Liminal

Liminal are tutors at Field Studies 2011

Liminal is a partnership between architect Frances Crow and sound artist and composer David Prior. Liminal’s work focuses on exploring the relationship between sound, listening and the environment. It encompasses site-specific interventions and sound walks, gallery installations, performances, research and consultancy as well as sound and music environments for exhibitions. In September 2008 Liminal received a grant from the Wellcome Trust for the research phase of their project Tranquillity is a State of Mind. In 2010 Liminal won the PRS Foundation’s New Music Award for The Organ of Corti, a four metre high, visually transparent sonic crystal that takes sounds from the environment in which it is placed and recycles them, without adding any noise of its own.

Frances Crow is a qualified architect who has worked in practice since 1998. Following her training at Liverpool John Moore’s University and the Bartlett, University College London, she worked for a number of national and international architects, both in London and Berlin. Between 2002–2007 she worked as a part-time senior lecturer at Plymouth University in the School of Architecture and the i-dat research group. She started her own design practice in 2007, which concentrates on ecological solutions for small-scale projects. Her approach to the process of design is to work at a multi-sensory, micro scale and this preoccupation is continued through liminal by concentrating on the often-overlooked sense of hearing.

David Prior is a composer and sound artist with a particular interest in the relationship between sound and space. His work spans compositions for acoustic instruments, live electronics and fixed media as well as radio programmes, sound installations and sound walks. Since 2003 most of David’s work in the area of sound art and exhibition sound design has been carried out through liminal, while his musical output is released under his own name or through his two collaborative music projects, Derailer (with John Matthias) and Arcades (with Dugal McKinnon). Additionally, David continues to work as a producer and sound mixer for music and film projects and is a member of the film and music collective 4waylab.

David’s music has been performed around Europe and North America in contexts including ISCM World Music Days, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference, Sonic Arts Network Expos and the State of the Nation Festival, to name but a few. His work has won a number of international competitions including Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition, Cornelius Cardew Prize, E.A.R (Hungarian Radio), the George Butterworth prize and a PRS Foundation ATOM award.

After a first degree in Music and Religious Studies, David completed a PhD in music at the University of Birmingham in 2000 having completed residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada, Les Ateliers UPIC, Paris and the Technisches Universität, Berlin where he was a guest of the DAAD.

David is associate professor in Music and Sound Art at University College Falmouth.

For more info:
http://www.liminal.org.uk/

Photo: The Organ of Corti in Cumbria