CEREBRAL GRACE
The project drew inspiration from the 2010 groundbreaking ’electro-acoustic’ project ’Music of the Mind’ by musician Finn Peters, which explored brainwaves in music and new forms of algorithmically based composition and improvisation.
In 2012, after becoming aware of the ’Music of the Mind’ project, Anthony took direct contact with the creator, Finn Peters, to ask permission to create a short film based on a similar theme. Finn not only agreed but also kindly sent a selection of raw sound files created by the bespoke software Matthew Yee King wrote specifically for their project. Not pretty to listen to, but fascinating to think this was the sound of a brain, in fact Finn Peters' brain, to be precise.
Around the same time, Anthony had been working on a dance project with Hugo Therkelson from the Stockholm Royal Ballet. Anthony became intrigued by how graceful and beautiful the body was compared to the chaotic brain sound files he currently possessed. It seemed like an exciting challenge to put them together somehow.
As luck would have it, Hugo was also a professional musician, so he took the raw sound files to his studio and, several weeks later, produced a musical composition entitled ’A Dancer’s Requiem’.
The final step was the film. Together with Stockholm-based filmmaker Daniel Gustafsson, Anthony produced a short film in which Hugo choreographs (and improvises) dance to the ’brain’ soundtrack, utilising high-speed cameras to stop and speed small moments in the choreography.
The project was exhibited in Stockholm 23rd - 25th March, 2018.
Director – Anthony Hill
Director of Photography – Daniel Gustafsson
Choreography + Soundtrack – Hugo Therkelson
Production Assistant – Ole Jansson
Many thanks to Subtopia, Stockholm.
