Looking back, and looking forwards.
Both "Screen Glare" and the "Chrominance Collection" have been excellent learning opportunities for me. But more than anything else, I think they helped me develop a more rigorous approach to sound research.
As I mature as an artist, I'm slowly becoming more and more comfortable with how much of "myself" I place into my work. It's clear to me that my work should not and can not be objective. The entire premise of my musical work is that I amplify what I see and feel and place it into the medium of sound; a less empirical musical practice could hardly exist. I think that with "Screen Glare", I have reached a good balance between being able to fully express myself creatively and emotionally and audiences being able to relate to the piece on a personal level.
Compared to my previous musical endeavours, I spent a considerable amount of time on planning and documentation. I believe this allowed me to have more focus when creating music. I also started using task management tools (specifically click-up) to organize not only the technical side of things but also the creative side of things. At first, I thought that implementing so much "structure" into the creative process would create friction, but I found that it prevented me from falling into spaces where I didn't feel creative anymore. By cataloguing my creative process and writing down ideas, I actually found myself in the position to always have something rewarding to do in a music-making session. Developing this semi-structured process more is something that I am really looking forward to in the future.
I've always been a fan of visual coding environments for music ever since working with NI Reaktor in my teenage years; this software sparked my interest in modular synthesis. I found it extremely rewarding to create a series of instruments not only for a specific project but also for the public. I ended up making designs that focus on ergonomics and changing the way we "play" software. Some of the subsections of the instruments I've developed for the "Chrominance Collection" have great potential even within more linear ways of making music. I might transfer them to a series of Max for Live instruments and Effects with features tailored directly for the contemporary music-making landscape.
It seemed really ambitious and maybe a bit "out there" at first, but the idea to make musical work centred around non-sound-related ideas was pretty successful. I especially enjoyed the distance I had from the medium of light when working in the sound domain. I think this inquiry into light is just the first of many, and I'm really excited to extend it towards larger musical ecosystems. Specifically, now I am looking into the idea of using this light-work to showcase connections between biology and human behaviour. Depending on how the global health situation evolves, I might start to focus on installation work that blends sound, light, networking and biology into one extensive ecosystem.
