Our Artistic Vision – Sense:Kinetic
MUSIC IS A MOVEMENT.
PHYSICAL.
EMOTIONAL.
POLITICAL.
What Is The Ambition?
Music is for everyone. It moves people. It empowers people. We want to show that even people with the most complex needs can make meaningful music.
Our vision is unapologetically proudly Disabled-led and
in-your-face. Music is rebellious. Music is mischievous. Music can express feelings we cannot put into words. Music is real. Music is the truth.
Informed by Disabled-led movements such as Cripplepunk, #WeShallNotBeRemoved and the Nothing About Us Without Us ethos, we will challenge outdated perceptions around Music and Disability.
We want to platform and showcase the music created by the people we serve, and help them to express themselves in new ways.
Our vision is in part inspired by the Cripplepunk movement, which reclaims an ableist slur as the name of a aesthetic movement, where Disability is reimagined as a stylish sense of identity
We
How Will We Achieve This?
Informing our musical process with a Disabled person-led approach that nurtures musical expression. Guided by the Social Model of Disability, we aim to enable an authentic vision of what music exploration is like for
the people we serve.
The highly respected Sounds Of Intent framework will guide our practitioners to help meet the people we serve at the right stage in their musical journeys.
Kris Halpin’s extensive background as an internationally acclaimed performer at the cutting edge of music technology will inform our radical rethinking of
musical interfaces and instruments.
We know that few musical instruments are designed to be truly inclusive to Disabled people, and we set out with the intention to reimagine the way instruments themselves work, and challenge perceptions of what musical instruments are, and what music making
looks, sounds and feels like.
We believe this work will contribute to a
truly inclusive musical future.
Physical.
Using a blend of traditional instruments and cutting edge technologies, we will frame each person’s musical expression in a way that allows them to more fully experience music and express themselves. We will implement tools that take music beyond the audible, using vibrations and tactile elements to harness the physical movement of music.
Emotional.
Music in our sector has too often been framed as a gentle pastime that can infantilise rather than empower Disabled people. Kinetic is a musical world without lightweight, passive music, where a more sophisticated and energetic musical palette is offered to allow complex emotions to be explored in emotional musical and non-verbal ways.
Political.
Informed by the #WeShallNotBeRemoved movement, we want to showcase the stories of the people behind the music. Disabled people still face significant exclusion from society, and we want to create a musical journey that amplifies the voices – literally and figuratively – of people with even the most complex needs. We recognise that Disability is not just a medicalised barrier, but a political one.
The Main Stage.
We want to ensure that the music made in our sessions finds audiences in new ways, and highlights the musical and emotional journeys of people with complex needs.
We will create an archive of music ready to be shared that will include multi-sensory elements to articulate the full experience of the musicians behind the work.
We will also work collaboratively across Sense Arts’ other artistic disciplines to create works that explore the intersections between Visual Arts, Dance & Music.
We envisage an evolution of the traditional listening post found in record stores that will allow a kind of gallery of musical stories. These multi-sensory Experience Posts will invite audiences to explore the music in new ways. Below is the beginnings of how such an idea would be informed.
In the above example, a person with complex needs has created a multitrack recording with a supporting musician. The artist created an improvised rhythm on a multitouch drum controller, and then over that recorded a piano improvisation. The mood of the piece has been gently guided by a selection process of choosing an appropriate musical scale to empower confident improvisation. Gentle melodies reveal themselves on repeat listens, and the piece is pared with visuals that reflect the mood. We imagine going even further, adding tactile elements for further sensory exploration by audiences. By way of example, we could present this piece with tactile rock elements, water, as well as tactile feedback through vibrating devices.
MUSIC IS A MOVEMENT.
BE PART OF IT.
