LU: When and in what circumstances did you first meet Alaric Sumner?

EM: I don't remember the exact occasion of our first meeting. But the general circumstances were at Dartington College of Art where I worked as a technical assistant in the SPU (Servicing and Production Unit) from 1996 to 2000.

We provided general technical cover for lectures; and of course as Alaric was lecturing there we would encounter each other over overhead projectors in the babbage and so on.

Up until the summer of 1999 the SPU offices were over the top of the recording studios at Dartington so we had a lot of interaction with what happened there; and during that time Alaric was collaborating with Joe Hyde and John Drever; and through this I got to know him a little better.

I also met Alaric as a friend of friends at Dartington, mainly through Dave Youngs and Joe, both colleagues and friends. They would meet with Alaric on occasion at Rumour Wine Bar for food, or over coffee somewhere. And I took to joining them.

I do have odd memories of him before I could really say I knew him; for example, standing in the recording studio, listening in to what he and Jo or John would work on; and be quite transfixed by the way he used text and sound; observing the way he worked with people was most interesting.

LU: And how did he work with people? I realise that’s going to be a very difficult thing to define, but please give it a go!

EM: At Dartington at the end of 1999 we had this new partnership scheme introduced where a directive was set in place for academic staff and support staff to work in partnership to deliver lessons. Alaric asked if I could come in to his class to show students the technological side of sound recording for their practice, and therefore interpret their needs for a sonic project he was doing.

Alaric being the practical person he was saw benefits and opportunities of this way of working with the technical facility opening up. We never had a chance to put it into practice; because a few weeks later he fell ill.

He was open to the different ways we could approach it; and so suggestions were taken and fitted into the scheme and mobilised.

He was very clever and aware of the perimeters of his requirements. 
Alaric needed to get from a to b and took the most suitable way of getting there, with options for simplicity and the more complex as needed.

I wasn’t present at any pivotal decisions made in his collaborative work; but as I described, I observed moments when he worked with people. For instance, when Rory was working on [The] Unspeakable Rooms, he [Rory] would come in, get equipment and go to the studio to rehearse his physical movement with the video. What struck me was the space that Alaric gave to collaborators to work on their own aspect of the collaboration. He would contribute his part and during that time be very focused about achieving his elements; but would then leave the rest up to the other artist. He had the ability to stand back and comment in an appropriate manner. I suppose this lies in laying out an appropriate framework at the start.

The way that he worked with people seemed consistent, no matter where people were in the hierarchy of the academic institution, outside it or what. With regard to his students, I think he just knew the right questions to ask to prompt people's engagement: in the weeks that followed his death I remember a student commenting that he made her feel that her writing had significance and meaning and was worthy; and I got the notion that this renewed her passion for writing and it had helped her engage with it more thoroughly.

I can relate this to my own experience of being ‘inspired’ by Alaric. Alaric found out that I had half a plan to go to university, I was unsure whether that was what I really wanted to do and I wasn’t sure what I exactly wanted to study. Alaric would frequently query how the application was going and insist on how important it was. He wouldn’t accept any of my vagueness that had so far prevented me from applying; and on a couple of occasions, in his true nature, would insist that I go with him immediately to the research unit to look at courses and fill out applications.

In August 1999 I applied for the management position in the technical department and got the job.

Everyone was congratulatory but Alaric stopped me in my tracks when he expressed his severe disappointment. He immediately asked about university and pointed out that I should beware that I could get stuck at Dartington if I didn’t get out soon and go and do something much more worthwhile. He wasn’t patronising or pushy, just plain down to earth in articulating how important it is to stretch your faculties and creative needs in different ways that the opportunity to study fabulously can. I completely appreciated it, he hit a nerve; it was what I wanted. I still didn’t apply though.

Following Alaric’s death in 2000, his words echoed in my mind; and hearing everyone’s sentiments at his funeral I got a renewed sense of Alaric’s true passion, a life force. I can’t work out what I think is so special about him; and I keep coming back to the fact that he was just so engaged. He worked from a very conscious passion.

I put together a portfolio, applied to university that September, left Dartington and here I am now in the last semester of my degree in film and photography in Edinburgh.