Introduction to Proposed Project

“Music and Fashion have shared a symbiotic relationship for decades” (Hardcastle, 2024) with “fashion giving music a visual identity” (Glowsteady, 2025). These are the reasons why I have chosen to work alongside the RAG fashion show – “the largest student-led charity event at the University of Leeds” (Carlson, 2023) – for this project. I will be making music for a 4-minute launch video alongside an 8-minute dance routine. The video is based around four 1-minute themes – Ancestral Whispers, Bodies of Water, Ghost in the Machine and Threads of Life (Appendix 1,2,3,4) – each of which being a quarter of the show and link to the overall theme – Gaia: an Earthly Soul. The dance is to bridge between the first two sections of the show.

Appendix 1 Appendix 2

Appendix 3 Appendix 4

Personnel

Sam Fawcett (Me)

Previous work –

Nia Southworth

Previous Work –

Appendix 5 –

Saskia Roy

Saskia is a multi-talented Dancer, Model and Performer who brings focus and attention to her art. She is currently working on movement directing, developing dance films and curating photoshoots, alongside this project where she is the choreographer. Within this project she brings all of her previous skills alongside her love for the collaborative arts. Our contact started within the project group chat (Appendix 6).

Previous Work –

Appendix 6 –

Goals

With any collaborative project there is both shared and independent goals.

Independent Goals:

• Branching myself out into new genres – “discomfort fosters innovation”(KWTGlobal, 2024) which is helping me with my creative block.
• It is a great opportunity to get my name out and gain industry contacts for future work alongside expanding my portfolio.
• My first time collaborating with visual art – art has the ability to “elevate music”(GoWithYamo, n.d) and can provide a different light to my music. I want the music to compliment all visual aspects.

Shared Goals

• Complete all aspects of the video and performance to a high standard that showcases our skills within all our future portfolios. Portfolios are a “must for creative jobs” (Creative Pool, 2018).
• Even though it is an independent project and would occur even without the assignment – most of us involved are utilising it for given assignments so we all aim for a high standard for our submissions.

Methodology & Rationale

For this project, I was actually approached to be involved (Appendix 5) by Nia on the 6/10/25. I had actually only just began thinking about projects beforehand, and when presented to me, it matched the brief perfectly. With an initial meeting on the 13/10/25, I was presented with the project fully, including all information they had previously created such as references (Appendix 7+8).

The project was to be a 4 minute short film around the theme of Gaia: An Earthly Soul alongside an 8 minute dance routine fitting the same theme. The four sub-themes previously mentioned were also explained to me (Appendix 9).

Prior to having our meeting, I was debating whether this project would be achievable due to my lack of practise in ambient/soundscape styles of production – it “features lots of sound design elements”(White,2018) incorporating a lot of found sound. However, after this meeting, I decided to take upon the challenge due to the amount of guidance I’d received and also the entire theme was so interesting – “everything on Earth is connected”(Weyler, 2019) through Gaia.

Once away from this meeting I was sent a multitude of reference tracks including Going Home by Alice Coltrane (Coltrane, 2018) and Sunflower Dance by Green-House (Green-House, 2021) which provided a great starting place. Initially I started working in FL Studios and got a base chordal structure alongside some sounds that I felt I wanted to include such as a flute, tribal drums, bubbly arpeggios and others.

This initial demo coincided with my first contact with Saskia around the 17/10/25 when a WhatsApp chat was created. This was created just to start thinking about ideas to do with the dance performance so it wasn’t used a lot at this point. I would however send any demos across to Saskia as well due to both tracks linking the same themes, allowing her to get an idea of what the performance music may be like.

Between the 16/10/25 and the 15/11/25, I worked on the track and continued bouncing them between the group, with 6 demos being created within a shared google drive (Appendix 10), until a final track was created.

Running with the soundscape concept really grew during this time – especially viewing it as “the universal composition of which we are all composers” (Truax, 2008), linking to the global concept of Gaia.

The master (Appendix 11) for the launch video was finished and put to visuals (Appendix 12) ready for the launch show on the 2/12/25.

A meeting between the three of us occurred on the 29/11/25 to work out the plan for the dance performance. Here we discussed communication over the Christmas holidays, staging, musical choices and general planning. Going forward I am looking at the timeline (Appendix 13) we created and working on getting demos of the 8 minute performance ready for rehearsals in January alongside working out the capture of the final performance with potential contact to videographers needing to be made.

