This month we talk to Aki Purser. Aki has just graduated from our course and her astonishing audio-visual piece 記憶 (Memory) has won her the ‘Incentive award’ from our partner University in Nagoya Japan. Aki has a few exciting projects ahead, including RBMA Berlin this coming September.
DMSA: Three important words that represent you as a creative person
AP: playful, meticulous, intricate
DMSA: When did you start working with sound and music?
AP:Aged 6/7 playing the piano
DMSA: In what ways has the DMSA course supported or helped you to develop into who you are today creatively and professionally?
AP: It broadened my approach to sound and encouraged me to explore past the rigid rules of traditional music.
Over my three years there, the teachers were very supportive and I am incredibly grateful.
DMSA: Your degree piece 記憶 (Memory) has won one of the Nagoya awards this year. Can you tell us a bit about the project?
AP: 記憶 (Memory) is an audio-visual piece that explores the fragmented structures of human memory. Developed around the poem 記憶 (Memory) by Tian Yuan and taking inspiration from Phillip Larkins’ An Arundel Tomb, the piece examines the expiration of memory and its inability to withstand interference. The 4 minute film consists of rapidly fluctuating rhythms, upon which runs a continuous stream of black and white imagery. The broken rhythms are used to portray the fractured nature of memory and this is emphasised through sequences of still photography that have been adapted for the moving image.
DMSA: You will be attending the RBMA in Berlin in September, this is exciting! Was it difficult to get in and what do you hope to get from it?
AP: Honestly I don’t know how I got in. I had been told about it and sent off an application last minute on a whim. I really did not expect anything from it and it was a wonderful surprise. I am trying to approach it with no expectations and am generally trying not to think about it too much, but I am really looking forward to it and feel very privileged to have been offered such an opportunity.
DMSA: Other plans for the future? projects, events, visions?
AP: We’ll have to see! My first love is sound for film, so hopefully I will find myself going down that route in the near future.