It’s been quite a busy few months outside of making pieces, so I’ve been glad to have a break over the past couple of weeks to take stock. The most exciting thing is: I’ve just got to the end of a notebook and have started another one. That’s how thrilling my life is. I’ve also started using my fountain pen to write with which is lovely as a change from the equally excellent MUJI pens I tend to use. I’ve gone back to using an A5 Midori MD blank notebook as it has great paper and is a different aspect to the MUJI one (which was B4, probably my favourite paper size though).
I’ve been thinking about woking methods a lot recently (again) as I’ve been working with Matt Sergeant on a collection of responses from composers about how they work, partly arising out of the Creative Sound Forum we run at Bath Spa. We have responses from 15 composers, focusing on how they work. It will come out in the May edition of MusikTexte, which we’re really excited about. So as well as obsessing about pens and paper in the name of artistic research, I’ve also been thinking about what goes on the paper. I’ve noticed I tend to dive straight in to pieces and lock on to mechanisms that come naturally, so am experimenting with ways to slow that part of the process down, giving myself some barriers to starting on pieces, mostly through some kinds of reflective writing about how I tend to work. I’m gradually moving towards making a piece with the Bozzinis, but have stepped back from some initial ideas I had earlier in the year as a result of this new way of thinking. Early days, but I think the clean slate provided by a clear notebook is potentially very timely.
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