ma101jl

James Leahy is a London based Irish Artist and Composer. This blog acts as a journal documenting his MFA in Computational Studio Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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Today was the take down of NowHere 2013, and my last full day in London. As the MFA is now officially over, this blog will no longer be updated. For similar artistic musings, follow my new art blog, while if you are interested in the research into custom interfaces and software for live audiovisual performance conducted throughout the last two years, follow my new parallel Creative Computing blog.

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Today was the final day of NowHere 2013. At 14:00 I performed Забути тебе - це як дихати водою, before potentially my best performance yet of П at 19:00!

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Today was the opening of NowHere 2013! I premiered Забути тебе - це як дихати водою at 19:00, and also performed П at 21:00. Here are some shots.

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Today was my performance exam. Although Max betrayed me as my LiVid.m4l.FADR module didn't fade-out when the Master Fader was lowered in Live, overall I'm quite happy with how it went.

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Today I constructed my first prototype frame.

I'm really happy with it, and think it is infinitely more interesting than merely hanging or nailing prints on the walls. At the moment I am still using two A4 acetates, but tomorrow will try an A3 acetate once the library reopens. The clamps have been sanded down and look quite worn!

I also got the speakers from the department today, and project from MEC. The PA is really powerful, with incredible bass in the room. I listened to Забути тебе - це як дихати водою and made a note of some areas which need to be adjusted.

I also worked on the performance elements of Забути тебе - це як дихати водою, and thus constructed a Live set for the performance, and assignment of which sections I'll perform on Mandolin/Voice.

1. Mirror E D A C E riff and improvise otherwise. 2. 1-25 tacet. 25 - 41 strings A B D E. 41 - 57 tremolo + FX A B D E. 57 - 73 A C B C D C E C riff. 73 to end bow A B D E. 3. Mirror strings riff. 4. Mirror VI riff on the mandolin perhaps, played tremolo. Not sure if I can physically manage this for 4+ minutes. 5. To create the hypnotic sense, I will solely play the Am scale on the mandolin. This will start off quite delicate about bar 3, played col lengo, progressing from just the bow, to bow and hair, to hair, and then more sustain, attack etc. End with a repeating A note.

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Today I worked on my exhibition. After re-imagining the space yesterday as a grungy-industrial gig venue, it seems impractical to merely display these images as print outs on the walls, as the space is so powerful in itself. Instead I started experimenting with hanging these images as transparencies from the ceiling.

Even from printed using the crappy lab printer (toner) on a4 acetates (joining two to make a3), the results are quite impressive. I then tried a2 (by joining four a4 acetates).

I feel that in portrait mode, a2 is necessary, but that a3 is sufficient for landscape. Landscape more easily references film, but I am really struck by the power of portrait. As the acetates themselves are too unstable to be hung on their own, I bought some acrylic perspex. The transparencies will be sandwiched between two pieces of perspex, held by two g-clamps in the top left and right corners, which will then be suspended to the ceiling. There's be three in both, two landscape a3 and one portrait a2 in a symmetrical ordering. Although I had a hard time in tracking down 1in g-clamps, I eventually found 4 red and 2 black from a hardware store in Kenttish Town. Tomorrow I will begin constructing these frames.

In the evening I attended EAVI's inaugrial gig at Amersham Arms with performances from Mick, Tom Richards, Atau, and more.

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Today I decided to take my space in a more grungy direction.

This was achieved by firstly washing all the walls to try and remove as much of the previous paint job as possible. This worked especially on the real walls where the black dirt from the BA exhibition came through. On the adjacent wall there wasn't much change so I stained it using tea in a spray can to simulate a leaking pipe in the ceiling. For the door I originally thought about using a sheet to cover it, but felt that this didn't suit this new grungy-industrial aesthetic and so simply threw putty mixed with water on it.

I think that I'll project onto the wall infront of the table as this makes more sense for performance (I prefer to look at the screen and perform that way as opposed to be in the limelight). As there is a wall adjacent, people would be able to stand there and observe both the project and I. I won't use a curtain as I feel this may deter people to enter during the performance. Also, outside of performance times there'll be an exhibition and dim lighting, thus no logical reason for a curtain.

