Norman McLaren is now recognized as a pioneer in the fields of animation, experimental and abstract cinema, and visual sound. Taking his innovations as a starting point – and borrowing our title from a 1970 BBC documentary about McLaren – this symposium will explore and interrogate McLaren’s legacy for practitioners and theorists. Four guest speakers will discuss the relationships between music, animation, and experimental film. They will consider McLaren’s work and influence from disparate perspectives, and identify new avenues of enquiry that it suggests. How can we think and theorise the relations between sound and the moving image in fresh and novel ways? Although filmmakers regularly collaborate with musicians and sound designers, how can working habits be reimagined, new strategies and creative possibilities explored?