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The Canary in the Coalmine: Retransmitting Apocalyptic Warnings through Dystopian Narrative
Get PDFAbstract: This is an analysis of a contemporary adaptation of Afro Futurist novelist Octavia Butler’s dystopian, speculative novel The Parable of the Sower, the first of a trilogy of books she wrote. Illustrator John Jennings and writer Damian Duffy have created a striking and unsettling Graphic Novel adaptation in response to Butler’s novel that has the potential to influence and expand the awareness of new and younger audiences, encouraging them to explore challenging political and environmental subject matter that they might otherwise overlook. There is a slew of graphic novels that have acquired a higher status in recent years overriding historic perceptions of the form in which they were considered to be at the lower end of the literary hierarchy. Theorists including Linda Hutcheon and Kamilla Elliot in their analyses of adaptations question whether or not absolute loyalty to the original source is essential for them to have value. The theme of educational value for contemporary audiences is also explored
Descent
No full textSpanning over 20 years of work from artist and musician David Prior, Descent is a new release on SN Variations.
Descent is a selection of works spanning over 20 years. While it reflects my background in the acousmatic tradition that emerged in the UK from musique concrète, Descent departs from several of the core Schaefferian precepts that underpinned the musique concrète to which it owes so much. The idea of sound as a quasi-sculptural material is a central tenet of musique concrete, with the goal of plasticity brought ever closer through generations of sound processing technologies. As with the chiaroscuro of Renaissance painters, the apogee of acousmatic compositional achievement appears to have been the ability of composers to transform their source materials, bending them towards their musical agenda. But for me, sound is something encountered from a position of reverence and a recognition that the meanings of sounds derive from the sources that create them. In place of the ‘reduced listening’ Schaeffer espoused as a means by which to draw out latent characteristics of a sound by disassociating it from its source, the sounds in the pieces that form Descent delight in what they are and gain their meaning only in what they are and their relation to one another.
Credits
All tracks composed and produced by David Prior
Mastered by Taylor Duepree at 12k Mastering
Album graphic design by Joe Gilmore at Qubik
Special thanks to Adrian Corker at SN Variations
Other Spaces
Other spaces was created for pianist Catherine Laws. Based on a simple tone row, pitch materials are derived from the first 12 numbers in the Fibonacci series. The piece begins on a single note and each subsequent note must follow the series. Notionally in 4 parts, which function in counterpoint to each other, the piece was written to be played as quietly as possible.
Previously a colleague at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, Laws had previously played my piece, Somewhere Submarine and we’d talked for some time about her commissioning me to make a new piece. Each iteration of it resulted in me erasing more of what I had written.
For its exceptionally quiet acoustic and outstanding Fazioli grand piano, we decided to record Other Spaces in the Arthur Sykes Rymer auditorium at York University.
Butade’s Daughter
Butade’s Daughter preceded Other Spaces by some years, and was created entirely in the studio, without the interpretation of a live performer. I used a bass guitar that was in the studio was working in and combined it with material generated in Cloud Generator, an early granular synthesis tool developed by Curtis Roads at Les Atelier, UPIC, Xennakis’ studio outside Paris, where I had the privilege of working myself in 1997. Like Other Spaces, my intention was to make something fragile to the point of disappearance.
Narcissus
I developed Narcissus as part of a suite of pieces called Sixteen Shadows, while undertaking a residency at the Technisches Universität, Berlin funded by the DAAD. Narcissus is an improvisation based on a Bontempi reed organ amplified through a broken speaker and feedback loops. I worked on iterations of the piece over a 6 month period and made this recording in the studios of the TU.
Paraphrase
Paraphrase was commissioned by bass clarinetist Marij van Gorkom. It is written for bass clarinet and live electronics, with the pitch of the clarinet constantly tracked and responded to in real-time by a computer. The title refers to the interaction between acoustic instrument and electronics and the impossibility of a literal translation between these two incompatible worlds. The art is the trying, however, and I was attracted to the fallibility of the pitch tracking we were using to misread and misinterpret the notes of Marij’s clarinet. It can approximate (paraphrase) and in so doing, come up with a fascinating accompaniment of its own.
