Luke Fowler

A Sensation Never Yet Known

'A Sensation Never Yet Known' is a new work by Luke Fowler. It explores the history of electronic music in Scotland through a film portrait of Janet Beat, a pioneering composer and educator whose contribution has been overlooked until recently. Recording the now 88 year-old Beat over the course of a year, Fowler uses analogue film as a medium that attests to presence: of Beat in the here and now, of the camera within her domestic space, and of her life’s work within the larger context of experimental music. Rather than a biographical or narrative work, 'A Sensation Never Yet Known' weaves together moments of conversation with field recordings and music. We hear Beat recount her childhood experiences of deep listening, her graphic scores for dancers and the obstacles she faced as a female composer of electronic music.

Extending his long-standing interest in how cultural and political figures of the 1960s and 1970s are remembered, 'A Sensation Never Yet Known' also reflects Fowler’s practice as both an artist-filmmaker and a musician in his own right. The project is informed by his collaboration with Glasgow Library of Synthesized Sound and with University of Glasgow musician-researchers Louise Harris and Kevin Leomo.

Luke Fowler lives and works in Glasgow. Fowler questions the style and political implications of conventional modes of documentary through a varied practice which encompasses film, sound, installation and photography. He is concerned with finding new ways to meaningfully engage with marginal cultural figures, spaces and archive materials through the medium of 16mm film. His moving image works have charted an alternative history of Britain as well as considering significant international musicians and artists – revisiting the work of Margaret Tait, R. D. Laing, Patrick Cowley, and Brunhild Ferrari, amongst others.

He was nominated for The Turner Prize in 2012 and received the inaugural Derek Jarman Award in 2008. In 2014, Fowler was one of the recipients of Artists and Archives: Artists’ Moving Image, a unique residency programme based at BBC Scotland. In 2014, MACK published Fowler’s first monograph of his photo archive. Fowler has exhibited and shown his films internationally. His film Mum’s Cards was awarded the 2019 Scottish Short Film Award at Glasgow Short Film Festival and the prize for Best Short at Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival of Navarre, Spain. In 2023, Being in a Place: A Portrait of Margaret Tait was awarded the La Scam International Award at Cinéma du Réel.

'A Sensation Never Yet Known': Supported by GLOSS and Outer Spaces. Additionally supported by Glasgow International with funds from the Scottish Government's Festival EXPO Fund

Head to Glasgow International website for more details.