Gender and Technology
Manifesto
When I enter a new place, whether it’s a country I’ve never been to or a street in New York I haven’t walked down, my first instinct is to decode the environment. My primary concern is to determine who wields power and who are the beneficiaries of the place.
With electronic music, I find myself coming to the familiar conclusion that, similar to who controls cities & urban spaces, the people who dominate the electronic music space have the privilege of race, gender, and class. Most bills are curated by & represent only cis white men.
My solo work with electronics focuses on how electronic music and technology can be more inclusive of a wider range of gender expressions and queer identities. This currently takes place through personal storytelling and performance. The work makes public my search for authenticity and how it intersects in performance.
A few guiding questions help frame the work:
How do non-cis people and people of color organize ourselves and the presentation of our work?
How do we take control of our own narratives, particularly when working with organizations or institutions?
What do we condemn?
What do we celebrate?
When I enter a new place, whether it’s a country I’ve never been to or a street in New York I haven’t walked down, my first instinct is to decode the environment. My primary concern is to determine who wields power and who are the beneficiaries of the place.
With electronic music, I find myself coming to the familiar conclusion that, similar to who controls cities & urban spaces, the people who dominate the electronic music space have the privilege of race, gender, and class. Most bills are curated by & represent only cis white men.
My solo work with electronics focuses on how electronic music and technology can be more inclusive of a wider range of gender expressions and queer identities. This currently takes place through personal storytelling and performance. The work makes public my search for authenticity and how it intersects in performance.
A few guiding questions help frame the work:
How do non-cis people and people of color organize ourselves and the presentation of our work?
How do we take control of our own narratives, particularly when working with organizations or institutions?
What do we condemn?
What do we celebrate?
WT4T Radio Tour, 2018
Solo voice and electronics in Little Rock, AR
Events List
5/19 VAMP Vintage Oakland, CA
5/25 Etiquette Santa Fe, NM
5/31 House Show Little Rock, AR
6/2 House Show Asheville, NC
6/5 Art Rat Studios Roanoke, VA
6/6 Bridge Progressive Arts Charlottesville, VA
6/7 Black Iris Richmond, VA
Recent Solo Work
Clip from solo performance at Sediment Gallery, Richmond, VA.
Voice and capactive touch
Decoding. Photos by Dana Ollestad
Music for Theater & Dance
In early 2017, Ka Baird asked me to collaborate on an ambitious project she had in mind for Issue Project Room that “incorporate(d) performance art, movement, some pageantry...” (Ka’s words). I embraced the complexity and performative elements of the piece; it was unlike much of the sound work I have done up to this point. Much of my contribution revolved around processing Ka’s piano work in the active space of 22 Boerum at Issue Project Room. To do this, I used a series of delay & reverb networks, narrow EQ’ing, a granular processor, and a vocoder for good measure. The result for Ka & I was a chattery dialog with her vibrant piano work and my real-time based work with electronics.
Photo: Issue Project Room
The patch.
Select Recordings
I am primarily interested in live performance with electronics so recorded moments like these are rare. This video was taken in my studio in 2014.
I recorded this track with a very minimal setup, which gave me plenty of freedom to explore an evolving narrative. Recorded in 2015.
This track was featured on Lord Litter’s Radio-On Berlin show. This is another instance of working with limited sounds to explore a seemingly möbius melody & structure. Recorded in 2015.
I recorded this track with a very minimal setup, which gave me plenty of freedom to explore an evolving narrative. Recorded in 2015.
This track was featured on Lord Litter’s Radio-On Berlin show. This is another instance of working with limited sounds to explore a seemingly möbius melody & structure. Recorded in 2015.