Knots and Fields – Andrew Chesher and David Ryan

Duration: 7 mins 52 secs

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Description:	Rushes from a forthcoming film about international Summer courses for new music in Darmstadt, Germany. The school began in 1946 in one of many attempts to regenerate the city following WWII. Composers such as Messiaen, Varèse, Berio, Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis taught on the courses over the years and the impact of the summer school on the new music scene is incredibly powerful as a result. The artists David Ryan and Andrew Chesher have visited the school, interviewed young composers attending and explored the archives. The result is a film that captures the intense creative focus the courses inspire and also investigates and questions the relationship between creative processes in the past and present. It includes documentation of live performances, interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, young composers on recent courses and distinguished performers such as the Arditti String Quartet, as well as archival footage.

Description:

Rushes from a forthcoming film about international Summer courses for new music in Darmstadt, Germany. The school began in 1946 in one of many attempts to regenerate the city following WWII. Composers such as Messiaen, Varèse, Berio, Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis taught on the courses over the years and the impact of the summer school on the new music scene is incredibly powerful as a result.

The artists David Ryan and Andrew Chesher have visited the school, interviewed young composers attending and explored the archives. The result is a film that captures the intense creative focus the courses inspire and also investigates and questions the relationship between creative processes in the past and present. It includes documentation of live performances, interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, young composers on recent courses and distinguished performers such as the Arditti String Quartet, as well as archival footage.


Created:	2009-10-08 15:21
Collection:	Kettle's Yard
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Andrew Chesher and David Ryan
Language:	eng (English)
Distribution:	World (downloadable)
Keywords:	new music; Darmstadt; Andrew; Chesher; David; Ryan;
Explicit content:	No
Aspect Ratio:	16:9
Screencast:	No
Bumper:	/sms-ingest/static/new-16x9-bumper.dv
Trailer:	/sms-ingest/static/new-16x9-trailer.dv


Abstract:	The international Summer courses for new music in Darmstadt, Germany began in 1946 in one of many attempts to regenerate the city following WWII. Composers such as Messiaen, Varèse, Berio, Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis taught on the courses over the years and the impact of the summer school on the new music scene is incredibly powerful as a result. The artists David Ryan and Andrew Chesher have visited the school, interviewed young composers attending and explored the archives. The result is a film that captures the intense creative focus the courses inspire and also investigates and questions the relationship between creative processes in the past and present. It includes documentation of live performances, interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, young composers on recent courses and distinguished performers such as the Arditti String Quartet, as well as archival footage. Andrew Chesher is a lecturer in art theory at Chelsea school of art, University of the Arts London. As a documentary filmmaker, Andrew's work is informed by a conception of philosophical enquiry as description, questioning and dialogue. The relation of documentary to 'dialogic' was also the subject of his PhD completed at University of the Arts London in 2007. He is particularly interested in the relation between rehearsal and performance and has been exploring this through a documentary about musicians’ rehearsal processes and in interviews with artists and other practitioners whose work that touches on this issue. His film based on rehearsals of American composer Christian Wolff’s Changing the System has been shown in the UK and abroad. David Ryan is a visual artist and writer based in London and Cambridge, who is also actively involved in contemporary music. He studied at Liverpool and Coventry Polytechnics, and also on a travelling German Scholarship. His writing on art and music includes pieces on Earle Brown, John Cage, and others for various art publications. His publication Talking Painting: Dialogues with 12 Contemporary Abstract Painters (2002) is published by Routledge, and has contributed to the Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music (2009). He is currently Reader in Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. He has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery (Open Exhibition), London, Painting and Time at the Nunnery Gallery, London, Surface Connections, Holden Gallery Manchester, Flux at London Bridge Tunnels, and Transfer at Keith Talent gallery, London. As a performer Ryan has also been actively involved in contemporary music and performed for Danish Radio; Huddersfield International Contemporary Music Festival; New Music Marathon, Northwestern University, Chicago; The Barbican Art Centre, London (Cage Uncaged, 2004), Line-Point-Line, Los Angeles, and is Director of Dal Niente Projects which presents neglected modernist and contemporary experimental works in London.

Abstract:

The international Summer courses for new music in Darmstadt, Germany began in 1946 in one of many attempts to regenerate the city following WWII. Composers such as Messiaen, Varèse, Berio, Boulez, Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis taught on the courses over the years and the impact of the summer school on the new music scene is incredibly powerful as a result.

The artists David Ryan and Andrew Chesher have visited the school, interviewed young composers attending and explored the archives. The result is a film that captures the intense creative focus the courses inspire and also investigates and questions the relationship between creative processes in the past and present. It includes documentation of live performances, interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, young composers on recent courses and distinguished performers such as the Arditti String Quartet, as well as archival footage.

Andrew Chesher is a lecturer in art theory at Chelsea school of art, University of the Arts London. As a documentary filmmaker, Andrew's work is informed by a conception of philosophical enquiry as description, questioning and dialogue. The relation of documentary to 'dialogic' was also the subject of his PhD completed at University of the Arts London in 2007.

He is particularly interested in the relation between rehearsal and performance and has been exploring this through a documentary about musicians’ rehearsal processes and in interviews with artists and other practitioners whose work that touches on this issue. His film based on rehearsals of American composer Christian Wolff’s Changing the System has been shown in the UK and abroad.

David Ryan is a visual artist and writer based in London and Cambridge, who is also actively involved in contemporary music. He studied at Liverpool and Coventry Polytechnics, and also on a travelling German Scholarship. His writing on art and music includes pieces on Earle Brown, John Cage, and others for various art publications. His publication Talking Painting: Dialogues with 12 Contemporary Abstract Painters (2002) is published by Routledge, and has contributed to the Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music (2009). He is currently Reader in Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

He has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery (Open Exhibition), London, Painting and Time at the Nunnery Gallery, London, Surface Connections, Holden Gallery Manchester, Flux at London Bridge Tunnels, and Transfer at Keith Talent gallery, London.

As a performer Ryan has also been actively involved in contemporary music and performed for Danish Radio; Huddersfield International Contemporary Music Festival; New Music Marathon, Northwestern University, Chicago; The Barbican Art Centre, London (Cage Uncaged, 2004), Line-Point-Line, Los Angeles, and is Director of Dal Niente Projects which presents neglected modernist and contemporary experimental works in London.

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Knots and Fields – Andrew Chesher and David Ryan