DROGHEDA ARTS FESTIVAL 2021
Broadcast on ‘thirtythree-45’ radio on 29/07/21
Claire Fitch
Becoming Imperceptible 00.00 to 30.15
Under the increasing pressures of lockdown, of unease, of uncertainty and worry, of searching for an escape, of finding a change, of being the change, and of perhaps sensing a release, we are wandering. Becoming Imperceptible is in memory of David Connolly (1983-2020), inspired by Deleuzian ‘lines of flight’ and Louis Borges The Garden of Forking Paths (1941). A radiophonic escape, a freedom explored through the process of artistic practice. Fluid yet fragmented, vanishing, searching for a liberation from the compulsory, there is no goal or starting point. We are in the middle, experimenting, combining, dismantling, becoming imperceptible.
Voice: Liz Hilliard and Martina Murray.
Organ: David Bremner.
Strings: Sylvia Roberts, Randal Devine, Aine O’Neill, Claire Fitch.
Biography
Claire Fitch is a sound artist, an electroacoustic composer, a creator of electronic literature and transmedia, cellist and lecturer. She completed her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast in 2019 with Professor Michael Alcorn. Between 1995 and 2012, Claire was a cellist in the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 Claire began teaching digital audio to students in various colleges around Ireland, joining Dundalk Institute of Technology in 2015, where she is now Programme Director, MA/MSc in Music Technology. Her artistic practice is motivated by the investigation of the convergence of digital technology, audio, visuals, and text. Producing original works inspired by and responding to womens voices is a particular focus.
Publications include:
Fitch, Claire. Sounding Emerging Media (Forthcoming 2022). Routledge.
Fitch, Claire. “Folding, Unfolding, Refolding Sound”,in O’Sullivan, James. Digital Art in Ireland: New Media and Irish Artistic Practice. 2021. London and New York: Anthem Press.
https://clairefitch.wordpress.com/
Diarmuid MacDiarmada (aka Prints)
THIS ENDS NOW! 30.15 to 1: 03.3
Where are we now? Nothing sums up the state of music these days for me more than the ‘playlist’ … people listening to the work of people without even knowing who the artist might be. Worse again is the idea of playlists made of tunes that are purposefully made to fit into a particular type of playlist. We are witnessing the triumph of consumerism with a bespoke ‘muzak’ soundtrack. I attempted a ‘gallows-humour’ response by gathering some extremely impersonal materials together and trying to make my own ‘playlist’ music. As it happens it was way too much fun and too stimulating to actually succeed but that was the motivation. ‘This Ends Now’ is an invitation to celebrate the small flowerings of human imagination that can still happen in the grey wilderness.
Biography
‘Diarmuid MacDiarmada is an Irish multi-disciplinary artist, working in music, visual art and writing among other pursuits for three decades. From punk fanzines to glossy art magazines, from the great theatres of the world to guerrilla events in unlikely locations, from platinum-selling albums to tiny art-edition cassette releases, Diarmuid has covered a substantial amount of ground on his journey so far.’