INTRÅ for Cello, Live Electronics and Lights (2023)
What does the cello think, feel, dream, remember? INTRÅ meditates on an imagined collective unconscious shared between performer and instrument.
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INTRÅ explores the unconsciousness of the performer, embodying a fictional Cellist who possesses a complex and deeply interwoven relationship with the instrument, and seeks to imagine the unconscious inner world of the Cello as an animate “living” subject itself. Co-mingled with the instrument, both the human body and instrumental body share a complex collective unconscious, represented by the shape-shifting shadows cast behind the performer a la the Jungian shadow (a metaphor for the subconscious). INTRÅ moves between a sea of dreams, memories, thoughts & emotions within this shared psychological space between instrument and performer, meditating on the performative body, the performativity of the Cello as an artifact-object, and the trauma, ecstasy, and dramatism of musical performance and traditional classical pedagogies. (2023)
Premiered by Robbie Bui on February 17th, 2023 at the Conrad Prebys Music Center Experimental Theatre at the University of California San Diego
Composition, electronics, and lighting design - S Whiteley
Cello - Robbie Bui
Video recording and editing - Robbie Bui
Audio mixing and mastering - S Whiteley