zach dawson is a UK-based composer and researcher currently undertaking his PhD in music composition at the University of Birmingham, supported by the AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. His practice-based research attempts to deconstruct music's medium by composing works for non-sonic formats in order to produce musical material. In doing so, he asserts that music is now no longer isolated to sonic materiality as he experiments with media and forms outside of music to produce work that crosses a space and time closer to art practice. During his residency at Orpheus Institute zach continues his work with formats by reversing his recent compositional process. He conceives the musical score, a historical medium of music, as a generator of inputted information that does not necessarily only produce sonic output. Conceptualising the score as a visual format of sound, the possibilities of what can be interpreted as sonic material is questioned. zach will be working with Orpheus until January 2024, presenting final outcomes towards the end of his residency.
