night Vision phase 1 in 2021, I curated a series of micro-commissions.

I responded to the main text through a series of improvised drawings, and photographed fragments of the drawings in process. Those images served as a prompt, a connecting point, a spring board for dialogue.

I invited composers/sound artists Ruth Wiesenfeld, Elisabetta Senesi, Dafna Naphtali, Julia Drouhin and Claire Docherty to create miniature sound compositions in response to the visual prompts and title Memory | Dream | Encounter. The sound compositions stand alone as individual works and as a collection.

On 31st August 2021 the six composers met in a virtual gathering to listen together, and discuss the creative process. Subsequently I edited the works into a programme that was broadcast on Radiophrenia at 9pm on 13th February 2022.

Many thanks indeed to:

Claire Docherty – Pulse dream fragment For Una MacGlone (bass) & Emma Roche (flute) (3’23)
Dafna Naphtali- Striations (3′)
Elisabetta Senesi – Under the Surface (3’50)
Julia Drouhin – Mer4 (3’50)
Nichola Scrutton – Gestures (3’44)
Ruth Wiesenfeld – the wool from which the ribbons were made (3’54)

@NicholaScrutton
@radiophrenia

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Colliding Lines Tape and Digital Album Artwork

I am delighted to have produced some new drawings for the cover of tape / digital album River . Pathway . Static – at Colliding Lines. Release date is Monday 19th July 2021. More info and link for tape purchase at Colliding Lines (which includes a digital version). The digital version is also available at Colliding Lines Bandcamp

Colliding Lines are also broadcasting on Resonance Extra – info and listening links at #18 Nettles and Chalklines.

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Magnetic North Book – Restless Explorations

Lovely to receive this book Restless Explorations in the post – Magnetic North celebrating 21 years. Congratulations!

The book contains details of all their work & commissions by artists they have collaborated with.

I was delighted to be invited to make a contribution. I feel very fortunate to have support for work-in-progress Night Vision, which I initially developed through a Rough Mix Residency in 2019.

The commissioned image is called On Route and re-presents ideas from that development.

Limited Edition copies are available at the Magnetic North website

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Up Closeness with Zoë Strachan

Up Closeness – a collaborative radio artwork

Zoë Strachan and I continue our exploration of performing live experimental radio artwork. Up Closeness is a dialogue between two green urban spaces, a close look at the local. An attempt to find small connections amid the dislocation from everyday life. Field recordings and voice sounds are combined with found and composed text to animate distinct temporal spaces. Live improvisation and embedded writing practice enact a mimetic re-inhabiting of space.

We first performed Up Closeness as a live broadcast at Radiophrenia Glasgow on 20th November 2020 in CCA Glasgow.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Stolen Voices at CCA

stolen voices nichola scrutton 1
Photo © Alan Davidson

stolen voices nichola scrutton 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Necessary Notes: A Vocal Response  – solo performance as part of the Stolen Voices album launch on 8th February 2020.

Review

“Nichola Scrutton is, as ever, an absolute wonder- her voice can disarm, charm and bewitch….She takes the listener into otherwordly realms, an uncertain space between sleep and consciousness.” (The Tempohouse)

Read the full review by Lorna Irvine.

The album launch was part of a creative research project by Rebecca Collins and Johanna Linsley – more here. The event forms part of ‘The Sonic Study Series: Act I Sonic Practice’ and is a pop-up event for the Festival of Creative Learning 2020, University of Edinburgh. Many thanks to Rebecca and Johanna for the invitation. More info about the event at  CCA Stolen Voices.

 

 

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Rays & Correlations with Zoë Strachan

Rays & Correlations – a collaborative live-to-air broadcast

Zoë Strachan and I created Rays & Correlations  for a live broadcast from the Radiophrenia studio on 15th May 2019.

Rays & Correlations

Programme Note

Inspired by the patterns of cosmic ray interactions in a cloud chamber, we imagine the myriad signals and attempts at communication that might enter a sphere and intersect, cluster, miss or fade away. Rays & Correlations is a voice-focused improvised performance with layers of interactive soundscape.

