Research Background

The Boundary Riders project was setup as a Pandemic project to provide both financial support to composers, and creative outlets to document this particular time period. 6 composers – Sam Pankhurst, Jodie Rottle, Hannah Reardon-Smith, Kristin Berardi, Brodie McAllister, Caleb Colledge – were commissioned by Clocked Out Duo (Erik Griswold and Vanessa Tomlinson) to make 4 – 6 minute pieces that could be performed remotely. Each composition was to have a video component and to be released online. Greg Harm contributed unique video footage for each composition.

Research Contribution Contributing to the field of New Eclecticism, Boundary Riders intentionally defies singular musical definitions. Each of the contributing composers straddle different musical genres and roles, including all being performer, composer, improvisers. Everyone in the project also has a strong shared musical history based around the annual Easter at the Piano Mill project - directed by Tomlinson with all participants as regular artistic contributers. For the purposes of this project, Clocked Out defined Boundary Rider as “an artist teetering between the known and the unknown”. The contribution to new knowledge extends to the new online presentation style, the mixed media format, and of course the original compositions and world premiere performances.

Research Significance 6 new works were created and released weekly from 17th June to 22nd July 2020. On social media most works were viewed around 2000 times (12,000 total). In addition Cutcommon ran an article about the pieces, and further collations of the works are expected. The proposition of this model of working has already been drawn upon in teaching at QCGU (HDR coursework) and APAC (experimental collaboration).