The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty. As our new case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.
Abraham Lincoln
December 1862
Hello and welcome back for another comprehensive masterclass in creating music for an Audio for media brief, that consists of an art installation encompassing a 4 channel sonic-fusion piece and a 11 minute composition for film. For my final project at Salford University I put on a multi-media art exhibition at Kraak Gallery on May Day bank holiday (Monday the 4th of May). I collaborated with Becca Shaw an artist who co-managed the last project called ‘Personal space‘, Mathew Stromen, a film producer from Leicester and Emilia Kasler an artist doing her MA in Textiles at MMU. It has taken a valiant effort from everybody who was involved to bring it to fruition but the hard has ‘work’ certainly paid off. I will now do my best to explain the journey from start to finish.
First of all here is the intended Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding (maximum of 5)
On successful completion the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate specialist interests and abilities in their approach to two areas of creative, academic study
- Display a high degree of technical fluency, imagination, confidence and versatility in the manipulation of creative
ideas
- Demonstrate an awareness of the range of texts, styles, genres and debates relevant to their chosen fields of
study
- Produce a balanced critical appraisal of project work relating to chosen methodologies, theories, creative
processing and expression.
Transferable/Key Skills and other attributes (maximum of 5)
On completion the student will have had the opportunity to develop key skills of:
- Communication
- Creativity and self expression
- Managing own learning (time management and prioritisation)
- Critical thinking and self evaluation
- Application of existing knowledge
The intended learning outcomes should detail the knowledge, understanding and skills that students will be able to demonstrate on successful completion.
After the last project I was quite sceptical about putting on another event as I knew the amount of work that went into last one. You will find after putting your all into something that there is a feeling of emptiness when it is all finished and you cannot imagine doing it all again with the same enthusiasm as before. The biggest set back was coming up with another tangible idea that I was truly passionate about. Also by increasing the number of people involved I would be more at risk of not getting the project done on time, making the whole process more difficult to manage.
Warning the word passion will be used excessively throughout so get used to it!
During the concept stage I began to think a lot about what it is I will be doing after University. I have been in education all my life and it is supposedly going to help me get a job (although degrees aren’t worth much anymore due to academic inflation). Like most people I would like to do something fulfilling. In the music industry it is very hard to make a decent living unless you are very passionate. I am not in this game to make a fortune, I do it because it makes me happy, which should be the most important thing.
After completing my A-levels I did not apply to go to University because I was not sure of what I wanted to do. I did not see the point in doing something just for the sake of it. Then a light came on! In my spare time I had been making music and frequented a creative arts organisation called Soft Touch. I realised that what I liked doing as a hobby was something that I could also do academically. I then went back to college to study music production BTEC Level 3 extended diploma at Leicester College, Popular Music Production (FdA) at Manchester College and now here I am at Salford University at the end of my final year. The underlying point here is that I did not give up, sometimes you have to do things that you dislike in order to find out what you really want to do.
Not everyone is as fortunate as me to try different things and see what it is they like. Lots of people cannot afford to because they have to work in order to provide for themselves and their family. I recognise the fact that in our society there has been a severe shift towards consumption. How the industrial revolution set the bar for our working lives and shaped our education system. It is all based on supply and demand. Raising standards. Conformity. That’s just not how I want to live my life. I have worked for big companies and it can be soul destroying if you are battling against a burning desire for something more but people do it because they have to. No one asks questions, well guess what???
We are enslaved by a corrupt autocratic system designed to make money for the top 1%. It simply does not effectively facilitate the importance of self-expression. The human condition in the modern age reflects the notion that “nothing is going to change so why bother!?.” This is a narrow-minded response. Some people keel over and accept their roles despite the fact that this is not what they want to do. We teach children to grow up and do the same. Really we should be encouraging them to think freely, to be different and to have faith in their own intuition instead we smother them with school, tests and belittle their superbly skilful divergence.
I believe that real life is organic. Unlike the rules and conventions associated within neoliberalism. There is a reason why the education system is failing and that is because it is not adapting to adhere to a new generation that see passed the ‘textbook’ approach. The next generation have grown up with cutting edge technology and could create new inventions that could change how we live our lives forever. They are becoming too distracted at school and for good reason. We need to encourage individuality and move with the times. We need free thinkers to help us to deal with the extreme advancement in technology, climate change and an ever-growing population but we have to give them the tools. What do we learn about that prepares us for real life?
