THE PERFORMERS

Zoom Time - Over and Out is an extension and re-invention of an initial work, entitled Zoom Time that was created during the Covid pandemic and that told the stories of the lives of the musicians during this difficult period. Given the restrictions imposed by lockdowns and social distancing, much of the creative work of Zoom Time was undertaken online using the Zoom platform, hence the title of the original piece. 

Zoom Time - Over and Out is a collaboration between Ulster University (Prof Frank Lyons) and Queen’s University Belfast’s “Performance without Barriers” (PwB) (Prof Franziska Schroeder), enabled through a Future Screens NI/AHRC Demonstrator Funding grant, secured by Prof Paul Moore. 

The work features voice recordings of the musicians, portraying the constantly changing emotions that they experienced during the pandemic, with newly recorded voices that portray life as the musicians experience it now. Layered onto an orchestral score, composed by Prof Frank Lyons, are musical components by the Acoustronic and Performance without Barriers musicians.

These materials were created in online Zoom sessions, during the pandemic and in recent collaborative physical workshops during September and October 2023.

Musicians are using specifically designed new, inclusive, digital musical instruments, including instruments that have been created as Accessible Virtual Reality Musical Instruments (AVRMI) by Damian Mills (PwB); “With Feel VR Instruments” by Dr Lewis Smith (UU), an Accessible Long Cane Instrument (ALCI), created by “PwB” researchers James Cunningham and Dr Alex Lucas, as well as specifically created virtual environments, rendered in UnrealEngine 5 by PwB researcher Leonid Kuzmenko.

Prof Paul Moore has worked with the musicians to create a visual accompaniment to Zoom Time - Over and Out. The film will be shown with additional footage made during our 2023 workshops.