Arts Thread

This is the artistic outcome of a hybrid thesis that was completed from the Music and Media Technologies postgraduate degree at Trinity College Dublin. ‘Acousmatic Through Abstraction’ investigates the parallel characteristics of musique concrète and visual music practices to create an effective audiovisual acousmatic composition methodology. This research project involved creating a specialised compositional language for creating audiovisual acousmatic/electroscoustic works, because there is no existing methodology for such a specialised discipline. The final audiovisual work is divided into three acts - the first act entitled ‘Hold Still’, the second act called ‘Unravel’, and the final act called ‘Take Care’. This work reflects a deep and passionate engagement with my creative practice.

My work aims to communicate a sense of pathos that I often feel too inhibited to further articulate with others. The narrative is sourced from auto-ethnographic research, which allowed for a multitude of personal themes to embed my work, such as shame, guilt and isolation. This entire project was made in an electrical unit closet in college, which I decided to implement as an exhibition space. The architectural atmosphere that influenced my creative process further demonstrates the central themes of my work. My work intends on interrogating the definition of design. My creative endeavours do not aim to solve, they are a means of personal expression, and heavily prioritise process over outcome. This seems to be the antithesis of design; the refusal of the label ‘designer’ feels like an act of selfishness. Can my work be classified as design solely on the basis that I made it in order to attain a degree in design?