Regurgitating information and being told that there is only one answer for everything is spoiling the spontaneity of our own thought processing. This self fulfilling prophecy of “get rich or die trying” is killing our creativity. The importance of passion and art are being undermined by what is good for the economy not the individual themselves but I say that we need to think outside the box to see the world for what it is. I feel like education helps a small percentage like me to get skills that are not particularly relevant in everyday life. We are taught how to succeed but not how to fail!
I hate to see unhappy people but the truth is that there are many people living in the U.K who are disillusioned by education and government to the point where they have very limited options. As standardised test goes up so too does ADHD. Medicating children is not the answer. Suicidal ideation and mental illness is a result of disenfranchised young poeple not finding what they want to do or worse feeling like they are not good at anything. Encouraging them to do what deems relevant to the economy is stifling the arts, cuts are being made but changes are happening slowly but surely. Dropping out of University is often the only option when we try to do something that we do not enjoy. At a young age we are put under this immense pressure that only gets worse as you get older.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Metanoia is the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self or way of life. I personally want to demonstrate the power of creativity, collaboration and passion in order to raise awareness and encourage people to change their path so that they too can have a more fulfilling future.
On embarking on the project I had not really got a clear direction by which to go in. I knew that Becca and Mat were on board but I had to go on a personal journey to see where I wanted to focus. I think that deep down this stems from my father. He has had to work very hard to get where he is today and has drilled into me the importance of work and the life is ‘hard’. He is a bricky by trade and has successfully developed his own business and is also a property owner. He put his life into his but at what cost. I see that some people value their own ability to provide as the highest priority. The sacrifice that is often made is your own life, your family and your health.
To me life is hard, but your probably better off being there for your loved ones, not slaving away to the point where money becomes the most important thing because power in the form of potestas takes over. You are hooked on the idea of power. You become greedy and most of all you are less compassionate towards others. I am not directly criticising my dad for the decisions he has made but I have seen what it can do to people. It is all around us. The fact remains that you will have to work for the rest of your life if you life in a capitalist system so it is important for you to take responsibility for your own destiny because the majority of people do not want to wake up at 6 am to do a job that they dislike. The way to change this is to inspire people to do what they want to do. There is always a choice that can change things for the better and given the opportunity then one should think deeply about how they want to spend their time.
Back to the project…
The first meeting I had with Becca was at Big Hands on Oxford road where we discuss Power vs Passion. The fast lane vs the slow lane. We wrote down a list of differences between the two and went our separate ways. See…
I had been greatly influenced by the works of Adam Curtis particularly his show with Massive attack and also his recent documentary Bitter Lake. I then began to collect inspirational videos by people such as Alan Watts and Terence Mckenna.
I thought that it would be a great idea to share the development of project in order to generate more ideas so I started a Facebook Group called Power vs Passion on 17th of February 2015. It started out as only a handful of people and there is now 21 members in the private group that will be made public for the purposes of my assignment. I changed the name to Viva la Crevolution as Power vs Passion can be interpreted in so many ways. It turns out that there is lots of different types of power. It was not until much later on that I stumbled upon a post-it note in someones house that had the word Metanoia and its definition. To me it was fate!
I had been told at this point that it was May day bank holiday on Monday the 4th so I set that as my final deadline. It seemed fitting to have it when everyone was off work.
I made a timeline to help map out the next few months…
Although I did not follow this whole heartedly it was a good guideline to have.
Once I began putting stuff onto the group more people got involved on their own accord as they knew what I was trying to say. So I kept posting pretty much everyday for the following few weeks. One of the greatest inspirations for this project came from Ted Talks by Ken Robinson who talks about changing education paradigms and his book ‘out of our minds really encouraged to focus my attention more so on the industrial revolution and education as apposed to working as a whole.
I immediately latched onto it and began to create my own mind map with all the ideas I had been generating.
By trying to distinguish the different sections I was then able to create a rough structure to follow for the piece. After this I started to finding clips that I wanted to include in the music. I realised that it is all well and good using pre-existing quotes but to generate my own questions would be a great idea to get some primary data. I composed two lots of questions. The first lot were for Jason my brother-in-law who works for Telefonica in Sao Paulo as I always recalled he had a passion for drawing. I wanted to see what his progression was and if creativity is important in big business?
Here’s a great interview I did with my brother-in law Jason a few days ago. Him and my sister moved to Sao Paulo last year as part of Jason’s work with Telefonica. I decided to use him, as he has been very successful in his career but as I recalled always loved drawing. I also sought to understand the importance of creativity in conglomerate companies.
