Music to be looked at

But 'theatre' today is rarely just actors and text. We live in an artistic climate where art forms have become less defined – visual art is returning to the stage and video is playing an ever increasing role. In Scotland, there is clear evidence that multi media and site specific performances are on the increase.

In 2001 I was awarded a three year NESTA Fellowship which is enabling me to develop new technologies with a view to enhancing my vision of "music to be looked at . . . not just listened to".
For me, music is a more powerful medium than words. I want to present its incredible immediate emotion. Having explored visuals on stage with live music through sculpture, intense lighting and projections, I have reached a stage in my career where I am hungry to explore new media that can enhance the experience of music.

Currently, I engage with music and visuals but I am now moving to engage with technology as a creative tool. I want to find a way to move and present a traditional art form, such as choral music, through new media, to create a world never experienced before, which stimulates all our senses, something more powerful than the music itself, which embraces technology and is enhanced through other art forms.

Over the last twelve years I have commissioned composers with a view to staging music, both acoustically and digitally, through many art forms, from small scale such as the Yggdrasil String Quartet to large scale such as the acclaimed Latvian Radio Choir. I feel there is an enormous gap between the presentation of popular and classical music. The first focuses more on the performers than the music itself, the latter vice-versa. I want to narrow this gap. As technology develops and becomes readily more available and cheaper, now is the perfect opportunity with my NESTA Fellowship to explore and develop the visual presentation of music which will in the long term, I hope, introduce a new audience to classical music.

Ultimately, I would like to make significant developments in how music is presented. I want to explore the role of new media in relation to the visual staging of music, giving particular attention to how we can 'stimulate our ears visually'. This will not only develop our appreciation of music, but long term should also inspire ensembles, and individual musicians internationally, to embrace technology in the visual presentation of both the established repertoires and new work, thus moving away from the traditional concert hall setting.

My NESTA Fellowship has enabled me to travel extensively and experience much inspiring work, attend conferences worldwide and ultimately it is supporting me in the exploration of new territories, which otherwise I would have dreamt of but never achieved.