CMRC Seminar - Jack McNeill
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RCH/003, Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, University of York (Map)
Event details
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Club music is functional. It is affective on the dancefloor, soundtracking communal experiences of intersubjectivity through dance and touch (Garcia-Mispireta, 2024). Typically in clubs worldwide, DJs will play records, one after the other, layered on top of each other and mixed together to produce extended sets of music for dancing. The live set, however, often involves an artist performing their own work, setting up to techno-musical systems, and combining fragments of compositions together, improvising and layering them to produce re-expositions of the work. But how do these models of 'liveness' (Schaubruch, 2025) map on to a concert performance? This talk will consider models of live performance in club spaces, and discuss them in the context of developing a live electronic music set, introducing theoretical background, strategies for improvising live, and the techniques and technologies necessary for doing so.
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About the speaker
Dr Jack McNeill is a composer, sound artist, DJ and researcher. His PhD in Composition (University of York, 2021) explored the intersections between European club culture, performance and music, and primarily involved physical installations and electroacoustic composition. Jack’s more recent research is also concerned with contemporary club cultures across Europe, and considers the social performances bound up with these cultures through the lens of the interdisciplinary field of sound studies. Current projects involve (but are not limited to) considerations of voice and community in Europe’s club scene, comparisons of loudness, subliminality and civic identity in Berlin’s football and club scenes, and discourse around club soundsystems as social performances. As a creative practitioner Jack has worked extensively in music education and community music. His primary focus has been to develop accessible, participatory pieces for young musicians of all abilities using notation and electronics. Highlights include: a piece for full orchestra and electronics performed at the Leeds First Direct Arena; an Arts Council funded digital project with the National Orchestra for All and an online sound installation project with the Orchestras for All’s Modulo Programme (both in collaboration with visual artist Bryony Simcox); a new orchestral and electronic work for Liverpool’s Resonate Hub, in collaboration with spoken word artist Testament and body percussionist Ollie Tunmer.
Venue details
Wheelchair accessible