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Today I submitted the self-evaluation and technical studio reports, both of which are accessible from the right-handside of this blog. Within two weeks this blog will thus cease to exist, with all discussion taking place on my label's newly created blog for creative applications.

Today we were also allowed into the space where I was unfortunately greeted with a half-assed paint job in my room. Whereas before the room was grungy and industrial (and full of earth from the BA show), someone from Arts Education in their infinite wisdom decided to paint over the dirt, and just give it one coat might I add, so instead of grungy or white it is merely dirty looking. I am in a dilemma of what to do. I feel that, as the room also has holes in the walls, it is better to go with this aesthetic, especially as my performance is industrial and glitch.

I tried washing one part of the wall, and honestly it looks better IMO. The only thing I like about the room at the moment is the one spotlight which gives the room a nice industrial feel.

One other issue I am facing is the dampness of the room which has caused the electrical tape to shrivel-up and ruin the printed images, thus I'll be adopting nails in the corners of the images I imagine.

Ideologically, I realized that these manipulated images, although digitally and manipulated in an analog way as opposed to the videos which are analog manipulated in a digital way, are initially abstract and then manipulated, wheres the videos are originally standard film which becomes more abstract.

Finally, today I made П available to stream ahead of the planned release this Saturday.

П by Gray Dawn

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Today was a consolidation day in which I put the finishing touches on my self-evaluation report, technical studio report, made sure all code was uploaded etc. I also started considering the performance of Забути тебе - це як дихати водою. Firstly I updated LiAMP.Send.Beat to LiAMP.Send.Transport which now also sends the current bar

and I then planned on making a device which triggers a certain clip when a certain bar is reached. However, Live's automation can more efficiently do this, so I created LiVid.m4l.LIVECINEMA

where the videos are triggered to play via automation

Although you could argue that directly placing the videos on a Live track would achieve the same end, this allows me to utilize remaining LiVid.m4l modules.

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Today was a very productive day in which I finally have a full (audiovisual) demo of Забути тебе - це як дихати водою. I am especially proud of Scene 4 which my most successfully manipulated video section yet, similar in theme to Данные Изгиб, but more more critical thought given to the manipulations.

I do, however, wonder about how to present Забути тебе - це як дихати водою. Initially I just planned on a live performance, with an accompanying exhibition of error matrices. However, after watching this demo video in full, it seems somewhere between Вавилон/Батьківщина and П, which I suppose is what I wanted. So I guess what I am trying to say is, how do I best perform Забути тебе - це як дихати водою? And do I view it as a short film or merely a live performance, and should the film be looped, or documentation of a performance looped?

Firstly, the databent video manipulations could be achieved in Max, but would require multiple bounced layers. Clearly none of the manipulations done in Motion can or need to be replicated in Max. Scenes 1, 2, 3 have no manipulations to speak of (other than saturation) so they are going to be static playback anyway. Scene 5 could be implemented in Max, but where is the pointing in automating the process? Instead real-time control over the opacity of the memories might be a better solution.

Audio wise, I will perform vocals and mandolin, and also some settings on kontrolr. However, the main questions exists of whether the piece should be performed top-down or left-right (i.e. vertically like П, or horizontally like Вавилон/Батьківщина)? From an intuitive perspective, horizontally makes the most sense but then I am reliant on a backing track again. Vertically facilitates the triggering of clips via the launchpad, but as it is much more of a soundscape than П, and features live instruments, I don't see how this could be feasible. In either case, I can create a new module which triggers events at certain bars etc. (i.e trigger Scene 2 video clip at bar #82).

Getting the balance between audio manipulations, instrument performance, and visual manipulation is key. For instance, I could control the opacity of the flashbacks in Scene 5, but I feel it is much stronger of a statement to perform the same riff on the mandolin over and over again. Personally I've found this creates a hypnotic sense, and metaphorically it can be linked to 'a warm place' in therapy, or on the flip side, hesitation marks.

