Waves of Qualities

Abstract

The world can be defined by territories and perceptions. Gender, roots and religion are related strongly with borders – or perceived borders – that frame the dynamics contained within and the conflicts at its edges. Wherever the borders are challenged, there are inevitably opposing forces – those which welcome expansion and blurring, and those seeking to re-establish the line that has been crossed. Both these forces operate in my work. Driven by that tension, I look to materials that appear in the “in-between” places found in sonic structures and occurring in societies at large; places where ambiguities are glimpsed, identities come and go, and contradictory impulses – performance, play, task, absurdity – operate simultaneously. What appears is a harmony of noises: misappropriations of gesture and consequence; of dry and wet sounds; low and high technology; rough and subtle at once; regular and irregular rhythmic orbits in tandem; materials at once tangled and estranged; hybrids of human, animal, machine; somewhere between unification and resistance. During my time at Harvard, I have composed sixteen pieces, eight of which I herein present as my portfolio. These pieces represent my musical and artistic research from 2011 until 2017, and consist of various instrumentations and artistic contexts, including choreography for musicians, composition for dancers, sound installations, and sonic costumes. Each of the works examines the elastic interplay between repetition and resistance thereto. Musical instruments, commercial objects, and discarded industrial materials are treated prehistorically. Their range of physical/sonic properties are observed by the application of a variety of forces, causing ever-changing patterns to perpetually emerge and disintegrate. The residual sounds of choreographed objects/performers and the choreography of the sound-making; their contributions toward and disruptions of one another's domains; the performer's movement and the movement of sound – all are allowed fruition as causal co-contributors, exploring themes such as gravity, puppetry, system failures and illusion.