Nature
In 2006, I worked on a number of (short?) films with a student from Kingston University's Art department. They are, as I see them, essays or studies of nature, using images of rain, snow and a female statue looking up into the sky, through the branches of nearby trees. They may be be an effort to 'lead its viewers to feel that they are truly a part of the natural world through rich, striking and breathtaking images from Nature'. (Anima Mundi)
"Natural order and beauty are based on differences and the endless variety of species, elements, beings and systems which together form a marvelous balanced and harmonious Whole." (Anima Mundi).
Plato (Timeus, 29/30; 4th century B.C.) talked of "a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related." The 'study of trees' shows us the "variety of species" and the statue, which the artist imagines to be alive, may, like the hyacinth, represent Plato's "single visible living entity".
Like philip Glass and Godfrey Regio, We feel that the images and the music are egually important. Movement, structure, pattern...infinity...time...space
screen capture from tree/statue film
This partnership came about as a result of a meeting during transitstation Edinburgh, and we woudl like to present some work at the next transitstation, Copenhagen. I would like to improvise/play piano music live, rather than presenting the work with a recording music improvised earlier, so that the experience combines composition, performance, images and audience-I enjoyed improvising 'accompaniments' to performance art in Edinburgh. Perhaps we will make a video in Warsaw so that both the music and the images reflect the country the work is presented in.
"Matthew has written the piece called 'Street Music' and it's based on a video he shot on a single day in Dublin, as he walked along Grafton Street. The piano part and live electronics mirror the material he found that day, and it's a piece of music that will be constantly revised and rewritten depending on what country we're in." (Soundcircus)
Partly inspired by this, I am also keen to explore the use of electronics in combination with improvised piano music to provide a 'soundtrack' for the images.
"That is not enough to put me off - with the help of pre-recorded soundtracks, live piano, pre-recorded video and live camera you will see eight hands (all of them mine) playing this music. See if you can work out which pair of hands is playing 'live'."