Join us in the Studio space at Broadway for this lunchtime talk with dance artist and Near Now Studio member Jess Murray.
Joined by her collaborators Mitch Oldham and David Wilson-Clarke, Jess will share insights into their recent project Sound Catchers, a concept for outdoor performance using live percussion, dance and digital technologies.
The team will demonstrate the wearable technology and props used in Sound Catchers' roving ‘walk-about’ performance to co-create sound and movement with audiences in the moment.
Watch online
Can't make it in-person? Watch the livestream on YouTube.
Sound Catchers: a roving 'walk-about' performance
About Sound Catchers
In Sound Catchers, performers portray ‘alien’ characters that are gathering sounds and rhythms to understand the human species through movement, sound and rhythm. The aim is to develop sound-generating wearable tech and static devices that blur the lines between movement and instrumental playing.
The performance uses live sound sampling and sound manipulation through ‘the Sound Catcher', a prop device which captures audience sound bites and transforms them into music that performers use to dance and play with audiences in real-time.
The show has appeared at Grimsby Creates Noise and Beeston Light Night as well as securing many dates with Applause Rural Touring over 2022/3. Sound Catchers is also due to appear as part of Derby Festé 2023.
About the artist
Jess Murray has extensive experience of performing in outdoor arts productions such as ‘Master Juba, Wonder of the World’ with Fittings Multimedia Arts, and Stilt Batteristas. Jess worked as a dancer for the French pyrotechnic and percussion company Les Commandos Percu performing in France, Belgium, Holland and collaborating to create On the Night Shift for an audience of 20,000 at the Olympic Opening Ceremony at Windermere in 2012. She went on to perform with the company for a further year in performance in Holland, Belgium and France. More recently Jess was choreographer for outdoor performance Tappin’ In (developed by Steph Ridings and Lou Lomas) which was part of the Commonwealth Games 2022 cultural programme and Birmingham International Dance Festival. Jess is an Associate Artist of Studio Wayne McGregor through the QuestLab Network programme which supports dance artists in collaborating with creative technologists.
