Olivia Campanile (she/they) is a final year Comparative Literature/Theatre Studies student at the University of Glasgow on a work placement in the Thinking Culture programme. They are currently working on their dissertation on annotations of Shakespeare plays and are President of the Glasgow University Shakespeare Society. Their other interests include theatre production and administration, and colourful eyeliner.
Thinking Culture followed up last semester’s event linked to Scott Myles’s Gallery of Modern Art exhibition Head in a Bell with a screening of the documentary-film I Dream of Wires on the 19th of February at Kelvin Hall. The event was extremely well-attended in an ideal venue to host such a screening. The 2013 film directed by Robert Fantinatto that looked at the history of the synthesiser and electronic music was followed by a wonderful Q&A hosted by Dr Kevin Leomo with creatives working in electronic music in Glasgow currently – Lewis Cook and Suzi Cook from the Glasgow Library of Synthesised Sound (GLOSS), and Scott Myles himself.
The film is a classic in the electronic music scene, exploring how the synthesiser came to be, developed, and its more resurgence in popularity with collectors and people new to electronic music. While a four-hour version is available, Thinking Culture programmed the shorter version of the film to serve as an easier introduction for those in the audience learning about this area for the first time. The film is decidedly male-centric, something that is not accurate to the actual history of the synthesiser. This issue, however, was mitigated somewhat by Thinking Culture’s previous screening of Sisters with Transistors that focused on women’s role in the history of electronic music. I certainly learnt a great deal from I Dream of Wires on a topic I know very little about, and it has only encouraged me to seek out more stories from the scene to get those other perspectives.
The Q&A afterwards was also extremely entertaining. The Cooks and Myles spoke about how they had simultaneously begun to work on similar projects without knowing each other, projects that developed into GLOSS and Head in a Bell. It was so wonderful to hear how creatives can work together and pool resources to ensure the best for their own work and others. As they all spoke about their introduction to electronic music and artistry, it was reassuring to hear how many different avenues there are into the field. Now that GLOSS has a new venue in the city, it’s great to hear how much more space is being given to people both new to – and established in – the scene.
Questions from the audience gave a fun insight into these artists’ work. Someone who had attended workshops ten years ago with Suzi Cook on learning how to record music, asked how GLOSS and Myles get a wide reach for their work and practice. Lewis Cook spoke about advertising work and opportunities in all areas of Glasgow, and using lottery systems for the ITEM (Introduction to Electronic Music) workshops that GLOSS runs to minimise the Glasgow art scene’s sometimes clique-y nature.
Certainly, the audience members came away from this event assured of the standing of electronic music in Glasgow. Hearing about GLOSS’s work and Myles’s exhibition in a room full of those interested in art and music was an invaluable experience. As the panellists spoke about their responses to the screened film, and how they balance utilitarianism and creativity – as discussed extensively in I Dream of Wires – we learnt about how personal place has an impact on your attitude towards the mix, and how thought and practice converge and differ. Simply put, synthesisers and electronic music are what you make of them, and what you want to make with them.