For the exhibition, I am still planning on utilizing A3-ish sized prints, strained, and affixed to the wall using (yellow) electrical tape. We will be allowed into the space on Monday so it'll be interesting to try stuff in the space then. How many prints to use? I think in the region of 10-15 is more than sufficient. I might need to go to A2 size though. I could also hang them using clips and a nail, again once I'm in the space I'll have a clearer idea.

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Today I made a quick and spontaneous video in which I describe the various components for the performance of П.

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Over the last few days I've mainly been invigilating exams and finalizing my self evaluation and technical studio reports, so today I had a very productive days remixing all five scenes, and working on the visual element. Scene 4 is almost in a demo state, and I must admit I am really proud of it. Scenes 1, 3, and 4 sounds much better since this remix, while a clear transition exists between all the scenes.

Generally I either write music to sonify my direct feelings, or in the case of a concept piece like this, try to position myself as the main character, create a bubble in my studio (i.e. bedroom), and ignore the outside world. However over the last two days, Ivan's world started to manifest around me after a guest staying in our house attempted suicide and rapidly slipped into a demented state, needing urgent professional assistance. This had a massive effect on me, leaving me in a confused state of reality and fiction, and so Самотність became (visually) darker and darker. Just now I have found out that the attempt was in fact a fabricated lie, and yet I still feel an added sense of darkness.  

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Hesitation Marks

Today Nine Inch Nails' new album Hesitation Marks became available to stream online. Listen to it here.

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Glitch vs. The New Aesthetic

Databending is a postdigital technique where data is 'bent' by manipulating it (say an image) in a program which is designed for a completely different type of data (say audio editing). This produces completely uncontrollable results like

Databending can be done in Processing (see Corrupt, and the openFrameworks version uglitch - similar source code can be found here) for images, or one can go completely old school and use Audacity as in the above image. As a comparison, this code is simply a simulation of a glitch. There is a big ideology difference between purposely glitching an image (and potentially destroying it), to simply simulating a glitch. So something like

is part of the New Aesthetic. In my opinion, one can think of the New Aesthetic vs. Glitch like Instrgram vs. Analog film.

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Here is a draft of Scene One, Іван і Марічка. The scene mainly comprises of shots from The Carpathians, and the love of Ivan and Marichka. Musically, although horribly unmixed, follows on from П and other 80's synth experiments, but is much darker than I imagined. I feel there is good potential here though, for instance the use of anempathetic music (distorted screaming voice over shots of Ivan and Marichka) which attempts to highlight their love and peace together.

The piece is in Am and 4/4, but has an odd three-bar progression unlike traditional four bars, and a middle section in 7/8 (well really still 4/4 but half a bar missing). The piece ends on A minor triad (A C) linking into Scene Two.

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Nowhere Exhibition

Today I started preparing for the exhibition by printing out some of my favorite databend images and see how they are in real-life.

Although not obvious in the image above, the white in these images is really white and digital and artificial. This is something which I noticed Wednesday when working on Scene 5 of Забути тебе - це як дихати водою, and there I added a very slight Sepia filter (6%) which save a slightly warmer feel to the databent images and monochrome scenes. Thus I wondered what could I do with physical prints?

So I investigated tea-staining the paper. Quite a funny idea I know, but similar to developing film using coffee and orange juice. So I made a very strong pot of tea (three bags), left it cool down a little, and then began the process.

I have to admit I'm quite happy with the results. I didn't really do it in a scientific manner, just let it 'develop' for a while, and then left it to dry. For the second image I actually 'baked' it in the oven, whereas for the first, as dried paper will always curl, I flattened it down with a heavy book.

I quite like the electrical tap, adding much more of an industrial aesthetic and obviously perfectly complements my pieces. I think the 'baked' one is too winked, but the lack of anything affixing looks good also. There is more than enough staining here I think, all I want is something to taint the digital white. From a critical point of view, theses completely digital artifacts which have been manipulated in an analog way is a perfect complement to my videos are are completely analog, manipulated in a digital way.

