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Postgraduate Composers in Art and Music Collaboration

June 15th, 2009

Four postgraduate composers from the Department of Music were invited by the Quenington Sculpture Trust to join art students from the Byam Shaw School of Art in a collaborative project for the Fresh Air 2009 exhibition. This annual sculpture exhibition is shown in the gardens of the Quenington Old Rectory in the Cotswolds. The composers and artists were asked to come up with pieces that enhanced the exhibition both visually and sonically. Four pieces were devised and constructed over a three day period in June: a sunken piano, a pool which ripples attractively in response to a composition played through embedded loudspeakers, a collage of voices and environmental sounds diffused from a boathouse to the other side of a stream, and an electronic music video projected onto the window of a summer house.

'2 Sources, 8 Interference Waves'. Watch a video of this work.

The four York students - Angie Atmadjaja, Emily Kalies, Chris Mullender and Radek Rudnicki - enjoyed boundless hospitality from the owners of the Old Rectory, David and Lucy Abel-Smith, and from the project co-ordinator, artist Ana Bianchi. Professor Roger Marsh, who helped to set up the project said: "The whole experience was immensely valuable, both from an artistic and educational point of view. Collaborating with creative people from a different discipline, over a short space of time, in unfamiliar surroundings and on a restricted budget, is certainly character forming! The students had to solve all sorts of technical problems to bring their ideas to reality. The Quenington people were absolutely delighted with the results, which now stand alongside the professional exhibits in the gardens without in any way appearing less professional."

The sculpture show runs from June 14 to July 5. For more information go to the Fresh Air Website.