Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Building Machine (see also Meadowmill Building Machine MM BM)

Throughout the past year on the MFA(2004), I have been using sound to explore and express ideas and concepts of space and being, presence, through the use of sound. In this final piece I have used my origin as a visual artist to form a sort of metaphorical structure of the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, buildings through the use of sound.

The choice of this subject comes from my personal history with this building, I was first in it at the age of six or seven, I studied for my first degree here and have been in and out of it ever since. I see this work as a study of the animate nature of this institution, to which I have become very sensitive to, in my studies.

Eight abstract drawings were creating of eight areas of these buildings and then passed on to various artists and musicians to then interpret in sound. These drawings were explorations, and extemporizations on and of the spaces and as such were to be seen as directions of activities and sounds in relation to each individual space. There was no absolute instructions in these drawings, but were to be used as origins for directed improvisation. The intention was that the performer should be specific, and consistent in his or her actions toward the drawing and be sensitive to the area and facts of the part of the building they were performing in.

The form this work takes references from the production of an album or other forms of works of music. This is the machine, the supply of stimulation, in the form of the drawings and verbal direction, to the individuals. These are then mixed and formed into a whole by the 'producer', myself, using the ninth drawing, that of the Bradshaw Gallery itself, where the final work was exhibited, to direct my actions. We all meet in a formalized structure in which relationships are negotiated by the works overall presence and effect.

Process is very important to this work. The drawings have gone through many processes; the different approaches of the performers representations of the drawings, the final mix of them into one piece and the recreation/ extemporization of them into waterless lithographic prints by myself, these prints then becoming a form of visual music. It was a great learning experience to produce something that is neither just audio nor visual but unites both to an equal degree in its final form. There is available, a box of nine CDs and inkjet prints of the drawings.

See also the second Building Machine project called Meadowmill Building Machine (MM BM), executed in 2006.