Apart from family and friends what are you passionate about in life?
JT: Comic books, travel, my team at work, video games
Were you ever discouraged from doing something you liked in school?
JT: I was told I would struggle to be a fighter pilot as I wore glasses – this is nonsense – otherwise, no – the majority of my teachers and family felt (as I do today) that I could achieve anything I put my mind to
How much do you think your education has impacted your life so far?
JT: A degree opened doors that would (sadly) have remained closed. The default for all jobs in all companies I’ve worked for is a degree education – nowadays I am senior enough to remove this as an entry criteria as I’d rather have a broader selection of people work for me – especially those who have an entrepreneurial spirit – I also like having people who have failed at something on my team (provided they have learned from the experience and know how best to avoid it in future). At work culturally we try to encourage an environment where people have the freedom to fail but the encouragement not to
In what way did getting a degree in Environmental management help your career?
JT: The degree and my grade have aided me in terms of giving a “right to enter” certain roles. However overall because I did a science degree and concentrated very much on statistical research and new technology it gave me some core skills (data interpretation and manipulation) that I still use today – knowing the diet of a pine marten has been less useful
If money were no object would you do a different job?
JT: Yes – I’d work designing lego sets, video games or be a cartographer – if I didn’t have to “work” I’d write the comic book that I’ve had in my head for almost 20 years (it’s laziness rather than time that is the issue tho)
Is your work stressful?
JT: Yes – but in a good way. I like the busy times at work as it stops you from realising that you’re adding very little of social value to the world. It’s the stuff that doing what I do allows me to do that I really enjoy – new technology, corporate deals, business travel, living abroad and supporting the family so they can do things that have more social value.
How important is creativity and innovation in your work place?
JT: Very. However as I work in a large multinational which is a digital migrant – rather than a digital native – it’s not as easy as it was in say, Yahoo! However, with some of the tech and data we have we can create some really interesting and engaging concepts. Prototyping initiatives is a real energiser.
To what extent is your role interchangeable?
JT: I am becoming an industry expert – mobile advertising – but the skills I utilise are generalist business skills – communication, business planning, leading high performing teams, etc. it is these skills that are the interchangeable ones as opposed to my knowledge of the advertising Eco-system.
Do you believe that being overworked stunts creativity?
JT: Depends on the type of work. Usually my week is between 55 and 65 hours long however if we are busy doing creative work that could easily be 80 without anyone complaining. Creative work brings its own energy and its infectious.
Thanks a lot mate, hope you get on okay. If you have any questions then please email me back.
JT: No worries – happy to help – shout if you need anything else.
Lots of love,
Matt x
This electronic message contains information from Telefonica UK or Telefonica Europe which may be privileged or confidential
To get another response I could use for the film I went to sheffield to visit my other sister Paula and her partner who are both lecturers at Sheffield University. I also interviewed her kids as I thought this would be a great way to get across the importance of helping build a better future for them. These interviews really helped me to work out what exactly I as trying to say. When I first spoke to her about the event and invited her into the group here is what was said…
Listen to it on Soundcloud via my secret link, I used a boom mic for this. Here are the questions…
What would you want to do with your life if money was no object?
Does wealth give you a sense of freedom?
Do you live to work or work to live?
Kids
What do you want to be when you grow up?
How many different uses can you give me for a paperclip?
Do you enjoy school?
Why?
Do you have lots of tests?
Do you have to line up?
When the bell rings how do you feel?
Do you like working on your own or as part of a group?
Paula
Do you feel like having power makes you less compassionate towards others?
Do you think that the automation of manual labour could help us from feeling like human robots?
To what extent would you say that traditional education inhibits creativity?
How much has education impacted your life so far?
Were you ever discouraged from doing something you wanted to do because you would not be able to make a living from it?
Nicky Morgan said that “choosing the arts could hold you back for the rest of your life” How much do you agree or disagree with this question?
If you could advise someone who was struggling to choose between something they were passionate about and something that made them lots of money what would you say?
How far are people acting as cogs in the wheel of capitalism?
Is neoliberalism sustainable?
Is culture your friend?
What role do the arts play in education and is this reflective of real life which is organic?
When you listen back you will feel the awkwardness in some of the question that I was asking because I was challenged on numerous points. This is expected for trying to have an intellectual discussion and it was a very insightful experience that helped encouraged to go even deeper into the project.
