S Y N E S T H E S I A

Synesthesia is a collaborative, experimental video created with artist Jane Dudman that connects sound and vision. This was made for the Freiraum Festival - a “pan-European hybrid festival on the State of freedom & State of the Arts today”.

This piece is a multidisciplinary video that connects audio and visual aspects. Jane Dudman performed a short section of spoken sound poem informed by the performance’s physical space, the Carlisle Methodists Central Hall, whilst myself created a live drawing in response to the textures of the sounds created. These sound drawings were projected live onto the Hall’s church organ pipes as a further reference to the relationship between sound and physical space, completing a full circle of creative reference. Further digital interventions within the final edited video also occurred, informed from the recording experience.

The spoken word took influence from Kurt Schwitters’ dada poem, the Ursonate. Schwitters had a compelling background of political exile during World War 2, travelling from Germany, via Norway amongst other places, to eventually spend his last years in the Lake District. This unfortunate travel across Europe did however bring Schwitters’ work to the attention of the local area. 

Combining these sound and visual components creates a connection between artists, a chain of interpretation and expression. It is encouraged that the audience has a go of communicating one human sense into another – using a form of creativity to experience something from a new perspective.