The listener is invited to find a thread to hold onto amid interweaving sparse and dense streams of words and evocations – and to decide whether the sound space is literal, as inside a kind of radome, or metaphorical – representing any individual consciousness trying to make sense of human connection.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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When Night Comes

When Night Comes 4When Night Comes 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Night Comes was a solo performance created in dialogue with Wendy Kirkup’s film from a score (2017). In the film I perform Berio’s Sequenza III for solo voice. After Wendy’s films were selected to be screened at the 5th Edition of the Beton 7 Festival in Athens, Greece in 2018, I was invited to perform at the opening as a response to the film prior to the screening on the opening night of the festival. My improvised performance drew inspiration and gestures from both my knowledge of Berio’s score and the compositional and material aesthetic of the film itself. The title is a play on a fragment of text from Berio’s  score – “before night comes”.

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Static Flux with Zoë Strachan

Static Flux – a radio art and performance collaboration

Zoë Strachan and I first produced Static Flux as a live studio broadcast for Radiophrenia in 2017. The work was then selected for a live performance at  Hidden Door Festival  2018.

Programme Note

Static Flux focuses on out-of-time memory states, and how they can be both static and in flux. We are interested in exploring narrative and time through chance encounters with remnants, fragments and the ephemera of past lives. Metaphors for our endeavour include the remnants found in second-hand bags and the pockets of clothing, or in notes scribbled on the back of black and white photographs. There is a melancholy air to these things, but as with any kind of haunting, also the potential for fear, and for deeper connections with our own sense of mortality.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Sura Medura Exhibition

Sura Medura Exhibition

A Sura Medura exhibition is running from 21st April to 19th May 2017 at The Briggait in Glasgow. The exhibition includes a range of work by artists who have been artist-in-residence at Sura Medura in Sri Lanka.

Wave Shift, a new work made in collaboration with artist and illustrator Natasha Russell, is premiered as part of the Sura Medura exhibition. Read more about Wave Shift

 

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Wave Shift | Natasha Russell

Wave ShiftWave Shift was originally an experimental audiovisual collaboration with artist and illustrator Natasha Russell in response to the ideas and situations we encountered on the UZ Arts Sura Medura Residency in Sri Lanka. Natasha and I were in residence from October – December 2016, along with Sumit Sarkar and other visiting artists. Following the installation I re-worked Wave Shift into a stand alone composition.

During our post-residency collaboration, Natasha and I were interested in the way an understanding of the experience of a place shifts over time, between people, even at the drop of a hat. We decided to weave decaying memories, slippery facts and shifting folklores through sound and print to form a portable set that melts place and atmosphere into an imaginary landscape.

Wave Shift At The BriggaitIntegrating with the structure and printed visual landscape with the set, my Wave Shift audio was projected into the space as an immersive, abstract, evocative soundscape. Source materials for the work included a selection of field recordings captured during the residency and vocal sound recordings. Both the main thread of sound that underpinned the work, composed with a series of hydrophonerecordings, and the form, which unfolds as a series of wave-like emergences, draw on myriad notions of water as a bridge between real and fictional landscapes.

The installation was exhibited in 2017 at Sura Medura Exhibition, The Briggait, Glasgow and then Summerhall, Edinburgh

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Sura Medura Moving Out

Moving Out Sura Medura 2016

The final stage of our residency was focused on preparing for our Moving Out event. The other artists involved were Natasha Russell, Sumit Surkar, Samson Ogiamien, and Rose Staff. On the day, we were thrilled to have a big local crowd join us, and delighted that many people came down from the Colombo Biennale and the University Faculty of Visual and Performing Arts to join us for some or all of the time.

Overall, the day at Sunbeach was a wonderful combination of visual art, sound, sculpture, video, performance, people, food, beer, Arrack sour, sea, sand, laughing, chatting, sharing…and cake (what a fabulous day for a birthday!). In our exhibition, which combined some finished elements and work-in-progress, my sound work Sabda saha Pintura was available as a headphone installation.

Listening Post Sabda Saha Pintura

The title Sabda saha Pintura means sound and picture in Sinhalese – through much discussion this seemed to be the most apt translation for the collage idea I was working with in the piece. Exploring  differences in the English/Sinhalese languages was very intriguing – how or in what way  metaphors or concepts translate, for example, sound, soundscape, landscape,  environment.

 

 

Sudu - Tuk Tuk Tour Driver

Tuk Tuk TourDuring the afternoon an audiovisual tuk tuk tour was running – a collaboration between Natasha (Russell) and me. Three people at a time could hop into Sudu’s tuk tukand take a short round trip to visit Natasha’s work in local shops accompanied by my soundtrack.