With regard to the actual performance, I'm reconsidering my multiple screen idea as I feel it might be too disruptive to the viewing process (as Забути тебе - це як дихати водою is more film and story based that I originally thought five weeks ago). However, the room that I'll be in has quite gritty walls which may actually be something worth incorporating into the performance. As the music and tone of both П and Забути тебе - це як дихати водою are both industrial, the physical characteristics of the room may augment the projection, like Вавилон onto the library building during NewXing. Also Matt will probably perform there also, so a common space may be beneficial. These are things which will be clearer once we start setting up on the 3rd.

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Two Years in 3000 Words

I undertook this MFA to further investigate my growing interest in audiovisual artworks, something which I couldn't fully explore in my MA in Music Technology. My proposal for entry into Year Two of the MFA program was an audiovisual installation with evolutionary audio and     visuals based on audience interaction and sensory information. I thus began the MFA (Year 2 Part 1) by experiment with ideas which I wanted to implement for a while; real-time datamoshing/databending, extreme timestretching, and synchronicity of audio and visual events. Even though all these 'experiments' lacked any artistic reason, a prominent common theme was that of time passing, both aurally and visually, and timbre or color sonically. Throughout this first semester I felt quite lost artistically, floating in a sea of seemingly infinite knowledge from lectures and Goldsmiths' extensive library, and without any real tangible project I could relate to. I audited Janis Jefferies' Creative Technologies and Art Practices seminars and Luciana Parisi's Critical Theory lectures (from the Centre for Cultural Studies). These served as my predominate theoretic basis for New Media art, an area of which I then identified myself with. I also periodically attended Mick Grierson's Advanced Audiovisual Processing lectures, and Max Wogan's Workshops in Creative Coding, both of which served as my technological stimulus, and who I participated in the final projects of. Workshops in Creative Coding helped develop my competency at C++/Objective C programming, but most importantly spurred my interest in creating customs interfaces for live performance, a point which I'll return to later. Also around this time, I began working on Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water, an audiovisual installation, however half-way throughout I realized that static video installations is instead what interested me more, and hence changed the focus of the project. This project, although unfinished with only a rough draft of the audio completed, nevertheless lingered in the back of my mind, and was finally fully developed as Забути тебе - це як дихати водою for my final show. Other than the mentioned weekly lectures of which I attended, three other once-off lectures were very important in shaping my eventual artistic focus. Firstly, Dr. Jonathan Williams discussed scoring music for videos games, an area of which I am quite interested in. Secondly, a lecture by Cindy Keefer on Visual Music introduced me to Oskar Fischinger and abstract animation. Thirdly, and most importantly, a talk from our off-campus lecturer Jane Prophet described her relationship with New Media art, and how one could not reside within both the fine art and New Media art scenes. Most critically, she now sees herself as within the fine art scene. This resonated very strongly with me. At the time I felt somewhat lost within New Media trying to fit in with my banal 'experiments'. However, I then realized that I too belong more to fine art than New Media art, which is perhaps surprising as my background is computer science, not fine art. Nevertheless, my attitude before starting the MFA was using technology as a mere tool, something I perhaps began to forsake, tempted by the lure of new media art. In the second semester I again audited Janis Jefferies' Creative Technologies and Art Practices seminars, this time also attending the MFA Fine Art seminars. This juxtaposition of computational technologies and fine art facilitated more of a creative environment than reading works of Manovich and new media artists. Two important events occurred at this time; Kinetica 2012 and the Physical Computing lectures, both of which vastly tainted my view of interactive art and sealed my move towards fixed media. Although disillusioned with the false offerings of interactive art, I nevertheless worked on Blocknect with two friends from Cognitive Computing as part of the computer vision project. This interface involved the placing of colored blocks on a chess board which were then mapped to sonic events. The resultant project had numerous bugs and although it was fun to play it, again I feel it is more a demonstration of technology; I couldn't realistically see myself using such an interface artistically. As I was gradually shifting from New Media art and interactivity, I was also shifting back towards electroacoustic music