The performance on the album was recorded by Chris Morgan at the recording studios of the Academy of Music and Theatre Arts, Falmouth University in March 202. The recording engineer was Antti Saario. Samples from Marij’s demos of the piece feature in this recording alongside Chris’s performance.
Another Poisonous Sunset
I derived the title of this piece from Don DeLillo’s White Noise, a book that eloquently and comically explores the theme of simulation. Another Poisonous Sunset is a simulation of a musical performance. Six stereo pairs of loudspeakers are set up on the stage area of a conventional auditorium, each pair reproducing an edited mix of a group of instrumentalists in the ensemble. The audience are free to walk amongst the absent band members.
The players featured in the piece all played their parts separately, with the piece evolving as each new player responded to what had come before them.
Violins: Pippa Murphy and Iain Armstrong
Cello: Jamie Ingram
Double Bass: Roberto Aymes
Electric Guitar: Dave Bennett
Bassoon: Anna Batson
Soprano Saxophone: Andreas Mniestris
Barritone Saxophone: Pete Dowling
Piano, Organ, Drums and Percussion: David Prio
Untitled review of Selected Poems 1980-2020, Rachel Blau DuPlessis (Chax Press) and A Long Poem on the Long Poem, Rachel Blau DuPlessis (University of Alabama Press)
Get PDFPoetry book review, and academic book revie
Conducting Multi-Institutional Studies of Parsons Problems
Get PDFMany novice programmers struggle to write code from scratch and get frustrated when their code does not work.
Parsons problems can reduce the difficulty of a coding problem by providing mixed-up blocks that the learner assembles in the correct order. Parsons problems can also include distractor blocks that are not needed in a correct solution, but which may help students learn to recognize and fix errors. Evidence indicates that students find Parsons problems engaging, easier than writing code from scratch, useful for learning patterns, and typically faster to solve than writing code from scratch with equivalent learning gains. This working group leverages the work of the 2022 ITiCSE working group which published an extensive literature review of Parsons problems and designed and piloted several studies based on the gaps identified by the literature review. The 2023 working group is revising, conducting, and creating new studies. We will analyze the data from these multi-institutional and multi-national studies and publish the results as well as recommendations for future working groups
Audiovisual Music Production: Influence of the Natural World on Process and Works
Get PDFThis paper presents an overview of work in progress on a practice-research project that involves the creation of a series of audiovisual musical pieces in which both the creative process and the works themselves draw inspiration from deep engagement with the natural world. The project aims and methods are presented, followed by a summary of the ongoing field review to situate the work. Six audiovisual compositions (accessible as a video playlist at the link below) are presented as works in progress and briefly discussed. Emergent findings are summarised as a set of principles that describe the music production approach and a set of research questions that will guide future work. The project speaks to a number of areas including the relationship of art to nature, the role of the contemporary music producer, audiovisual composition, liveness, aesthetics, sustainability and well-being.
Video playlist of creative works in progress:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEf_T--_c4UptppBielAE9xP2m5tJKKd
Multichannel Diffusion: an interview with Robert Hampson
No full textLoop emerged as a psychedelic postpunk guitar band in the 1980s, with layered guitars turned up loud and enigmatic vocals muffled in the mix. They stretched and distorted songs into intricate guitar workouts, weaving effects and fuzz between bass and drum propulsion, sounding like a weird hybrid of Television, Chrome and Hawkwind. Along with their three studio albums there were a series of amazing 12" singles and some astonishing Peel sessions, which were later collected together as the album Wolf Flow (Loop, 1991). 1990's A Gilded Eternity – initially released as two 12" singles in an album sleeve – saw Loop experimenting with more abstract dub and soundscape elements before the original band broke up.
Robert Hampson went on to form Main with Loop guitarist Scott Dowson, who continued to experiment with guitars and noise, but later became a solo and guitarless project following Dowson's exit. Hampson eventually moved to Paris and into more minimalist soundscapes, releasing work broadly within the area of musique concrète and acousmatic music, arranging sound into intriguingly textured compositions. And then in 2013 Hampson picked up his guitar again and created a new version of Loop, who released the Array 1 EP in 2015, played some gigs – including the 2018 Meltdown Festival, and then seemed to disappear again.
