About Danny
Danny JD is a dedicated community artist, carer, and student nurse with a passion for making the arts accessible to all. His work spans music events, instrument design, production, community projects, creative writing, and visual arts. Danny believes that creativity enriches every aspect of life, and he’s committed to giving a platform to voices that are often overlooked.
Danny’s writing has been featured in anthologies through collaborations with Notts CAN’s The Island Project, First Story’s Kingdom of Words, and the Young Carers Project’s All You Need Is a Pen. His music has been released by labels including Detroit’s Soiree Records, Step2, Plastik People Digital, Buslife Records, You Know Records, and Replay Records.
He has organized events with Hockley Hustle, Green Hustle, Acoustickle, Phlexx Records, Mimm Studios, I’mNotFromLondon, and ItsInNottingham, and has consulted on accessibility and inclusive arts education with Digit Music, CDR, Beatknots, Future Hustlers, and various schools, academies, and universities.
Featuring: joy being a risk, respite through creativity, sneaking into book clubs, penguin onesies, how one young girl’s dream of being a writer inspired everything, carving out a pathway for yourself, singing even if you’re a terrible singer, going on tour, needing a different pencil, having to endure pain to do what you love, burnout, discomfort being a tool for growth, creating spaces where people can flourish, being blown away by the power of writing, hamster puppet shows, and the transformative project that we will never forget.
Note From Danny
Please feel free to reach out to me for anything regarding accessibility through the arts or any other art connection or journey you want to go through, if I don’t know where to recommend places/opportunities to check out, I will know people who will know.
Your imagination is the limit, so always dream big!
Contact
dannyjd.artist@gmail.com
Links
This service offers young carers in the East Midlands a one-stop-shop for young carers to join group sessions, access short breaks, socialise with other young carers, take part in fun activities, and access advice support to help them in their care role.
Preview & Buy The Young Carers Anthology: All You Need Is A Pen
Male mental health support group that offers active and social weekly activities in, on and around water. Open to all makes aged 18-65 years old.
Activities include wild swimming, kayaking, group walks, camping trips, creative art sessions and the very own “under the bridge choir.”
A safe space for all women & gender non-conforming people, with all sorts of amazing art workshops.
A Note From Danny On Music Accessibility
Essentially, every digital instrument or device is triggered by code ( 1's and 0's, which triggers a reaction); this is also the case for X-box, PlayStation, and Wii controllers or keyboards; this code is called MIDI. We can set anything that has MIDI up in different ways to trigger things other than what it's been set up to do. This means we could set up a Wii or X-box controller to play the drums or trigger string sounds.
CMPSR
So one of the companies I have taught for has re-purposed an electric wheelchair controller (like a joystick), mapped to an octave on a piano (so up is C, top left is D, top right is E, left is F, and so on). The buttons below it can add sustain, change the octaves, make the keys play chords, and use different scales. This instrument is called the CMSPR.
Here are 2 links to show it in action:
Because this instrument triggers off notes, it isn't just limited to playing keyboards; you can set it to play an instrument, meaning you can play everything from very cultural traditional instruments to whole string ensembles.
Here's an example of an orchestra that use the CMSPR and other similar instruments:
Now, MIDI is not just limited to audio; it can essentially trigger anything, such as lights, vibrations, or even an action, such as turning on a fan or getting an automatic door to open. So, as you can imagine, the possibilities are endless.
So here are other cool accessibility adaptions using MIDI.
Haptic Vibration Suits:
Which uses the same MIDI used in the CMPSR, allowing people who are deaf or hard of hearing, to experience live music through vibration.
This is just a small fraction of how very exciting our future is becoming more inclusive, which is going to lead to much more innovation, and creativity.
Danny Dancing Like No-One Is Watching
With forever gratitude to my brother, Tom Hall, for providing the opening/closing soundtrack.
What did this episode bring up for you?
However small, brief, or transformational.
Share, comment, react.
Thank you for listening!
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