"Recycled" sound instrument finalist in New Music Award 2010
The designers of an innovative instrument for “recycling sound” such as moving water and traffic noise are finalists in a contest to determine the United Kingdom’s most pioneering music creator.
Liminal, an arts practice led by composer David Prior and architect Frances Crow, has designed a cutting edge “Organ of Corti”. It is a portable structure resembling a fairground organ which collects and filters music; effectively “sculpting sound”.
The concept is one of five shortlisted for the PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music Award, a competition that aims to stimulate debate about music innovation and allows total creative freedom across any music genre or artistic context.
All five finalists feature in short films on the Foundation’s website. The Institute of Acoustics education manager Prof Keith Attenborough is shown speaking on the Organ of Corti segment, as Research Professor, Acoustics Group, Open University.
He said that Liminal’s acoustic device was part of a “mission” to encourage people to “listen more carefully” to sounds.
A panel of six judges will decide the best innovation, with the winning creator given a £50,000 prize in September this year towards its creation and performance.
Members of the public have until Sunday September 5 to support their favourite creation by voting online. Other shortlisted musical entries are: a stellar orchestra, automatic instruments, a satellite symphony and recreated African musical instruments.
Frances said the proposal and prototype of the Organ of Corti was the result of a recent research project titled “Tranquillity is a State of Mind”.
• The organ of Corti is the organ in the inner ear of mammals that contains hair cells, and is named after Italian anatomist Marquis Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti.
• Films about the five shortlisted entries will be screened at arts venues across the UK this summer.
