On the 23rd May 2014 fire spread through The Glasgow School of Art, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece, badly damaging the heart of the School.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire there was an overwhelming response evidencing a sense of loss and sadness amongst GSA’s worldwide community. This emotional reaction developed into a desire to engage with the Mackintosh Building, and this research project being one of several focused on the building.
Following this tragic event, Birrell and Crotch were both driven by a desire to record the irrevocable damage, and the concept of ‘A Beautiful Living Thing’ developed. Both authors independently felt a connection with the building in the context of their own research, Birrell’s fascination with the relationship of music and place, and Crotch’s concerns with embodied experience and memory.
The ambition was to capture and record the beauty within the building viewing the restoration of this damaged work of art from the immediate aftermath of the fire, and through the process of restoration to completion. Through discussion the project developed and it was agreed that a series of three films would be produced; designed as a series of visual ‘movements’ each would be aligned to mark significant stages of rehabilitation of the building; before, during and after the restoration work.
Film 1 (completed) places a single musician within the damaged library, and records a new composition transposed from the words of Mackintosh ‘A Beautiful Living Thing’.
Film 2 (currently in the editing stage) will concern itself with ‘improvisation’ in response to the improvisatory nature of fire and takes place during the reconstruction phase.
Film 3 will celebrate completion and a new beginning through a choral piece.
This is a linear project that has been conceived as a whole but with each part having independent legitimacy.