Decay (Sound art composition on LP (with USB back-up) and contextual information)
- Submitting institution
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City, University of London
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 511
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- November
- Year
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Decay was a 50-minute piece, including film, pre-recorded material and live performance that toured during 2018/19. Each concert (8 in total) involved different guest artists who brought their own creative practice to the performance, altering the piece’s realisation and leaving a mark on it in future iterations. Because of the intention to explore Timothy Morton’s (2013) concept of the hyperobject, in particular his assertion that hyperobjects are un-knowable and un-experienceable in their entirety, the decision was made not to document the performances but instead to create a vinyl record, made from contributions from all guest artists, that would stand as a trace of the project. The theme that ran through Decay was that of the inevitability and necessity of decay in ecological terms, expressed musically through its (de)-generative process. The tour of the work continuously ‘decayed’ my initial compositional proposition at each performance iteration. In so doing, it eschewed the conventions of ‘composer-authorship’ and ‘the work’ prevalent in most compositional practice, in favour of a more collaborative attitude, echoing Donna Haraway’s (2016) call for the need to think more collectively in our approach to living with the world. Decay, though not a ‘proof of concept’ as such, nonetheless sought to create a work that expressed Morton’s concept of the hyperobject as well as responding to Haraway’s call to tell alternative stories. Composition as Hyperobject, the paper included here to provide contextual information (and bibliographic references), further examines the ideas that underpin Decay.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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