Electroacoustic moviemaking: a creative media practice research collaboration case study

Electroacoustic music composer Tim Howle, Professor of Contemporary Music at the University of Kent and academic and filmmaker Dr. Nick Cope, have been engaged in an ongoing creative practice collaboration since 2002. The collaboration has seen the production of a series of short films exploring notions of what it means to compose with sound and moving image in works where the sonic and visual are treated as commensurate partners. This work has been selected for festivals, conferences, concerts, installations and screenings internationally; published on DVD and through online audio-visual journals; and resulted in a number of papers, journal articles and a PhD addressing the working practices and research contexts of the collaborative output. The collaboration is both cross-disciplinary and inter-departmental in nature and gives rise to much that can be reflected on with regards to creative media practice based research in the academy. This paper addresses the challenges, opportunities and contexts the collaboration has engaged in with a particular emphasis on the research components of the work, and how these have developed and continue, as a case study of creative practice research. It will look at the different disciplinary contexts the work has arisen from and how that has both helped the work in finding audiences and outlets, research outcomes, and to navigate and address departmental and institutional research frameworks, requirements and limitations.