On my trip to Sheffield I also met a film maker called Jordan who told me about 28 days later which is an urban exploration website. He told me about a series of tunnels underneath sheffield train line nicknamed The Megatron so I went down to get some recordings. It was pretty harrowing to be honest but exhilarating none-the-less. On the way back we passed a Steel works just outside of Sheffield so I got some really dark industrial sounds that I was after.
Another action packed outing was at the EDL march where I hoped to capture the noise of rioting but also managed to get dogs, drums, a police helicopter and rioting.
At this stage I had a pretty good idea of what sort of sounds I wanted so that really helped when it came to planning out what to get next. Me and Becca would have meetings to discuss the project to ensure we were on the same page. A friend of mind even pointed me in the direction of David Icke’s ‘I am free I am me’.
After discussing the storyboard with Becca Shaw ‘Being a cog in the machine’ seemed to be one of the main themes running through the project. I wanted to build on this idea by exploring why the majority of us have to work to live even if it is making us unhappy and feel unfulfilled.
In this modern society it is difficult to do what you enjoy and what you are truly passionate about because our social infrastructure is based an old belief system created during the industrial revolution. When machines took over the factories at the turn of the 19th century we began building schools for everyone which favour linearity and regimentation over individuality and creativity. In the end business owners capitalised on overworking the population making the divide between the rich and the poor greater. In order to break free from the constraints of modernity, you must break free from the machine. Create your own ideas and formulate your own goals to work towards. Personal achievement is not defined by money but by what makes you happy. If we are sacrificing our own happiness by conforming to enslavement then surely we should be encouraging the re-shaping of our belief system. In 20 years time when we are overpopulated, technology has taken over the world and we have exhausted all the resources then it will be too late to re-evaluate our purpose on this planet. Our role is not to increase the cycle of life so much that we destroy the planet and ultimately ourselves in the process. It is to slow down and appreciate our existence. To respect each other and work together to bring about sustainable peace/happiness without fear and oppression. The victims in all of this are the arts however we need to be more conscious of the importance they play in shaping the future of humanity by teaching us that being ourselves is all that matters and living a life without meaning is insane.
At this I was reaching out and talking to absolutely everyone I knew about the topic. It was really important to do this as it gave me a better basis by which to work in that was open source.
I had been looking not only towards the historical roots of our working lives but also at current legislation that seemed to promote STEM subject and that claims that “the arts could hold you back for the rest of your life”. I wanted to show how much this view point was reflecting what was good for the economy so I scrupulously extracted points where she would refer to ‘big business’.
I was working around the clock and really immersed myself in the project. I remember writing this when I was in a state of dormiveglia.
Express yourself
Be who you are
Life is just a ride. You can change it anytime you want.
You have a choice
Now
When I grow up I want to be a …
The arts should be allowed to teach everyday
Disenfranchised youth
They hold the key to the future of humanity
School separates children and anaesthetise them for being different
Out-dated industrialised education
We live in the present and have the power to change
To become more creative… compassionate
To work less hours
Less driven by money, power and greed
The divide between people is widening both economically and morally
We judge other people on the decisions they make
To make work low paid jobs
To make art
To express themselves
Our abilities are limitless
And our possibilities endless
Take time off
Do what makes you happy
Find your inner genius
Become a master of your fate
You’re in control
MUSIC
I wanted the music for the film to go on a journey. I started to write out ideas in a more chronological way to help envisage what the video might look like.
- Film – Open landscape. Flying through the air into a flash
- Audio wind rushing, white noise sweep
When we are born we are infinite
- Film infinity symbol
- Audio metal resonance
Full of hope for the future
When I grow up I want to be….
The children hold the key to the future of humanity
The wheel turns and we go with it
EDUCATION
Nursery
We are not afraid of being wrong, experts at divergent thinking
We all share this creative capacity but what makes us more convergent is education.
We are separated by age in a production line mentality
Cog in the wheelDiscouraged from individuality, we wear uniforms and conform to the old belief system based on linearity
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Standardisation and regimentation
Like machines
The wheel spins faster and faster and we go with it on the assumption it is in our best interest
We forget who we are
What we want to do
Technology has advanced at such a rate that we are left bewildered
Increasing pressure to reform education by raising standards based on current trends in the economy not on personal experience.
