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"Designing Sound, Sculpting Gesture"
What if you could draw sound? What if there was a way to sketch music that was so intuitive that school children could pick it up with ease, yet powerful enough that it could revolutionise the creative process for professional composers, liberating them from the constraints of traditional notation? In 1977 visionary Greek-French composer and polymath Iannis Xenakis brought this idea to life with UPIC, a groundbreaking machine that transformed visual gestures into audio signals; a user could draw on a board and UPIC would convert these drawings into sound. Xenakis’s pioneering work has profoundly shaped my own music compositional journey, inspiring me to explore the deep connections between drawing and music and between what we see and what we hear. In this talk I will delve into the fascinating relationship between sound and image and how this interplay informs my music. My solo violin cycle, “Nicosia Etudes” intertwines musical gestures with the soundscape of Nicosia in Cyprus, the last divided capital in Europe. I will discuss how this piece draws on the spirit of UPIC and will demonstrate how gestures evolve into sound through live examples and performances on musical instruments.
There will be a drinks reception in the Sybil Dodd Room following the talk to which everyone is welcome.
If you’d like to attend, please register at:
www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/designing-sound-sculpting-gesture
Date:
25 November 2025, 17:00
Venue:
St Cross Lecture Theatre
Speaker:
Dr Evis Sammoutis
Organising department:
St Cross College
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/event/designing-sound-sculpting-gesture
Cost:
FREE
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Joanna Ashbourn
