The role of music in multi-modal contexts

Although music has always been my first love, my first creative activities were in the field of crafts, then visual arts. Many of my first musical compositions formed the musical part of multi-modal works (see Collaborations). Living with a sculptor for over 25 years, and having several friends in the visual arts, I have enjoyed exploring the parallels and differences between the arts, and what effect they have on each other. While in Portugal (1994-99) I taught in a department of communication and art, where such issues moved to the forefront, and I began developing courses where students of music collaborate with the other students of the department (Design and New Technologies of Communication). In addition, I collaborated with Dudley Snidall at the Waterford Institute of Technology to coordinate a multi-disciplinary project between our two institutions, whereby a few of the music students at the University of Aveiro composed music to be used in animation projects by the students at Waterford,

The dynamic Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University was one of the primary reasons for my move here in 1999 (of course complemented by the stimulating cultural life of Montreal). I am currently working with Silvy Panet-Raymond in Contemporary Dance and with Cilia Sawadogo in Animation to coordinate collaborative projects between our students.  Also, I am working with various colleagues in the Faculty on the establishment of clearer foundations for research in the multidisciplinary context.

The choice of the term "multi-modal" is tentative. Like many colleagues, I shy away from the term "multimedia" because of its prevalent use to mean a specific type of boardroom presentation. Requests for suggestions and comments on appropriate terminology form one of the Seldom-Asked Questions (SAQs) of the Armchair Researcher.

This project is now being further developed through the Interactive Multimedia Playroom & Thesaurus project.