Songs of Body (2016)
a folk opera
 

for five voices, arduino sensors, scentscape, floral waters


Foreign guests gathered around a table want to play a drinking game. Disembodied voices explore the space between language and its disintegration after a violent mapping. When there are no words left, we begin our movement toward spring. Inspired by Balkan ritual and mountain songs, the architecture of the house-body, and a girl’s choreographic memories, Songs of Body is a synesthetic score exploring song as function, sound as touch, immersive scent memory and rendering. As witnesses, we return to the river, in hope of body autonomy, where a new vocabulary can be established to describe not the evils we have seen but a wild genetic weed, a tidal uprising.


Written, Composed, and Directed by Michelle Sui