not for sensitive skin
Developed as a multi sensory composition and comissioned by Post Paradise concert series in Birmingham, not for sensitive skin is part tactile stimuli research, part audio-visual performance with the visuals floating (think invisible thin white gauze) between the audience and the musicians and part new music composition.
In this piece I was interested in developing ways to focus the musicians’ attention in the moment and define a musical narrative based on their subjective experience. The development process involved trialing a variety of face masks and discussing the effects they had on the skin and the potential for musical analogy.
What I like about modeling subjective experience for contemporary music is that there is no right and wrong as long as all parts involved are open to challenge themselves. For musicians, it’s a way to move beyond what you think you know and as a composer the journey is to craft an experience for both the performers and the audience that can communicate the creative force that constitues it.
not for sensitive skin uses the Visual Object that I control in real time to visualise my tactile experience and has been performed alongside multi-instrumentalist Sam Leith Taylor at Centrala in Birmingham with the help of Sarah Farmer.
Format: Multi Sensory, Live Performance
Duration: Variable, aproximately 30 minutes
Excerpt: 30 seconds in web page background.