For the recording of both tracks, I am incorporating a mixture of synth work alongside field recordings with a little bit of studio work. The synths are to help provide the tonal and sonic aspect to my work – whilst the field recordings will showcase “the beautiful music all around us” (Wade, 2025). The added studio work is predominantly for the main motifs throughout – the flute, harp etc.

Appendix 7 –

Appendix 8 –

Appendix 9 –

Appendix 10 –

Appendix 11 –

Appendix 12 –

Appendix 13 –

Market Analysis

The audience for the RAG fashion show is primarily university students based in Leeds. However it is open to the general public which opens up a massive target group for who comes along. These audiences often come in the form of “fashion elites”(Shen, 2025) who are actively judging every aspect of the show, which will include the launch video and the dance.

The show is also recorded in its entirety and uploaded to YouTube to greater expand its reach.

With university fashion shows they “are creating hands-on opportunities for students to collaborate, negotiate, network and communicate”(Renko, 2012). This is the most important audience to all of us. We can utilise this work to gain contacts, showcase our work and gain opportunities from.

Costs, Budgeting and Funding

The budget (Appendix 14) is for the show in its entirety and showcases where the costs are going alongside how much will be raised from the show. The majority of the costs will either be covered by collaborators working for free or the funding. The funding mentioned is actually a budget left over from the previous year after donation.

However, here is a hypothetical budget for this project if it were not for charity and separate from the show.

Looking at potential funding for this, I found funds like the Arts Council DYCP fund which grants “£2000-12,000” for “experimenting with new collaborators” (Arts Council England, 2019) . Others included the Jerwood Foundation and The Elephant Trust.

Appendix 14 –

Inspiration and Influences

As a whole, the project takes its influences from many different sections and are often separated by the area of art involved.

Visuals for Video (Appendix 15, 16, 17, 18)

Dance Inspiration (Appendix 19, 20)

Music Inspiration (Appendix 21, 22)

The general vibe for this project is to take inspiration from genres like ambient, electronic, tribal and others and piece together alongside the somewhat brief I received. Each section has its own influences catering more towards their vibe and the dance piece will developed out of the initial themes I create in section one and two.

Appendix 15 –

Appendix 16 –

Appendix 17 –

Appendix 18 –

Appendix 19 –

@tao.dance.theater

TAO Dance Theater Numerical Series works 13 and 14 are currently on a European tour.

♬ 原聲 – TAO Dance Theater

Appendix 20 –

@pilobolus

Microdose Pilobolus Lamentation Variations second movement

♬ original sound – Pilobolus

Appendix 21 – Mermaid Chunky: Ceili

Appendix 22 – You’ll Never Get To Heaven: Still

Contingency

For contingency, I had a plan collaborating with my sister, Harriet, who is a Glasgow-based environmental specialising in protest work. Her previous work was based around the decline of bees (Appendix 23, 24). Our idea was to work with a videographer to create a documentary about the decline of bees. This would include an art installation from my sister, alongside the track I would make which would utilise field recording of bees, their hives and their production. This interested me as bees have “a power of compostion” (Hayes, 1925) which could’ve been utilised here.

Appendix 23 –

Appendix 24 –

Risk Assessment

Looking at the risks associated with this project, there are a few main areas that stand out.

• Timing – the initial video had to be done for the 2/12/25 and the second part is for the 27/02/26 – a very quick turnaround, leaving little time for error.
• Genre – the music might not work alongside the visuals of both sections and is also a new style for me which can create difficulty in replicating to a proper standard
• Lack of Contact – I only have contact with Nia and Saskia even though there is a massive cohort of people involved – I will be asking to be involved more with the rest of the committee etc.

Appendix 25 –

Potential for Development

From being a part of this project, I have had many opportunities and collaborators who I would love to work with in the future – particularly any project involving Nia as I love the way her project management and creative direction is presented. I would definitely consider doing more collaboration within the fashion industry aswell.

Viability Evaluation

After receiving my feedback from my presentation (Appendix 26), I now see that my project is viable alongside being well progressed and interesting. I am going to carry on with the plan that I laid out in my Gantt Chart and initial ideas, whilst also progressing along the way. The launch video has now been released to the public and is already receiving positive feedback. This provides hope for the dance to also be viable as my work seems to be fitting.

Appendix 26 –

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