DEMYSTIFYING THE NARRATIVE
first performed on December 22, 2020
online performance art festival
performed once in 2020
CECILIA SUHR
West Chester, Ohio
www.ceciliasuhr.com
DEMYSTIFYING THE NARRATIVE
CECILIA SUHR
“Demystifying the Narrative” is an experimental voice improvisation performed on a handmade e-textile interactive instrument. This work is situated at the intersection between sonic art performance and a mixed-media/textile installation combined with a new electronic musical interface. Reflecting on the turbulent and notable year of 2020, I explore the dominant narratives in the cultural and media landscape through an abstract expression of sounds and visual representation via handmade installation. Upon touching each button (made with a ball of steel wool) with a fingertip, it will trigger a pre-recorded audio sound file. While performing on this new custom made audio-visual e-textile instrument, my voice is improvised via a looping station. Overall, this work captures the sounds of repetition, repudiation, contradiction, and omission while representing chaos, instability, despair, and unsightly beauty via a large-scale interactive installation. In doing so, it captures various voices that were silenced, heard, repeated, and contradicted as well as a collective and individual outcry.