This output arises through a collaborative, research continuum with the dancer-researcher Vida Midgelow. As co-researchers, collaborations began in the early 2000s. ‘Home’, notably, has research links with the 2010 output, ‘Voice (a retracing)’, a video soundscape (published online in JAR). Ongoing co-research collaborations continue, currently, ‘Breathbone’ (2019-20).
The output exists in two forms: video and acousmatic. The output has been disseminated as dance (video) and music (acousmatic) in academic conferences, blind refereed. These include, International Computer Music Conference ICMC2016 (Utrecht) Society of Electroacoustic Music USA (SEAMUS2016) (Oberlin) and in festivals (including Mexico City MUSLAB2015 and New York (NYCEMF2016), and web-radio, Soundcloud and Vimeo.
The key question was how to capture the quality of the body as home. Other questions arose: How to reveal the intimate that lies hidden in the body’s movement? How to make close recordings of movement and breath to reveal the hidden? Ultimately, how to transcend the quotidian – body/breath sounds – into a visceral, sonic experience: an immersive soundscape?
Through testing and exchanging ideas on how best to record the sound of the intimate movement of dancers dancing, binaural earbud mics were used. Subsequently with this material, a creative dialogue ensued: an interrogative sharing of video/soundscape material. This gave insights into the process, what worked and why, and how to move forward in the practice as research.
Electroacoustic music composition techniques include spectral-shaping, time-stretching, multi-layering: to make an immersive discourse that transforms the noise-based, breath material utilising techniques of source-bonding. A key insight is the revealing of the intimate and visceral and ways to transmogrify the quotidian. The sonagram maps the compositional form and underlying coherence giving insight into the structural coherence: it highlights the interweaving of the recognisable inhale/exhale breath and the five quasi super-breaths which underpin the formal design.
Home (Breath Replaced) (2014-16) 8-channel acousmatic, selected performances:
1. As video performanes”Home (a replacing) –IFIMPAC 2014, Leeds College of Music, 14/3/2014
2. Wolverhampton University (invited speaker), 19/3/2014
3. (as an installation) Klangland 14 Festival, Kassel, Germany, 14/3/2014
4. Memory ^ sentiment ^ body ^ space ^object; ICE, Coventry University, 15/5/2015
Acousmatic performances at key significant international refereed events/conferences for immersive electroacoustic composition include:
1. Muslab2015, Mexico City (5/12/2015)
2. Sonorities Festival, Sonic Arts, Queens University, 24/11/2016
3. NYCEMF, New York, 17/6/2016
4. ICMC2016 (International Computer Music Conference), Utrecht, 16/9/2016
5. SEAMUS2018, USA, 31/3/2018
The video can be viewed at Home (a replacing)
Sonagram of the Home (breath replaced)