(Nicky Morgan speech)
We are stuck in a cycle
A system where neoliberalism has taken over our quality of life
(Terence McKenna) Culture is not your friend
Fast paced way of life
Driven by money and power
Not passion
We are subject to occupational stress
Being overworked and undervalued
We become detached
Disillusioned by the sheer scale of the machine
Too scared to ask questions
Too tired to think
Our creativity is being blocked
We live monotonous lives in dead end jobs
Like human robots
With little time to spend doing what we enjoy
We are products of society
Enslaved by the wage to keep the machine working
REAL LIFE
Real life is organic
I had lots of speech, interviews and samples so I began to create the music. I was in the studio and used Physical modelling in sculpture to create the bass pads and feedback that you can hear throughout the piece. I went through and selected key point by each speaker and then processed them to remove noise. I went as far as to use a de-noiser on Terence McKenna where he talks about culture not being your friend so much that he began to sound like a robot. It was clear to me now that what I was going to portray was the beauty of creativity, the darkness of a monotonous lifestyle and the power of collaboration. Like the last project ‘Personal Space’ I wanted to use mostly recording to make drums, synths and atmospheric pad sounds.
I used flex time on the vocals to give a matrix sounding transitional sound. I found that metaphysical (self oscillating synth) really worked well in producing very ambient and dark sound that I could manipulate in real time to help give that whooshing sound. I did two more location recordings. One of which was at an Old Clog factory in Mythodryl.
The other was at home in Leicester over easter where I recorded my brothers and myself working. I used sound of a chop saw to make a D’n’B style reece bass. I also got recordings of a building site that was completely empty. The acoustics were brilliant and most notably I used the sound of tapping two tea cups as percussive loop. It was a good opportunity to talk with Mathew about the film and make sure we were both on the same page.
Among this you’ll here playground ambience, an ice cream truck, trains, gate ambience, construction sounds and much more. I tried to use some real instruments in the “What do you desire?” section including harps and strings. In the last section I have used live drums that have quantized using the pitch and manipulated in Ableton which I think adds a really nice flavour.
This was the biggest project I have ever done so towards the end my CPU was overloading so much that it mean it was very difficult to make the final adjustments to the mix. There was over 200 tracks!
I decided to avoid the vocals not being intelligible in the mix to do them outside the project so I had more control. This along side some side-chaining worked very well. During the process I was in contact with the film maker Mathew to ensure he had an up to date copy of the work right up until the final deadline. He worked backwards from the music to create a scratch video/ visual experience the incorporated key production techniques discussed such as the ‘key hole’ theme, infinity symbol and flowers. As this was going to be a part of the installation as well with one artist Emilia Kasler focusing solely on that. She came into the project at a later date as I mentioned the fact that a flower that has not blossomed is like a persona who has not reached their full potential.
INSTALLATION MUSIC
In the last project I did I had been criticised quite rightly for not fitting with the theme in between showing. There was music such as ‘The Band – The Weight’ after what was supposed to be a hard hitting film about how technology affects us, internet censorship and surveillance. I decided it would be great to do a sonic fusion piece so I wrote a piano piece that was about 3 minutes long, duplicated it reversed it and then replaced each different part to fit with the corresponding section. I then took this and used Ableton’s clip view. Using this enabled me to modulate each clip and I used the follow action function to play different clips on a constant cycle. The second channel had a compilation of all the gate ambience I had used for the main project. I added a huge effects chain to give this a pulse. It sounded very industrial and dark to juxtapose the more emotive piano piece. No I technically had 4 channels playing from 2 stereo tracks. I then had to split the multiple outputs to separate speakers, in the instance I used a M-audio firewire interface and 4 genelecs. I did a dry run in the studios to ensure they were all working properly. After this I added an effects rack with a 3 band EQ, granular delay/auto-pan, beat repeat variation/chance, delay and reverb. I used an Akai LPD8 to trigger scenes and to effect the audio live. To me this was so much more effective and seemed to work really well within the installation itself.
FINDING A SPACE
We decided to go for the same space we looked at last time which ‘fell through’ at the last minute because it seemed quite fitting. Although we had viewed the space again at Hotspur House and negotiated a price of £60 they once again let us down a week before show time. We then emailed lots of places to find somewhere for May day which proved difficult as it was a bank holiday. The silver lining here is that we made contact with lots of different spaces, thus broadening our horizons, and managed to find somewhere a lot better… Kraak Gallery. The team there provided us with the right tools and technical knowledge to ensure the night went smoothly and for that I am grateful. Although it was more expensive at £150 per day it was certainly worth it.
EXHIBITION
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1626577457557149/permalink/1658089637739264/
A few days before the exhibition I was trying very hard to get the music and printing sorted. I had to pick all the gear on Sunday as it was Bank holiday weekend. The made the process very difficult especially printing as the majority were closed. Emilia Kasler had to drive 80 miles on the day to pick up the prints and synopsis by Joss Kelly from a good friend of mine Ben Myers.
