In New Organs of Creation, BurtonNitta considers a future Britain, divided by the ravages of post-Brexit. They ask, can song help us find the way to understanding and save our troubled nation?
In approaching this question, BurtonNitta creates an experience that attempts to change the state of our physical world by immersing the audience in an anthem that speaks directly to them at a cellular level. An interdisciplinary team crossing science, art, performance, music and technology created the different domains of the experience:
- A hypothetical human larynx was developed to enable the singer to communicate at a cellular level. The synthetic human larynx was created between BurtonNitta and Prof Lucy Di Silvo (Kings College) using tissue engineering; the scaffold of the larynx 3D printed with Dr Trevor Coward (Kings College). This larynx was designed with the potential to transform state by speaking/singing from 50HZ;
- Matt Rogers (composer), David Sheppard (sound artist) and myself, Louise Ashcroft (mezzo-soprano), subverted the structure of a national anthem to find a vehicle to express a nation’s state and voice;
- A paradigm shift happened around the function of a singer, moving from interpreter to global leader.
As the transformative larynx is hypothetical, for performance purposes, the audio effects of the larynx were re-created through sound engineering. The singer creates a phrase or musical gesture which is electronically interpreted by the sound artist within the required hertz range. Through structured improvisation, singer and sound artist duet, each adding to the other’s sound, until it fuses in a fulcrum-like expansion that immerses the audience in a reimagined national anthem. This sound speaks directly to their bodies at a cellular level, and in doing so attempts to build a bridge towards understanding by shifting physical state.
Vocal extended technique, mastery of breath and vocal onsets fuelled the sound world. To explore this project further, visit the following links:
Discover the BurtonNitta report on the project
Louise Ashcroft: Can a singer help bridge a divided nation?
Louise Ashcroft; Without genre: Sharing the singer’s process