Natural Creators About

Dr. Karen Power About:

I am an Irish composer/sound artist, based in Cork, Ireland. My compositions utilise two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sounds. My creative output is diverse, both in its approach and delivery, seeking to capture and translate the essence of an idea through a variety of forms, media and methods of
dissemination. For example, recent musical works have been presented as sound installations + multi-sensory walk-through experiences, staged orchestral + ensemble pieces, wordless opera, collaborations between sound and dance, sound and image, free + guided improvisations, solo instrumental works, duets, musical happenings + most recently Augmented/Virtual and Expanded Realities.

Every day environments and how we hear every day sounds lies at the core of my practice, with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what we consider 'music' and all other sound. I have listened and recorded in some of the worlds most isolated and challenging locations: The Arctic, Amazon, Namib Desert, Outback Australia and most recently Antartica. My art utilises our inherent familiarity with such sounds, as a means of engaging with performers and audiences with ambitions of altering our relationship with our world and
how are behave and effect change in our living environments. Many of my works are devised to ensure that an active listening environment is created, maintained and shared by all involved. Resulting works simultaneously challenge every listeners memory of hearing while presenting new contexts for such sounds and forever altering how we hear our world, while acknowledging the change we all bring upon it.

My practice has included field recording elements since 2012. As a recipient of a DAAD fellowship in 2015, I focused on developing aural scores + parts, as alternate methods of communication with performers within the context of working with sounds/materials from outside of the Western Art Tradition. Specifically this
approach allows performers and environmental sounds/places to come together, so as to temporarily alter the shared performance/listening environment. Many of my recent works have been centred on expanding this approach, often using new and exploratory types of scores, and mostly recently into building expanded
instruments.

Developing in parallel with composition is my practice as an improviser and educator. As an improviser, I specialise in using environmental/everyday sounds/place as catalysts for constructing new sound-worlds. Such improvisations - whether solo or ensemble - offer unique interactions related to time, sonic sculpting and gesture. My educational work outside of Tertiary Education focuses on early years and my development of Natural Creators Program, which aims to harness and shape the natural curiosity of our youngest ears. Since 2016, I have been developing new approaches, methodologies and new works for inclusive ensembles, which explore various DMI technologies as a means of opening up creative possibilities to all.