Le Sirenuse : Glass Percussion and Electroacoustic Sounds
- Submitting institution
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Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 2412760
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2014
- URL
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https://vimeo.com/113688732
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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3
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- One might point to souvenir makers as undertaking a form of "theatrical" flameworking – but 'La Sirenuse' takes live flameworking into a different realm. It builds on my previous collaborations with glassmaker Carrie Fertig, which resulted in 'Glimmer', 'Scintilla' and 'Flames and Frequencies', and on Carrie’s development of the Torcher Chamber Arkestra and the staged presentation of flameworking.
The unique question the research asks is: how is flameworking performative, and what does it mean to situate it in an immersive, sonic improvisation, based on sounds of the glass instruments that are themselves a product of the flameworking? Pursuing this question involved exploring the musical potential of largely inharmonic glass sounds with live electronics in performance, with an instrument builder, composer, and performer all working together simultaneously in the performance space. A residency gave us the opportunity to spend a focused period developing 'La Sirenuse', and working with a film maker allowed us to think about the visual aspect and overall temporal structure in different ways. Instead of starting from sounds and musical considerations, certain decisions about the work began from the practical and visual arrangements of the materials in the space, and the creative challenge of how to make musical and sonic sense of the resulting relationships. The film frames the provocation of our research question in quite a different way to a live performance in front of an audience.
'La Sirenuse' was supported by Creative Scotland, Caithness and North Sutherland Fund, and the Lyth Art Centre. In addition to the film, there were live performances for audiences Lyth Arts Centre, Caithness and the Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, with workshops on live electronics and found sounds for youth groups at Midlands Arts Centre built around the performance. 'La Sirenuse' was selected for the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition in 2015.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