The soundtrack combined recordings I gathered from those shopkeepers  introducing themselves and their businesses, shop sounds, etc – the general store, jewellers, barbers, a fruit and veg stall. I also recorded an introduction to the tour in Sinhalese, with pronunciation help from folk at Sunbeach. Big thanks to Sudu and Chinthaka for running the tours.

Samson and Nichola Moving Out 1Samson and Nichola Moving Out 2

Early evening, I accompanied Samson Omiagien with some live vocals for his performance piece with sculpture, which we had rehearsed  in the lead up to the event.  The evening finished with a fantastic Sri Lankan curry banquet.

Big thanks to Neil and all at UZ Arts, Chaminda, Chathura, Hasantha, Kari and all at Sunbeach, Maria and Jack, my fellow artists-in-residence, everyone I met.

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Sabda saha Pintura

Fishing boat Dodanduwa

Sabda saha Pintura is a sound collage composed on site during the six-week Sura Medura residency with UZ Arts in Sri Lanka using a selection of field recordings captured early in the residency. Repetition and fast cut edits try at the same time to capture something of the sensory experience on arrival in Hikkaduwa and reveal detail in a dense sound world. Sabda saha Pintura had its first airing as a headphone installation at Moving Out for the Colombo Art Biennale in November 2016.

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In Transit with Zoë Strachan

In Transit – a collaborative live-to-air broadcast

Radiophrenia commissioned me and writer Zoë Strachan to collaborate on a Live-to-Air commission. We performed live from the Radiophrenia studio on 5th September 2016 at CCA Glasgow.

Programme Note

In our collaboration we explored the state of being In Transit and how it disrupts the interior monologues of two people on separate but overlapping journeys of a slightly mysterious kind.

Radiophrenia is a temporary art radio station broadcasting from the CCA in Glasgow. In 2016 it produced a two-week exploration into current trends in sound and transmission arts.

@zoestrachan
@NicholaScrutton

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Sura Medura Residency

uzarts logo sura medura residency

I was thrilled to be selected for a six-week Sura Medura residency with UZ Arts  from October to December 2016. The Sura Medura residency on this occasion was being hosted in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. My fellow artists were Natasha Russell and Sumit Sarkar, and two other artists arrived later in the residency – Martin Janicek and Samson Ogiamien. Early experience after arrival was a whirlwind of sensations and there was definitely a process of settling into Sunbeach and adjusting – heat, humidity, sounds, smells, surf, swimming, dogs, jungle, mozzies, food, walks, and meeting many warm friendly folk along the way sharing experiences, tips and ideas.

Sura Medura, Storm Brewing

Presentations

As part of the residency we travelled to Colombo and gave presentations to staff and students in the University Faculty of Visual and Performing Arts in week 3. That was a really good day – as well as meeting people, we were fortunate to be shown round all the art departments then had lunch before travelling back.

Sura Medura, Train Nichola ScruttonTrain TimetableFaculty Of Visual And Performing Arts Colombo UniversityFaculty Of Visual And Performing Arts Colombo University2

Thinking about soundscapes

The sound environment is generally very dense and I spent quite a bit of time actively listening and drawing.The area has two main aspect – beach and jungle – and each has its own distinct soundscape. On the beach side the sea roars continuously as the surf thunders in and on the jungle side the air is thick with heat, bird song, massive trees rustling and people going about their daily lives.  A railway line runs between the two through much of the area and regular trains, horns and bells punctuate the air. In the mix are a whole rich array of sounds – the hollering voices of people selling at markets and on the street, the honking and revving of huge buses overtaking other vehicles at breakneck speed (treacherous), thunderstorms and torrential rain, intermittent firework eruptions, the bread, fish and other vans making melodic announcements and so on. I created two soundscape pieces – Sabda saha Pintura and Wave Shift.

Sura Medura, Fish Market

Sura Medura, Lightening Storm

Sura Medura, Jungle

 

 

 

 

 

In week five  we hosted a Moving Out public event at Sunbeach as part of the Colombo Art Biennale, which was a big success. And actually it was on my birthday so an extra cake was involved at the end of the night. Read a bit more info on that at Moving Out. Finally, we had a trip up to Colombo for the opening of the Biennale. I also had been invited to perform/score a film clip at the opening as part of Video Jam. More info on that at Video Jam…

Huge thanks to Neil and all at UZ Arts, Chaminda, Chathura, Hasantha, Kari and all at Sunbeach, Maria and Jack, my fellow artists-in-residence, everyone I met.