composition. After competing the mentioned draft of Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water, I was exposed to two very influential scores; SÓLARIS by Ben Frost and Daniel Bjarnason, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The later was so influential that I began remixing Great Bird of Prey (as the track I Could Wait Forever), and instead a subsequent EP emerged. Codenamed TGWTDT , the compositions were my responses and reaction to Reznor-Ross' score, rooted in a Spectral and avant-guarde aesthetic. Frost-Bjarnason's score was so influential not only because it served as the main inspiration for my critical essay, but also because it spurred me to re-watch the films of Andrei Tarkovsky (Stalker is perhaps one of my favorite films). After this (sort of) rediscovery of Tarkovsky, and becoming more and more influenced by cinema, I began to shoot my own footage for TGWTDT while concurrently composing the soundtrack. The idea of presenting this audiovisual installation (in a dimly lit room, with a table and chair covered with hand-written musical scores while the visuals are played back on a CRT TV and audio on a vinyl player) still remains unimplemented, only a rough demo of the audio uploaded. Becoming more and influenced by cinema as visual art, I began working on a score for a thirty-minute self-edited short film based on Fritz Lang's Metropolis. This progression to scoring, in hindsight, was a natural one as most of my musical output, even when indie and rock influenced, is instrumental, and remarks made about The Dark of Night (Leahy 2011) praised the soundscape created. For Вавилон, I sought to compose something which could be performed live (alongside the edited movie), and hence used the guitar and piano as dominate instrumentation, as opposed to predominate orchestral ensemble in TGWTDT. A rough demo of the first sixteen minutes was presented at Digital Futures, Sackler Centre, V&A where it received positive feedback, most significantly praising the audiovisual experience. The work was completed in mid-May and first premiered at SLAMP's Music for Computers evening. Вавилон was the first ever serious piece in which I started with the visuals first (compared to TGWTDT, Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water, or work before the MFA). This, I believe, added to the piece's successfulness in two ways; firstly, composing the audio for video meant an inherent synchronicity and congruency between image and sound, and two, I am probably a better composer than director so fitting sound to image would naturally lead to better results than image to sound. Sonically, Вавилон is a mixture of industrial, orchestral, rock, and gothic. Clearly both Вавилон and TGWTDT have drastically improved my orchestration ability, while it should be noted that Вавилон was also the first time I edited video shot by someone else. After attending a performance of Music for Solaris in Budapest, I realized that although a fantastic musical performance, the mere visual element was too unsuccessful and thus overall not as successful audiovisual-wise as it could have been. Audiovisual composition became the topic of my critical essay, with Music for Solaris as one of the main contemporary examples. Вавилон was also quite instrumental to this essay. The main points I took away were 1) The composition of sound to video (as opposed to my general practice of video to sound), 2) The verification of a successful combination of instrumental music and image, and 3) The challenges associated with visual dominance. The essay considers audiovisual composition within the spectral school of music and live film, taking Michel Chion (1994) as the main theoretical basis and Music for Solaris by Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason, and utp_ by Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto as practical examples. Although more and more discussion is being generated on the cross-modularity of sound and image, in relation to a live orchestral paradigm, there is very still little written material. Stevens' (2009) prominent text, Music and Image in Concert, theorizes the addition of visuals which not only must remain subservient to the music, but are seemingly contrived to cater only for an audience which has become image-focused due to their consumption of images from film, television, and the Internet. Instead I considered a theory of audiovisual composition in which image and sound could work together as a whole. From examining Chion's theory on counterpoint, an approach for audio visual composition based on vertical synchrony was proposed in which the image color and sonic timbre would combine to create a continuum of vertical synchrony. Such 'smears' focus attention on the audiovisual combination, while facilitating the meanderings of the sonic and visual worlds until the next sync point. This was then further expanded to consider the use of spectral analysis on a video's corresponding sound layer to generate a starting point for the resulting composition. I argue that such a continuum of synchronicity not only helps maintain a level of congruency between image and sound, but also facilitates the composer's creativity (not