Bog bodies

Bog Bodies is a project focusing on the use of 16mm sound film in music performance, composition, and studio production. The research objectives for this project were: to test the viability of the 16mm film projector as a musical resource; to establish this resource’s role in and influence on performed and recorded improvisation, and; to examine how this resource impacted the ensemble’s musical approach in subsequent projects.

The initial stage of this work focused on developing uses of the 16mm technology for a multi-media performance context, drawing upon the precedent of experimental audio-visual composers (Oram, Fishinger, and MacLaren). The techniques developed in this first stage were tested and adapted in a series of rehearsals, and presented in public performances. The final stage of work focused on the use of 16mm films in the production of studio recordings.

The findings of the project are: (1) in the context of improvisation, the use of 16mm sound films encouraged an expansion of the instrumentalists musical language to include a wider variety of non pitch-derived resources; (2), used in performance, the projected 16mm images could serve a dual role as visible/visual scores, and scenographic objects that reposition the performers’ bodies as ‘screens’, and (3) the 16mm films could effectively function as both sound sources and ‘audio scores’ in the creation of recorded improvisations.