The 2022 album, Sonancy, however, finds Loop in fine fettle and ready to rock. Hampson may be the only original member, but the rhythm department here sound crisper and more urgent than the original band, allowing more guitar interplay and layering over the top. Most tracks seem quite short, and I must say I'd have liked even more extended guitar solos and explorations, but the 6 minute 'Isochrone' allows for some experiment, as does the closing moments of 'Fermion' and the wonderful intro to 'Penumbra II', where sustained and overdriven guitars soar and drone above a muscular drum riff. 'Penumbra I' meanwhile, serves as a miniature interlude, a quiet moment in which to draw breath, before the music returns to more hypnotic regions.
Sonically, Sonancy is superbly recorded, with clear layering and definition; musically, it builds on both Loop's back catalogue but also Hampson's work with Main and as a solo artist. There's an engaging energy and drive here that soon gets you shaking your head, but also a subtle and clever sonic palette that uses foreground, background and its stereo mix to full effect. It's good to have Loop back and it seemed the time was right to interview Robert Hampson about his intriguing and various music
Little Clouds: Speech Balloons & the Air of Language
Get PDFPeer-reviewed and edited article in the compilation 'An Atlas of Aspect Change: A Book on Shifting Meanings' by Dr Tine Melzer.
"Aspect change means seeing something as something else: it influences our minds, our linguistic practices, and our worldviews. The 'Atlas of Aspect Change' reflects shifting meanings viewed through the prism of language and intersubjective exchange. It elicits phenomena of perspective and reveals how words and images influence each other. It activates understanding of complex and ambiguous situations and shows how to stimulate and refine interdisciplinary discourse. The book bundles expertise from visual, literal, conceptual, cognitive, cultural, historical and geographical practices. With a foreword by Marjorie Perloff and contributions by Martin Stokhof, Thomas Strässle, Batia Suter, Liza May Post, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Benjamin Hennig, Nicholas Davey, Silvia Maier, Alexandra Leykauf, Uta Eisenreich, Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Kasper Andreasen, Tobias Servaas, Nils Röller, Arja Karhumaa, Frans Oosterhof, Ton Zwerver and many more." [From: https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/62475/]
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300-word supporting statement for ‘On Paper, Lines & Puffs of Language’ [video]; ‘Little Clouds: Speech Balloons & the Air of Language’ [book chapter]; ‘Remembering Air’ [works for an exhibition]:
This body of work further explored my interest in orality, breath and air, through a repositioning of the subject within an ecologically-conscious practice. Both studio-practice and writing examined the speech balloon and the cloud, unfolding our existing understanding of each, through a detailed breakdown from multiple viewpoints. The work was underpinned by the theories of ecologist/philosopher David Abram, concerning speech as shaped-air and the dichotomy of writing’s significance in ‘civilizing’ humans, whilst simultaneously contributing to our distancing from the natural world. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘Aspect Change’ – the ability to see one thing in multiple ways – was also a bedrock concept.
Funding through an Artist’s Development Bursary from The Box, Plymouth facilitated a 4-week artist’s residency at ‘Allotment Club’ (Penryn) which provided research time and space, fundamental in achieving a variety of explorative artistic/written/filmic outputs. It also supported the creation of the film ‘On Paper, Lines & Puffs of Language’ with film-maker Jasper Fell-Clark – for me a new way of documenting my practice – and the delivery of a paper at ‘Symposium on Aspect Change’, HBK Bern, Switzerland, 2021.
The book ‘Atlas of Aspect Change’ is sold in outlets worldwide and my article appeared alongside contributions from a diverse and respected array of designers/artists/writers/thinkers. Tine Melzer, its editor, asserts Aspect Seeing’s importance beyond arts and literary practices, because it allows us to transfer single truths into a conscious spectrum of meanings, suggesting its value not only as an essential cultural tool, but I propose, as a means for more empathetic modes of seeing and thinking.
Residencies at Allotment Club between 2019–2021 (of which I was one) demonstrated a lineage of reputable artists, and a need for residencies allowing connection and reflection upon nature, helping secure ACE funding (by Georgia Gendall) for a subsequent residency scheme in 2023, in which I was a mentor