Umwelt V
improvisation for solo guitar (2020)
This is a film of a solo free improvisation recorded on 3 August 2020 in a studio in Dublin by filmmaker Lucía Dwyer. This improvisation makes use of prepared guitar techniques devised by Dwyer and features his use of a bow and other techniques. By deconstructing the instrument, new, hidden instruments have been liberated; new compositional possibilities have been unleashed.
Umwelt V is part part of Dwyer's Umwelten ('environments') series, which emerged out of his responses to the psychological, emotional and physical effects the Covid-19 lockdown. These pieces also engage with the proposition of Umwelt theory at the core of current biosemiotics, which explores the latitudes and limits of human consciousness and perception.