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At First Light

At First Light listener
At First Light listener – WISWOS, LICA

At First Light  is a studio composition (8’49). Arising from an ongoing strand of exploration around ideas of ‘ephemeral’,  At First Light is a vocal meditation  inspired by the play of light at sunrise and a notion that each moment may be filled with the past, present and future. The process of making the piece involved repeated exploration of the material ideas using a simple MAXMSP patch, with the final work being created in a single real-time improvisation. While a version of the piece was ultimately fixed to become At First Light, inherent in the process and the material is an idea of transient evolution – emergence, cycle and decay.

The piece was selected for:

‘Women in Sound/Women on Sound‘ Symposium at Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts (LICA) (2015)
New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival Concert 35 (NYCEMF) (2016)
‘Tomorrow, Today will be Yesterday‘ group installation at CAAA, Guimaraes, Portugal, ELO, Victoria BC, Canada, and LCGA, Limerick, Ireland as part of the Screen Dance Festival.

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Sonnets/Radiophrenia

RAdiophrenia logo

 



Sonnets was a series of live, interactive, largely improvised sound poems, and was created for a Radiophrenia live-to-air commission in 2015. The work drew on the root meanings of the title word – from  ‘son’ (song) and ‘sonus’ (sound) – rather than the traditional poetic form. I used minimal processing, and focused instead on weaving together a palette of breathy sounds, phonemic fragments and vocal gestures into a series of self-contained but interlinked sound worlds, sometimes with field recordings, to invoke or reference a fictional place or state.

(Please note the sound clips are currently off-air)

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KPC Sound Mix/GI Festival of Visual Art

KPC Sound Mix is a sound artwork commissioned by Kinning Park Complex and Open Jar Collective for Broth Mix – a food-based project that will run in KPC for two weeks during Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art from 7th – 14th April 2014.

The sound artwork is a collage of field recordings, interviews, and music clips that presents a snapshot of KPC. The piece  will be available on MP3 players with headphones at KPC during the two-week period and can be downloaded here at KPC Sound Mix.

Many thanks indeed to all the contributors!

Interviews and field recordings

Ammy Jay, Amrik Kanr, Anne Davidson, Catherine Weir, Chris, Clem Sandison, Helen Kyle, Kinning Park Complex, Lindsay Keenan, Nicole’s dance class, Reuben Chesters – Locovore, Women’s cooking/gardening group

Music Clips

Death Rattle/Tricky
Erin Scrutton, Nichola Scrutton, Kirsty Ewing, Barbara Chalmers, Michelle Drumm

Luskentyre and Stevie Jones
Martin Douglas (tuba)

Sokobauno Puppet and Object Theatre
Shane Connolly (composer; reading; performance – accordian, percussion), Stevie Jones (recording), Alasdair Roberts (guitar), Georgie McGeown (flute)

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HearAfter

Ohrenhoch Gallery, Berlin

Originally produced by the Gallery of Modern Art, HearAfter was installed in the Round Room on the 2nd floor balcony from 25th October – 2nd December 2013.

HearAfter is a contemplative, immersive pre-composed sound installation inspired by the life cycle, memory, and the process of decay. HearAfter is a pun on ‘hereafter’, which means ‘in the time to follow’ and is often associated with questions about experiences after death. With this in mind, the piece HearAfter, through the present moment of a listening experience, at one level might be heard to tap into memory – a sense of something past, gone, altered or retold, but at the same time could suggest a kind of anticipation of a future that is both factually certain yet remains unknown.

While the human voice is often considered primarily as a communicator of words, I am artistically interested in its potential as sonorous, expressive and sculptural material. The sounds of breathing and an array of vocal gestures weave together with other abstract sounds into a collage of overlapping cycles and collisions.

Producer curator Katie Bruce talks, after the preview, about our first meeting and the HearAfter work at the GoMA blog

Performances

2014
Transnational Express, Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery, Christchurch, NZ
Ohrenhoch Sound Gallery, Weichselstr. 4912045 Berlin-Neukölln

2013
25 Oct – 2nd Dec, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland