Songbooks and Seaweed: Learnings from creating in an unknown world.
Song and seaweed. They are not what you’d call naturally occurring. However, in my world they have occurred twice. They first came together in BurtonNitta’s, The Algae Opera (2011) , where I created the role of Evalga, the algae opera singer who produces algae with her breath. The second occurrence is more recent with a mixed media piece created for the Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool, Time was away and somewhere else (2020) . During COVID-19 lockdown, Dr Helen Thomas (Artistic Coordinator & Public Engagement Officer at the School of the Arts, University of Liverpool) approached me to discuss how we might bring to life a set of landscape paintings by Margery Knight to engage the VG&M’s ‘at home’ audience. The landscapes were of the Isle of Man where I was brought up. We chatted about ways we could musically respond to these paintings, creating a relaxed music concert to highlight the culture that echoed through the landscapes. Coincidentally, I wa
