Crossmedia Talks – The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness

Intermodal storytelling: blending words, paintings, and music into one narrative

We interviewed Matthew Ottley, Australian author, artist, and composer, whose powerful work The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness received a Special Mention in the 2023 BolognaRagazzi Crossmedia Award (Crossmedia Project category). In this conversation, Ottley explores how intermodality—blending music, words, and visual art—can give voice to complex emotional experiences and deeper mental health narratives.

1. Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I am an author, visual artist and a composer, and most recently (partly as a result of my project that was in the BRCMA) a film-maker. My project, The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness is a 128 page picture book for young adults (and adults), a choral symphony and a 50 minute film. I wrote the text for the book, did all of the artwork (which includes a mixture of oil paintings on canvas, various media on paper and digital artwork) and wrote the score for the symphony, which is set for a 97 piece orchestra, 40 voice choir and a tenor soloist. I worked on the music recording with the wonderful Brno Philharmonic Orchestra from the Czech Republic, the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, Australian tenor Ben Reynolds, and British conductor Mikel Toms. The book and score are published by One Tentacle Publishing, a boutique press set up by my amazing partner Tina Wilson, specifically for multi-modal works.

2. Could you tell us a little about your project?

I have lived with type 1 Bipolar Disorder all of my life and I felt the time had come when I wanted to communicate with others what it feels like to live through a psychotic episode. But I wanted the work to be a beautiful artistic experience for my audience even though the subject matter can be confronting. For this reason I cast the story in an Alice in Wonderland-like metaphorical way. I wanted to give my audience an ‘artistic', and hence ‘safe’ experience of what it is like to suffer from psychosis. My hope is that this work can inspire conversations and become part of the movement to break down stigma and prejudice around complex mental health issues. The text for the work was originally written as a poem in a recovery diary I kept in hospital after a particularly long and severe episode one year. I began writing the music also when I was very unwell one year, then continued to complete that after I had recovered. The entire project took 5 years to complete. The last three years were spent completing the 97 paintings in the book. Because the film is made up largely of the paintings paired with the music, it was the very last part of the entire work to be completed in the final few months of the five year period.

3. Can you describe your project's unique ingredients?

I work in a way that I call ‘intermodal’, which means I take lines from my artwork, such as character face outlines or lines from other objects within images and place these directly on a music stave. From these I develop the music. Sometimes I work the other way, taking melodic shapes from the music and creating visual images. I have synaesthesia as part of my condition (sounds elicit involuntary shapes and colours in my visual cortex) so I knew what orchestral textures to create to pair with the various paintings in the book. This way the emotional intent of the images and the music is intrinsically intertwined in a much more powerful way than had they been disparate elements simply brought together. The combination of traditional oil painting combined with digital techniques gave me the facility to explore the richness and depth of colour and texture I felt the subject required. With the music I chose particular instruments for the orchestra, such as contra-bassoon, bass-clarinet and bass-flute for the same reason - sonic depth and texture. I feel that the combinations of music and art, and music and words can take us to a more deeply felt, meta-cultural and metalinguistic understanding of narrative - we feel things more profoundly.

4. How do you see the future of storytelling for children and young adults?

Storytelling is, I feel, at a pivot point in its history. Storytelling is arguably one of the defining and oldest aspects of culture. It is the very thing that unites us, that affirms us, that allays our fears. But on the darker side can also be used to turn us against each other. For all of these reasons - and particularly so that it can’t be used in that last negative way - it is a precious thing that must be nurtured so that it can be the affirming, uniting force that empathises us and brings us all to our full potential. The promise that technology can inspire and help us develop multi-modal approaches to storytelling is very exciting and I feel that there is a world of development waiting for us in the multi-modal sphere. But I would urge all story creators not to succumb to the ease of using AI for enhancing or even creating ideas. It can be a form of laziness that bypasses the crucial fallow time needed in the creative process. The very thing that makes our stories real and compelling to others is our human experience. My own work - The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness - was born out of raw, sometimes exquisite, sometimes life-threatening pain that even if a machine could emulate, because we know it has come from a machine would be devoid of real meaning. Although all story telling is culturally self-referencing, there is something in the random, eccentric way that human creativity works that we need to nurture. Story creation takes time. I fear that AI is taking us away from contemplation, from the quietness of reflection, those drawn out moments of stillness so important to creativity.

5. Why should a publisher/developer/author… participate in the BRAW Crossmedia?

Because the majority of literary awards around the world are focused on works as exclusively works of literature, there is very little opportunity to celebrate those works that are told across multiple modalities. There is one part in The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness where the words talk about the protagonist's failing response to medication. The images in that part express the pain he feels about this (as expressed in his body), and the music describes the unbearable noise he experiences in his head. A full understanding of the narrative needs all three modalities. But my work has often been overlooked because the literature world will only consider the one aspect of the work - the words (or the words and images). For this reason, I believe the BolognaRagazzi Crossmedia Awardis a beacon for what is possible in the future of storytelling. Having had a special mention at the BRAW Crossmedia has certainly been the most extraordinary gift to me in that many people are now taking notice of not only my work that featured in the BRAW Crossmedia, but all of my multi-modal work. The BRAW Crossmedia is a very precious thing!

The BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award is the prize of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair that celebrates publishing projects able to expand their narrative world beyond the book, through games, podcasts, web series, films, and more. It’s open to anyone who has created cross-media experiences, not just publishers: authors, production companies, IP developers, specialised studios... anyone who has brought the story to life across different platforms. For all the details and rules, check out the official award page.