During Thursday’s class we visited the Grainger Museum, which is a museum founded by Percy Grainger and dedicated to displaying his life and works. We gained some insight into his work as a musician and his personal life.
The interesting aspect about this museum was that it was originally built without any electricity, due to the fact that Grainger was hesitant toward it as a new technology. Interestingly enough he later went on to incorporate this technology into his artistic works by creating machines that would play music on their own with electricity, which could be considered as somewhat of an early synth.
Grainger was a man full of ideas and was all about pushing the boundaries. He created new ways of teaching and playing music, through associating colours with certain notes, creating new instruments and using already existing instruments in non-traditional ways.
This got me thinking… in terms of finalising our first project, how can I challenge my traditional ways of expressing myself in my work. This is when I chose to narrow my focus from a broad theme to something quite particular. I often tend to focus on the bigger picture, so for this project I tried to do the opposite and focus on the smaller things. Darkness and Light vs. Isolation and Inclusion, this was my new theme. It pushed me to become creative and more concise. Rather than having a broad focus, I brought it all down to a macro level. By focusing only on the small and important things I gained a stronger concept and deeper meaning.