Education Workshop: Experimental Audio Visual Techniques

3rd August 2021

Features NMC Recordings

The gradual lifting of restrictions has meant that we’ve been able to resume our education work, and we recently kicked off a new project in collaboration with the Marsyas Trio, composer Laura Bowler, and filmmaker Julian Hand. We spent a day with students in Years 9 and 10 at Canary Wharf College Crossharbour, exploring graphic notation and experimental filmmaking techniques. The film Salutem, created by Julian Hand in collaboration with Laura and the Trio, was used as a starting point to explore ways that film and music intersect.

Students heard a presentation from the Marsyas Trio, who demonstrated extended techniques on their instruments, and then created their own graphic scores with the help of Laura Bowler, using both notational symbols representing playing techniques, as well as creative visual elements of their own. The pieces were workshopped, performed and recorded by the Trio, with students leading the workshopping and guiding the players through their works.

The second half of the day involved creating films to accompany the recordings, using experimental analogue filmmaking techniques. Filmmaker Julian Hand demonstrated the technique of manipulating film reels by hand, using ink, paint, image transfers, and even objects like combs and tissue paper. The results were colourful, abstract, dramatic audiovisual works, which despite the similar methods used to create them, were strikingly different from one another.

From the workshop came some interesting discussions about the interplay between music and film, with students describing working between the two media as “different and spontaneous,” and noting that the artforms “compliment each other, but don’t always have to in a comfortable way.”

As a registered charity, NMC connects listeners worldwide with the best new music from Britain and Ireland. We are delighted to host a series of initiatives to assist the development of emerging talent, and to inspire an interest in and appreciation for new music in younger audiences. Find out more about our education projects and download FREE education resources here

NMC's Education Projects and Free Resources

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