After a thorough selection process, we are pleased to announce three successful grantees, who will each be receiving seed funding towards the development of new accessible instruments. Our selection panel were really impressed by the quality of proposals that we received and the range of different instruments that were proposed, which made decisions very difficult.
The following three grantees will each receive an award of £1,000 towards their projects, which they will be documenting and sharing and testing at future DMLab sessions.
Nicola Woodham – https://www.nicolawoodham.com
Nicola is a Disabled live artist and composer, who makes immersive performances. Her project will see the creation of a hand-crafted electronic textile instrument. The wearable instrument will incorporate a live vocal/audio sampler and sensors that create audio effects.
Lee Holder – https://themusicworks.org.uk
Lee has been using music technology to overcome personal challenges to making music for many years, as well as empowering young people in their musical journeys as Disability lead for charity, the Music Works. They will be developing an interactive playable grid instrument called the SparkBoard, that will use objects and RFID sensors to create mid messages.
Zen Olenski – https://designerzen.com
Zen is an experienced designer/maker who has been involved in developing accessible music instruments for a number of years. His project will see the next phase of developing the ‘Photosynth’, a motion controlled musical instrument that reads the face and converts it into sound. On being awarded a grant Zen said:
‘Having the recognition and support of DMLab to develop this technology will expand the capabilities for more inclusivity, better access, more musicality as well as to gain valuable feedback, refinement and research from real users.’
We look forward to seeing all of the different instruments develop over the months ahead.
DMLab London is supported by the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City Bridge Trust, London Catalyst, and with public funding from Arts Council England.
