CoLab - Day 5 (Friday 19th February 2021)
For the final day of CoLab, we started the session with an improvisation workshop led by our group mentor and member of the jazz voice professorial staff, Trudy Kerr. In the session, we worked collaboratively by using our voices to repeat phrases, which then developed to responding to a phrase like a conversation. We were able to do this exercise muted and explore the task without being fearful of making mistakes. After a week of intensive improvisation, it was a good way to end the week by having a class led by someone so well-versed in improvisation.
To conclude our week, we watched the material of the contemporary compositions and the improvisations on a topic of choice. There were two pieces of work that really impressed me. The first was a contemporary composition called ‘Medusa’ by Charlotte Marlow. The text depicted Medusa as a monster, who received contempt from the world. The piece was performed by a soprano and a French horn and she was depicted weeping in a shower as she sang the piece. As the piece progressed, quotes from politicians and well-known court cases on sexual assault appeared on the screen, each blaming the victim for their attack. It made me re-think my perception of Medusa and whether we have been manipulated to believe the narrative that has been created about her.
The second recording was an improvisation called ‘STIM’, which was based on autism. Diagnostic handbooks describe the core features of autism as ‘abnormalities of social interaction, impairments in verbal and non-verbal communication and a restricted repertoire of interests and activities, all present from early childhood’(1). However, two of the members of that group are autistic and they wanted to portray the reality of being autistic and what this meant for them on a daily basis. The video was seven minutes long and depicted several coping mechanisms used when experiencing sensory overload. This was accompanied by a voice repeating ‘impulse’ for the entirety of the piece, in addition to other voices building and creating tension. The struggle of daily life was represented so well and educated me on what it means to have autism.
Despite my initial hesitations about CoLab taking place online, I thoroughly enjoyed it and moreover, was extremely impressed with the work that was produced in my group. It made me think about my surroundings in a very different way and it was liberating being able to create for the sake of creation, rather than with an essay or exam in mind. Despite the distance between all of us and very few of us having editing experience, the creativity and innovation shone through. A college was made to show the work that we created (see the video below) and after a very surprising week online, I look forward to taking part in CoLab next year and who knows, we might actually meet each other next time(!)
References
Elizabeth L. Hill and Uta Frith, ‘Understanding autism: insights from mind and brain’, Philosophical transactions: Biological Sciences 358/1430 (2003), 281.