The night before Mathew Strommen came up from Leicester, quite late mind you, to sort the video. We sat down and watched the video with the music and we were happy so we exported it overnight.
In the morning we got up early and loaded all the gear then picked up Becca Shaw. We spent the morning moving stuff in the gallery. We then had to go back to pick up the projector that we left at Beccas house. Once we had this we began to put posters up for the event around the NQ. After that I set up the PA system and sonic fusion speakers. All the while we were helping each other to get everything together. It is very important at this stage to communicate effectively in order to make sure the sound, video and art worked together.
I had successfully set up the sound and did sound checks so I was pretty proud of myself. Emilia came with her prints later on in the day so we had to discuss the best place for it. The synopsis done by Joss Kelly looked great as we decided to spice it up with an infinity symbol to display the ways in which all the different art forms were interconnected.
The main problem we faced was when we tried to use the projector we had as it was not picking up the mac we were using. It turned out to be something to do with the adapter going from VGA to HDMI to Mini Display port. Me and Mat thought we needed to go back to the house to get the remote because we could change the source, although it was automatically doing this. We got half way back and turned back because Becca explained the situation. At this point I was horrendously stressed. I could not contemplate the film not working with the projector only and hour before showtime. When we got back, Dom, who works at Kraak Gallery had got their projector. It turned out that this one worked fine!
I was so relieved I could have cried. We then got everything ready for people to arrive, including wine, which is very important at an exhibition. I was having a slight problem with as well because the effects rack were not working because I was not using the master outputs. My mate Rick Barrat helped solve the problem by copying it to each individual channel and then mapping it twice. This allowed me to modulate the same effect on 2 different tracks at the same time. I was very pleased about this!
Everything seemed to be going well and people arrived from 6 until about 830. The idea was to have a showing at 7pm and one at 830pm but we were more flexible on the day. We played the first showing at 7.30 pm. The lights were off and everyone was fully engrossed, then I realised we were playing the rough edit. Basically the MP3 mix that I sent as a guide for the film production. I instantly thought that we had bounced the MP3 version and not the mastered WAV at this point so I was freaking out! I knew that to bounce it down again would have taken at least 90 minutes that we did not have. I made the mistake of letting everyone know how disappointed I was as it turned out that we had the final version confused. The silver lining here is that when my Lecturer came we would have the right one.
Although at one stage I did not think he would turn up my lecturer made it with enough time to see the installation and watch the final viewing at 9pm. I was very happy that he could make it as it would not do it justice otherwise. I was slightly annoyed that there was a band playing upstairs during the film that spoiled some of the quieter sequences but this is something I will bare in mind for the future to ensure the optimum viewing conditions.
A friend that I had met in Sheffield Jordan, who I mentioned earlier, came up just before the event to film it all with his new camera. After the event I did an interview with him and explained what the event was about and how the exhibition went. I was so happy that could make it and I look forwards to seeing his promotional video when it is finished. I made a good contact with John who works there who does photography, film and tech based consultations for festivals and the BBC so I will send him the film when it is up on Youtube.
Overall I feel like we had ironed out the creases that we found during the last project and we executed ‘Metanoia’ professionally. With everyone on board it made the job a lot more manageable so I am very grateful for that. Sharing ideas and portraying the importance of collaboration was a key aim. Everyone seemed very responsive to the art work, film and sound. I do however feel like we could have done more to get more people to attend i.e. promotion. It was just hard to do it all in time, especially seen as the space we had feel through at the last minute. People did share the event though, including Kraak Gallery and some Instagram pages. The downside that this has is that it was almost like ‘preaching to the choir’. The majority of people there were involved in some way, already knew a lot about the event or were already doing what they are passionate about. I would have liked to have seen more unfamiliar faces but for the purpose of putting on an event to showcase all of our work it went down a storm. Also the promo video and film will be on youtube soon so that the project can be seen by the public.
Since embarking on this project I had an interview for a job teaching kids music production and I got the job! Often there are lots of children who struggle to apply themselves in school, some get expelled and others have learning difficulties. My work helps challenging children find their way through the arts in order to get them back into school, improve their confidence and give them back what they deserve. A chance. I feel like this project has helped me reach this goal. So for that I am very thankful!
Many thanks for listening!
Make sure you watch the video and get involved in the Facebook group….
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