Context

The design and build approach prioritised reduction, clarity and structural consistency. Every interface decision was evaluated against the question of whether it supported the work or distracted from it. The resulting site uses a simple visual language, neutral typography and a limited colour palette, creating a quiet framework in which the artwork and accompanying texts are given space to breathe.

A key challenge was accommodating extensive bilingual contextual writing without resorting to overlays or pop-up interfaces, which the artist explicitly wished to avoid. This was resolved through a vertically scrolling page structure in which imagery sits on one side of the layout and text on the other. French and English translations are distinguished through subtle variations in dark grey tones, allowing both languages to coexist clearly without visual competition.

The site was built using a content management system to support a large and evolving catalogue of work. While the overall structure remains consistent, the system allows for significant variation in content types, including still images, video, text-heavy projects and projects with minimal contextual material.

Molly Joyce is a composer and performer acclaimed for her uncompromising work that navigates the perceived limits of disability. State Change is a deeply personal and visceral meditation on acquired disability and adaptive creativity. Blending influences ranging from the 20th century modernist, minimalist lineage of Philip Glass or Steve Reich, to the spectral drones of Andy Stott, Missy Mazzoli, and Nico Muhly, State Change draws unflinchingly from the medical records of a life-changing car accident/childhood trauma for seven electro-acoustic tone poems — stark and oppressive in its medical aesthetic, yet ultimately cathartic and healing. Throughout the record, Joyce utilizes the MUGIC (Music/User Gesture Interface Control) device, which lets her shape clusters of sound without triggering stray pitches — something a traditional keyboard wouldn’t allow. Across the record, Joyce uses tools like motion capture systems, the touch-sensored KAiKU Music Glove, and Bela Trill touch sensors. With them, she renders rotation, pressure, and gesturing into live, generative sound. It's in itself a path-paving use of technology in music and composition, but also a powerful commentary on disability.

Design Overview

The album artwork translates the sonic and emotional architecture of State Change into visual form. Using analog video processing, the visuals capture the undulating cine waves generated from each track — flickering signals that echo the record’s oscillation between tension and release. These shifting waveforms, distorted and blurred through analog circuitry, mirror the album’s meditation on the body: fragile, adaptive, and ever in motion. The resulting images are not static covers, but resonant visual counterparts to the music, reflecting both the medical austerity and the transformative, cathartic journey embedded in Joyce’s work.