merely limiting them to mickey-mousing the visual element). Furthermore, due to the removal of recorded sound, temporality is susceptible to being extracted or contracted, especially in conjunction with long takes. The latter, combined with composing music for video, can be seen as somewhat of a return to silent cinema. Although the scoring of contemporary music for silent movies has been increasing in popularity over the last few years1, it should be apparent that the works I have explored do not merely score for the original film, but instead try to create a more complete audiovisual experience. This is achieved from editing the film and applying theories summarized and developed within my essay. Батьківщина tried to address some of the issues raised in Вавилон, specifically of a more balanced audiovisual experience. I feel that Батьківщина is a more mature work than Вавилон. Sonically it combines a wide range of influences to create something unique, yet rooted within my practice, while visually, the custom narrative explores my position as a screenwritter as opposed to simply being the editor. Inspired from the alarming growth of nationalism in the United Kingdom throughout 2012, Батьківщина is situated during the Irish Civil War. The piece provocatively juxtaposes Ukrainian culture with Irish folklore and history to explore the universal issue of nationalism. The piece is edited from Alexander Dovzhenko’s Ukrainian trilogy, Zvenigora, Arsenal, and Earth, and features an original composition for Mandolin, Piano, and Laptop. This custom narrative was achieved by writing title cards in Ukrainain, and then interspurcing them throughout the piece. At Nowhere 2012 (MA/MFA Computational Studio Arts exhibition), I premiered Батьківщина with a live performance, with exhibited Вавилон and Батьківщина as static playback. Throughout the summer, I concurrently worked on Music for Computers Interface, an interface for audiovisual performance, rooted in the live coding aesthetic. This was premiered in late September at SHO-ZYG, and became not only my first piece in this Masters solely for live performance, but also my first ever laptop-only piece. I started Part Two semester one with a performance of Вавилон to close the NewXing festival. This performance in a larger space and incorporating architectural elements of Rutherford building created a much more interesting and successful presentation than Батьківщина at Nowhere 2012. From reflection upon my SHO-ZYG performance, I realized that livecoding using a keyboard and computer wasn't the correct interface for me to explore for a non-instrument performance, and instead I began to reconsider the possibilities of touch screen devices. Thus I spent this semester improving my technical ability in C++ and iOS development by auditing Mick Grierson’s Advanced Audiovisual Processing class and self-learning from books and online resources. Although most of my time was spent on such technical advances, I also manged to compose some new tracks within my Music for Computers series, some of which were later incorporated on П. These beat-heavy electronic pieces felt like a natural progression from Вавилон and Батківщина, and although I received good feedback from the performances of these works earlier that year, I felt that I needed to take my music and performance in a newer, more electronic and club-orientated direction. I also conducted and organized workshops throughout the semester on Max and Supercollider. Semester two continued similarly in which I predominately spent my time working on technical advancements, and unfortunately hardly anytime on performance or composition, albeit a DJ set under Strawberry Complexity. Throughout the semester I audited Tim Blackwell’s Music Computing 2 class which focused on live algorithms, an area which I really got interested in last year after the Supercollider symposium. Although Tim taught his class using Max as the listener and performer with Java as the brain, instead I chose the novel approach of Ableton Live as the listener and performer with Max4Live as the brain, ideas which I proclaim the previous year. Although not strictly live algorithms, this approach spawned LiAMP, a Max package which emits performance related data from Live (such as BPM, set is playing, instrument volume etc.), which can then be used by other tracks within Live or external applications. Performance wise, I took inspiration from DJing and experimented with breaking tracks up into layers and certain sections, which then be performed by using an external controller. While developing LiAlg and concurrently attending Videohackspace, VJ London, and Live Cinema Foundation events, I become more interested in VJing, resulting in the creation of LiVid, a Max package for live video performance. This package utilizes a modular approach of video players, computer graphics, and video effects, all connectable via Max’s patching system, and able to talk to Live via LiAMP. Although the semester was crazy between work and being a lab assistant at university, I was lucky enough to visit Berlin and Paris at the end of March and start of April respectively. Both rejuvenated me artistically as I spent my time visiting