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Moths Wings/The Incredible Adventures of M. Courage, or What if you were already as important as the person you’re trying to be?

The research challenge for these works entailed expanding and redefining the possible performance spaces and contexts for popular song, removing the song from established gig scenarios and exploring a song’s narratives and themes in the visual and physical environment in a way that challenged the constructed nature of music video. The multi-media works were also a forum to examine and reflect the increasingly autonomous and interdisciplinary creative skills and activities of the contemporary musician.

The process involved taking individual tracks, or small groups of tracks, from my existing catalogue of recorded works and using narratives and themes within them, often with found sound objects, to develop large scale installations or environments within which I would inhabit and perform the related compositions. My performance style varied with the nature of the installation and the duration of time spent in it. For the presentation of Moths Wings in 2011 I spent one day a week performing within the installation. For the presentation of The Incredible Adventures… in 2010 I lived and slept for the entire two week duration in the work itself. The musical performance elements were equally varied: performing within Moths Wings involved live manipulation and interaction of electronic software elements, found sounds on vinyl, harmonium and voice. In contrast, the performances in The Incredible Adventures… consisted of karaoke vocal performances to homemade karaoke VHS video tapes. The installations allowed for participation by those who encountered them. Visitors were invited to enter the spaces and perform or collaborate musically if they wished, challenging the traditional ‘performer/audience’ and ‘star/fan’ relationships prevalent in popular music.