Our Autumn Open Call Memento Vivere runs October 10th to 18th, featuring twenty-three artists showcasing a range of styles and mediums.

Dougie’s primary creative output is music, recording and releasing music under the alias Unthank. His music is mostly electronic in nature across a range of different genres, and heavily features unconventional sampling, sound design, and the use of field recordings. In looking for an unconventional outlet for unconventional music, Dougie has been experimenting with incorporating musical ideas with other forms of art, attempting to create physical pieces to complement and deliver the audio component. Initially this has taken the form of video with one project completed and another substantial work in progress, but a recent collaboration with the director at Six Foot Gallery inspired him to try his hand at sculpture, hence his entry in to this October’s open call.

Hi Dougie! Can you walk us through your creative process?
For me everything starts with sound. This piece was, for a long time, only the audio component. The song playing from the sculpture has gone through multiple iterations, as an instrumental initially then incorporating various different spoken elements until I settled on the theme for this one, the description of a strange device. Once that was cemented I had an image in my mind of what that machine looked like and it seemed a short hop to actually make it.

I don’t think I have a set creative process, nothing I make feels very deliberate until I’m finishing it, it just sort of happens. The song was an experiment with some programming techniques for making music, then the text was just written off the cuff based on an idea that popped in to my head, I’ve barely revised it from the original idea that popped out fully formed. The sculpture just seemed to follow from the text, I thought how could I make this music an object and the answer was right there so I made it.

There’s a lot of work in making the actual song and building the device but I didn’t have to work at the inspiration, I just had to be ready for when the idea came and not talk myself out of doing it.

How has your practice changed over time? 
I’ve been working purely in sound and music for a long time now, over twenty years. I love it, it will always be my main creative focus, but I’ve recently begun experimenting with new ways of delivering that work. It’s exciting to come up with a new way of presenting something that people might otherwise entirely overlook. My music is out there on Spotify and Bandcamp and Soundcloud and sometimes people listen to it and tell me they like it, but it’s incredibly hard to get noticed, particularly if you’re not inclined to work hard at promotion.

I like to make music and I like people to listen to it, but I have no interest in making it a job. A piece like this is my new way of getting people to take a couple of minutes to listen to something they likely wouldn’t otherwise hear because it’s unusual and presented in a different way. I think making this, and the earlier piece that was exhibited here at Six Foot Gallery which I made in collaboration with my wife, has sparked a whole new way of thinking about what I make.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I’d like people to think it’s interesting, and strange, to wonder what it is and why it exists. It’s intended more as a question than an answer.

If it’s making a statement about anything it’s entropy, about the inevitable decline of everything, but I don’t mean it in a dour way. That the device exists at all is strange, it’s supposed to be a little fantastic and the fact it has come in to being at all, to sit in its jar and make a strange sound before eventually decaying and crumbling away is in defiance of that entropy, as well as embodying it.

What challenges did you experience during the creation of your work and how did you overcome them?
This is the third version of the device. It’s difficult to make something that you want to display an element of haphazardness without making it too random, or too forced. It was difficult to get the right mix of elements so that it looked like something that might have a purpose but not like something that we would know and easily recognise, and also something that was visually appealing. I owe thanks to my wife for her feedback, I find it enormously difficult to make an objective judgement call once I’m working on something and being able to show the work in progress to her and be told “no, that’s rubbish, you need to fix it” with no holding back is very valuable.

What do you do to keep motivated and interested in your work?
I think it’s important to know when to step away, to not try and force your way through frustration when it’s not happening. I have a lot of different ways I like to get creative and doing the right thing at the right time, whether it’s playing, writing or programming music, production or sound design, writing, or making something is key. Trying to set a schedule and stick to it can really get in the way. If I work on what I feel like working on when I feel like doing it, it keeps me much more productive.

That said, once I’ve started something I really need a deadline for finishing it or it will trundle on forever! So it’s a mix, I find all my starting points organically by dabbling endlessly, then once something starts going keep the momentum until it’s done.

Will your next project be a continuation of your current style or are you experimenting with something different? Can you share a glimpse of your next project?
The song playing on my device is part of a series. I don’t know if any of the rest of the pieces will become physical objects, but the music and words are all written and it’ll be released to streaming platforms within the next few months.

The tracks on it describe other fantastical audio related devices of different types and the songs encompass a range of different styles. I think it’s some of my best work to date and I’m very excited to be nearly finished with it.

Beyond that I have no concrete plans for what’s next, I definitely want to exhibit other things in future but I don’t know yet what form those will be. I have a couple of ideas for videos which might be my next project that ends up in here, but who knows when inspiration to make something mad will strike!

See more of Dougie’s work on Instagram. Memento Vivere runs at Six Foot Gallery until Friday 18th October.