Nick Williams – researching Post Vernacular Music
Nick Williams became a PhD research candidate at Newcastle University after receiving the CETL Post-Vernacular Music Scholarship in 2007. His practiceled research will identify and negotiate the many collisions, ruptures, and harmonies that occur when artists from disparate performance disciplines collaborate with one another. By drawing on the discourse surrounding the activity of ‘play’, and notions of the ‘liminal’ and ‘aesthetic’ space in ritual and performance, he aims to identify improvisation as a suitable site for experiential learning. Subsequently, he will develop electronic music pedagogy aimed at artists and ‘non-musicians’.
Nick completed an undergraduate degree in Music and the Creative Arts at the University of Central Lancashire in July 2001. He is a founding member and co–director of the UK based interdisciplinary performance group theybreakinpieces, providing expertise in the creation of digital audio software (using Max/MSP/Jitter) for performers in the context of interdisciplinary improvisation. He is an experienced performer and specializes in movement, electronic music, and vocal practices.
