Craig Hamilton (He/him)

Music and sound re-design

I created the music for this piece. My influences for this include the scores of Max Steiner, where music often closely follows the action of characters on screen and reflects on their emotional state. I also took inspiration from light-hearted animated action films, such as Walt Disney Picture’s The Incredibles, where music can establish emotional settings and characters. This is referred to as leitmotif. In this work, I created a short harmonic minor scale phrase which is present at various times throughout the film where the villian is the focus. The idea here is that the music reinforces the threat posed by the villian.

Original animation – Alan Kerr

Sound Design – Colin Black

Music – Craig Hamilton

Tributary is a collaborative music making installation whereby users can construct the arrangement of a piece of music using designated handheld games controllers.

The underlying theme of this work is the democratisation of music-making tools. It is a tool which provides an opportunity for those unfamiliar with music theory or professional equipment to participate in musical collaboration.

In this example of the tool, two controllers are presented to users. One controls the drum arrangement including kick, snare, percussion, and drum fills. The other controls melodic instruments such as piano, pads and bass. The buttons on the controllers can be pressed to activate and deactivate loops, allowing users to construct their own version of the music.

I am aware of the irony that the tool was built to allow users to collaborate and this example video shows one person operating both controllers… However, I developed the tool during lockdown, and was unable to demo with multiple users at the time.

This short documentary looks at the origins of the Light and Space art movement and contemporary artists whose work are influenced by it.

The Light and Space art movement was built on the idea that art could immerse the viewer outwith the canvas. Such as art that visibly changes depending on the angle that you observe it, or art which uses light to recontextualise the surrounding space. This was the main influencing factor in our decision to create a short documentary film on the Light and Space movement. Although we didn’t consider ourselves that knowledgeable of the origins of the movement, we certainly were familiar with contemporary artists who encourage positive environmental or societal thinking by manipulating light, such as Olafur Eliasson, Katie Paterson and Heather Lander. This seemed like an interesting avenue to pursue; where we see the influence of Light and Space today, and is the work still changing perceptions?

Visuals and editing – Ernestas Kivilsa

Sound – Craig Hamilton

Featuring Hamish Bigg – Bigg Design