galleries and music events in Berlin, while was fortunate to witness Ben Frost live in Paris. Another important influence was the Light Show at the Hayward Gallery, and a live performance by Phill Niblock, one of my long time drone influences. With the technical components in place for a more dynamic AV performance, I began composing new electronic music, and starting reading about 1930's soviet cinema and watching films from this period like По Закон (By the Law). These electronic tracks became part of П, which itself is a mixture of industrial, orchestral, gothic, and electronic influences. Ultimately I chose to utilize Аэлита as source material for performances of П as I felt the imagery situated on Mars perfectly complemented the gothic and industrial music. П (in four-track form) was debuted at The Live Performer's Meeting, Rome at the end May, with another performance at Goldsmiths' Tech Expo (with an new track) two weeks later, before I embarked on a Poland-Ukraine tour through June-July (now with the full six tracks). Such an approach of performing a piece work-in-progress, and even prior uploads to the internet was a new approach for me, and one in which was very successful due to instant feedback. П  has been more successful than I imagine, with an EP due out September 7th, and radio performances to follow. Throughout this Poland-Ukraine tour, I mainly listened to industrial and electronic music (especially early Nine Inch Nails and Paul-Leonard Morgan) during transit, and began experimenting with synths and distorted sine tones. Although the tour was very well received and a success, I missed the tactility and expression of real instruments, and while the launchpad is a great device for triggering clips, I longed for an additional controller to control audio effects, and my video manipulations which I need to use the mouse and keyboard for. Although I experimented with an additional physical controller in performances on my return, I ultimately created my own iOS interface kontrolr which could simulate numerous controllers, and thus is the perfect accompaniment for performing the audio and visual elements of П alongside the launchpad. Perhaps most importantly from this tour was my time spent in The Carpathian Mountains and Western Ukraine where I was more exposed to Hutsul music and culture, and the Ukrainian language. There I started reading a book on Ukrainian folk songs, and also started playing the Jew's Harp. Once I returned to London, I started experimenting with databending in Max. The approach, which exploits an inherent error in [jit.la.inverse] for large matrices, creates beautiful yet random glitches, best viewed in monochrome. After determining how to simulate this effect, I created well over one-thousand of these databent images and their corresponding 'error matrices', a measure of the algorithms error which could be use to simulate the glitch. Inspired from my time in The Carpathians, I watched Parajanov's Тіні забутих предків (Shadow of Forgotten Ancestors). The tragedy of Ivan and Marichka lead me to think about what if events occurred different in the story, that is, Ivan never left his solitude phase, and instead eventually commits suicide to be with Marichka. This, along with listening to a lot of minimal glitch electronic music, reminded of my uncompleted piece, Forgetting You is Like Breathing Water. Thus, I decided to finally complete FYiLBW, with a completely revised score, instrumentation, with visual manipulations from Тіні забутих предків. However, unlike П, I wanted to work with the audio and visual elements in tandem, while following on from  Батьківщина, I wished to implement my own alternate storyline. Забути тебе - це як дихати водою is my most experimental piece created throughout this Masters, and is a good measure of my artistic grown throughout these two years. Contrasting this final piece against the original version of FYiLBW, one can notice a more engaging and critically conceive audiovisual piece. Although I originally intended to work within the field of interactive audiovisual installations, my practice has altered into audiovisual performance within the expanded field of live cinema. From being heavenly inspired from cinema, when creating these pieces over the last eighteen months, I wasn't contempt to merely add music to supplement the visuals, nor add visuals to supplement the audio, I wished for a complete integration of both elements. To me, this seemed only possible by editing the visual element itself, however ultimately I was always working with found material under the artistic direction of someone else. It seems like a logical progress that I next develop my skills in filmography and instead utilize my own footage. Although I shot my own footage for TGWTDT, I ultimately abandoned the project due to my dissatisfaction with both the audio and visual elements. However, after studying cinematic works by Tarkovsky, Parajanov etc., and from my critical essay on audiovisual composition, I feel that I am now in a much stronger position to adopt this new philosophy into my practice and create an interesting discourse within the fields of live cinema, audiovisual performance, and filmography.