Living Lines
The week of October 16th– 22nd once again saw The University of Lincoln involved in The Big Draw’s celebration of drawing under the theme of ‘Living Lines’ with a range of workshops happening for Lincolnshire’s Schools and the public over the week.
On the 17th October 30 primary school children visited from Potterhanworth drawing with light in the photography studios, interpreting music into drawings (in all our music drawing workshops the drawings were then re interpreted back into music through improvised performances by our music students, the concept is that the lines ‘live again’ through their reinterpretation back into music, and finally experimental animation making Phonotropes (as inspired by Jim Le Fevre).
On the 18th hosted the event for 30 secondary school pupils from University Academy Holbeach and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School Horncastle, this time drawing with light in the photography studios, interpreting music into drawings, and also creating digital animations in our animation studios.
On the 19th we welcomed 45 primary school children visiting, from three schools (Rauceby, Redwood, and Monks Abbey drawing with light in the photography studios, interpreting music into drawings, making Phonotropes, and finally creating drawings by attaching sponges dipped in paint to elastic band powered vehicles, (this was great fun and resulted in some interesting ‘live’ drawing).
On Sunday the 22nd we ran an open children’s drawing day for the Lincolnshire Childrens University and members of the public, (30 places, all filled), with the following activities taking place, drawing with light in the photography studios, interpreting music into drawings, and finally creating drawings with elastic band powered vehicles.
Finally on Sunday evening we attempted a giant drawing with light on the lawns outside the University’s Newton Science building with students from The College of Arts. This was photographed from the roof of the Newton Building and live streamed on the Frequency Festival’s web site.
All the ‘music drawings’ have been posted onto the Frequency Festival’s, website, with an international invitation put out to musicians and composers of all kinds to send us musical compositions and improvisations as responses to the drawings. http://frequency.org.uk/portfolio-item/big-draw/
The Frequency Festival’s theme was Place/Displacement; consider the childrens’ Big Draw music drawings as graphic scores, as a displacement in terms of moving away from the traditional and expected forms of notation creating new challenges and opportunities for musicians and sound artists. We invited musicians and sound artists of all kinds (solo, band, orchestral, etc. of whatever genre, traditional, folk, jazz, rock, classical, electronic, experimental, for example) to join us and to respond to a drawing and make the lines ‘live again’ through music. We were looking for works no shorter than 2 minutes 42 seconds and no longer than 4 minutes, 33 seconds. (Those ‘in the know’ will get this restriction)!