I am very humbled to have been selected by reputable organisation Sound & Music for one of 18 COVID-19 Composer Awards - an award which will support the initial stages of a new research and development project. It comes at a time whereby challenges regarding my creative motivation and mental health have been extremely difficult as a consequence of the pandemic and its devastation on the creative community, and therefore it's very welcomed news as you can imagine! Feel free to check out my previous blog post for a reflection on my own personal pandemic journey.
This award will enable me to begin conducting practical research into how a passion of mine, plants, can become an integral part of my artistic practice. Together with experts in various fields and members of various communities, I will be exploring how to gather information from the electrical impulses of plants in response to various stimuli (temperature, light, soil, water, humidity, touch, etc.), and map these onto synthesis / various features and parameters of electronic music. I will also be closely documenting the growing sounds of various plants and organisms, with a view to applying these newly discovered techniques to installation/exhibition and performance pieces in the future. I'm aiming to document as much of the process as possible as I would very much like to share the experience with you all :)
I'm also very much looking forward to seeing what the other 17 recipients have up their sleeves and to hopefully establishing new creative connections along the way :)
You can read more about the awards here: https://soundandmusic.org/post/covid-19-composer-awards-round-2-winners-announced/ Peace out!
Shaun.