Title
World Oceans Day
Date
2018
Composer
Gavin Wayte
Video Artist
Gavin Wayte
Description
Musical Sketch
About Gavin
Multi-media composer. Fellow
in Creative and Professional
Practice @RNCMvoice
World Oceans Day
The World Oceans Day Project is rooted in an eclectic history including piano-playing octopuses (imagined) and a fascination in how number-data of various kinds might be used in composition and improvisation. There is also a growing interest of mine in connecting with global issues and confronting notions of sustainability, be it ecological, or in the arts.
World Oceans Day is an annual event, occurring on the 8th June every year and in 2018 reaching a global audience of 4 billion. It highlights the value of our oceans, celebrates them, and campaigns for their fair treatment. The focus in 2018 was on the perils of plastic pollution, and along with many other campaigners the event has helped change attitudes to the production and use of plastic.
For my part, I joined the many artistic activities in support of the event, and produced a sketch for piano and electronics with video visuals. I shared the process and preparations through blogging and videos and, hopefully, creating a unique viewpoint on our seas. World Oceans Day Musical Sketch is an original score for piano, electronics and a video which manipulates footage from the documentaries The Smog of the Sea (Ian Cheney, Brushfire Films, 2016) and Cousteau’s Ten Fathoms Deep (Periscope Film digitisation of the Castle Films source, c. 1943).
There is more to find out about the event at the World Oceans Day website here: http://www.worldoceansday.org
As a second phase to this project I am composing a sequel, for piano and recorded sound, due for completion in early 2019 themed on our exploration of the oceans and the physical properties of the sea itself.