Christopher Hill Bio
|
Christopher Hill is a dance maker based in Perth, Western Australia, He danced professionally for 18 years with The Australian Ballet, Royal Ballet of Belgium, and West Australian Ballet where he created 12 main-stage original choreographic works. With interests in music composition and production, he composed and performed scores for five of his main stage works and received a nomination for outstanding choreographic achievement in the 2018 West Australian Dance Awards. Christopher was awarded a 2018 Churchill Fellowship which allowed him to travel the globe to meet with leading choreographers and composers to investigate the unique creative relationship between choreographer and composer when creating new works for live performance. This research is a driving force of his artistic foci where collaboration and innovation are at the forefront of his creative practice; blurring the lines between movement and sound to create works that are intrinsically connected in the live performance setting to explore new and unique experiences for performers and audience alike.
|
Fiona Hill Bio
|
Fiona Hill has been described as one of Australia’s most distinctive yet musically diverse composers working with electronics, improvisation and creating lush orchestral scores for the concert stage and film. Her portfolio includes multiple works for the Sydney Dance Company notably the dance-film ‘Circumstance 2020’ with director Sue Healey, awarded the 2022 Stelvio Cipriani International Film Scoring Award and ‘Best Music’ in the Seoul International Short Film Festival. She has worked with many artists and ensembles including JACK Quartet, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, Alicia Crossley, Lamorna Nightingale and others and collaborated with many directors and choreographers including Miranda Wheen, Lilian Steiner, Ashley Wright and Grahame Stocks. Her research centres a phenomenology of listening and collaboration, translating this into emotive, textural and organic sound worlds. often through the medium of live electronics. Fiona holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Screen Composition from the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She currently lectures in Composition for the Creative Industries at the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
|
|
Gestural Control Workshop with Miranda Wheen
An initial experimentation using the Genki ring gestural controllers in a choreographic workshop with Miranda Wheen. This initial workshop is a very basic mapping of ring parameters with a single ring connected to one sound only. Future possibilities of this technology are using two rings simultaneously and programming more detailed mapping to sonic material and changing of scenes within the work for multiple mapping setups throughout.
Christopher Hill Showreel
A selection of Christopher Hill's choreographic works, produced by West Australian Ballet, including commissions for season launches, the annual Ballet At The Quarry performance season, and in-house choreographic development project Genesis. Here, Christopher develops his choreographic language through the classical ballet canon with contemporary influences: future ballet.. Using mostly self- composed scores, he aims to marry movement and sound to create works that resonate with audiences and performers both physically and sonically.
Momentary, or an infinite series of unfolding moments - Fiona Hill
"Momentary, or an infinite series of unfolding moments" was composed for the JACK quartet in April 2024. The work was commissioned by Prof. Liza Lim, Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, supported by the Sculthorpe Bequest. The work was premiered April 5th 2024 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music by the JACK Quartet.
This piece in particular demonstrates the use of gesture as the starting point for the generation of sonic material. the programme notes for the work are as follows: "Here I sonically explore, through gesture, a repeated vision of an infinite spiral that I see whilst running out on Darug Gundungurra Country (Blue Mountains, NSW). A gritty, granular, constantly shifting vortex, infinitely spiralling downwards. This shifts into a contemplation of insect communication patterns, from call and response in pairs to stochastic patterns in larger groups. These insects encourage the gaze upwards to the slowly, constantly, ever-evolving dance of the clouds - a series of unfolding moments."
This piece in particular demonstrates the use of gesture as the starting point for the generation of sonic material. the programme notes for the work are as follows: "Here I sonically explore, through gesture, a repeated vision of an infinite spiral that I see whilst running out on Darug Gundungurra Country (Blue Mountains, NSW). A gritty, granular, constantly shifting vortex, infinitely spiralling downwards. This shifts into a contemplation of insect communication patterns, from call and response in pairs to stochastic patterns in larger groups. These insects encourage the gaze upwards to the slowly, constantly, ever-evolving dance of the clouds - a series of unfolding moments."
In:Flux - Fiona Hill with Gary Daley
Excerpt of performance at Johnston Street Jazz, 2023 with Gary Daley, accordion
Start from 4'42" for use of Genki Wave rings in live performance
The concept for In:Flux is an improvised, electroacoustic, ambient performance by jazz musician Gary Daley on accordion and composer/improviser Fiona Hill on electronics and gestural controllers. The improvised nature of the work lends itself to varying lengths: from a distilled 15 minute performance to an extended longform meditative experience of approximately 50 minutes. The longform evolution expands and develops themes from the shorter version, through a focus on the subtle nuances and timbres of the piano accordion - captured through amplification and transformed with live processing, looping, gestural manipulation and integration with a sonic palette from Fiona Hill’s personal field recording collection. The use of textural material alongside drone and breath-like resonances creates a sonic bed which gives ample room for structural variations, exploration of subtle details and improvisation on themes and motives.
The processing of the live and pre-recorded elements is manipulated through a combination of Ableton Live and MaxMSP objects and Genki Wave Rings as the primary gestural controllers, with a noisebox incorporated to allow a very organic electronic performance to take place. The computer becomes truly another instrument to be ‘played’ by Fiona with gestural movement at the forefront. By integrating the live and electronic elements through this setup the work becomes a true improvisatory dialogue between performers, both having the ability to listen deeply and respond to each other in real time, creating a unique performance each time.
The processing of the live and pre-recorded elements is manipulated through a combination of Ableton Live and MaxMSP objects and Genki Wave Rings as the primary gestural controllers, with a noisebox incorporated to allow a very organic electronic performance to take place. The computer becomes truly another instrument to be ‘played’ by Fiona with gestural movement at the forefront. By integrating the live and electronic elements through this setup the work becomes a true improvisatory dialogue between performers, both having the ability to listen deeply and respond to each other in real time, creating a unique performance each time.
Springtime Again - Fiona Hill with Lilian Steiner
Interactivity Development: A series of videos demonstrating the use of motion capture and gestural controllers in the work 'Springtime Again' with choreographer Lilian Steiner for the Sydney Dance Company New Breed season 2021.
|
1. Genki wave patch experiments
This video demonstrates the Genki wave ring gestures mapped to the MaxMSP patch. The controller data can be seen streaming as my hand moves. This data stream can then be further mapped within the patch and used to manipulate sonic materials.
|
2. Blob Tracking translated to node objects
This video shows the blob tracking aspect of the MaxMSP patch. The blobs on the far left are converted into targets which are then fed to the node objects on the right. Each node is loaded with a 'sonic bed' which is activated when the target moves through the nodal point.
|
3. Node activation in rehearsal
The activation of a 'disruptor' node can be seen in this video as Liam enters the back of the stage and balances in the far right corner of the space. The 'disruptor' sound can be heard to drop out as he walks away. This demonstrates the potential of activating the space using the motion capture technology, a potential 9 different nodes/sounds can be pre-loaded with changes built in throughout a longer form work.
|
Springtime Again - Work excerpt
A ten minute excerpt of the work 'Springtime Again' edited to display moments of the MaxMSP patch in use as well as some still photography to better represent the detail of the costuming. Some images of the recording session are also included. The score is created entirely from recordings of french horn and cello which are manipulated to create the sonic beds for live motion capture manipulation. the final section of the score are 'composed' more traditionally to give a definite ending to what is largely an improvisatory work by choreographer Lilian Steiner.