forget my name, forget my face

.forum - week six.

In the final week of the “collaboration” themed forum class, we heard the thoughts of a few of our seniors around the Electronic Music Unit:

.the 9:13.
Luke Harrold presented a short film called “the 9:13,” which he composed the music for. Directed by Matthew Phipps, the project did not sound like ideal environment for collaborative work – Luke mentioning that he never met with the sound designer – however, I guess it’s not an ideal world. I thoroughly enjoyed what we did see of the film, Luke’s music was eerie and well suited to the train station set. Being an Adelaide based film, it straight away reminded of the (also Adelaide made) film “2: 37” (similar title no?) which I recently watched, and too recommend.

.compossible.
David Harris presented yet another of his ‘out there’ works’ – Compossible for twelve musicians (with artist Pamela Rataj). What can one say about this one? Trippy!

.behind the door.
Honours postgrad Poppi Doser then treated us to her collaborative piece “behind the door,” which she created with the animator Betty Qian. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the simple, plain and yet still weird and alien aesthetic of the work connected across the mediums. The piece in fact reminded me a lot of such Tool video clips as ‘Parabola’ and ‘Schism.’


.forget my name, forget my face - björk.
Finally jedi-master Whittington, as he does so well, got a little deep. A little spaced out. He played the beautiful Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven, then pondered the idea of collaborating with deceased composers – the dead. This interested me greatly – one thing I have always admired about great musicians is the timelessness of their achievements. I think it’s the dream of any musician to become a household name like Mozart or Lennon. Stephen is quite right in his point: the further you dig into the music of an adept composer such as Beethoven, more of their personality comes out of the music – the more of a collaborative venture the music becomes between the composer and yourself.

One other idea that surfaced during the forum, which I would like to consider was that of leaving you ego at the door. To be honest, I tend to disagree with Luke and David, who think you need to bring your ego to the party. Ofcourse your ego never leaves you fully, but this was advice that just did not seem correct. In collaborative ventures I have been involved with, the people who do, in fact, leave their ego at the door tend to be more open to new ideas. The beauty of collaboration is that you can combine the best of several people, into something unique. I find when someone brings an ego into the group, they become overbearing and spoil the collaboration by not adapting to their associates. This all depends on the situation of course, but might I add that in the realm of studio recording, everyone needs leave their ego at home and be willing to work with the producer, to really take them in as their own.

.sources.

Doser, Poppi 5.03.07, "Behing the Door," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Harrold, Luke 5.03.07, "9.13," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Harris, David 5.03.07, "Compossible," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Whittington, Stephen 5.03.07, "Collaboration with the Dead." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.