TedXDartmouth Performance 2019

A living bridge is formed by communities guiding the pliable roots of a tree across a river or stream and allowing them to strengthen and grow over time until they can support the weight of a human being. 

I wonder how many TEDx presenters give their talks barefoot?

This one is a throwback folks! It was the spring of 2019 (my, what a different world we lived in then) and I was working on my Masters in Digital Musics at Dartmouth College (the program has since changed to a MFA in Sonic Practice). A chance opportunity popped up and suddenly I was working on a performance for TedXDartmouth 2019:Living Bridges. 

This theme resonated deeply with my improvisational practice and philosophy as an interdisciplinary artist. I am constantly seeking to connect different disciplines, art forms and technology. This opportunity provided a unique challenge to distill some of my practice to a wider audience and also was a technical challenge. 

The production structure for the event was incredibly strict – everything had to fit neatly within 15 minutes with only about a minute or two transition time between presenters. Music tech is notorious for being fickle; software crashing right before or in the middle of a performance, sensors not interfacing correctly, getting audio routed properly, the list goes on. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into a smooth performance and I was certainly nervous my set up would take too long or something would go wrong in the moment. Hollow, the interactive system for musical expression I devised, had a lot of moving pieces to set for everything to go smoothly; the Kinect, my laptop (and having all software and audio behaving as expected), the box (my apparatus for the performance part). Luckily, I had worked as a sound crew member for the Hopkins Center for the Arts and was able to arrange a couple extra tech rehearsals with the crew to optimize my set up, practice the transitions, set audio levels, and test if the stage lighting would throw my entire system off. Fortunately, we were able to tackle any obstacle during those extra rehearsals. With the help of many folks, preparation, and adrenaline, I managed to pull it off!

Performing Stretch, Fall, Hover

The piece I presented was titled Stretch, Fall, Hover. For the performance itself I took a hybrid approach of talk and performance – I felt it was important to position and share a little bit about my work and how it connected to the theme of Living Bridges.  You can read the full statement here, but for now I will leave you with an excerpt:

I imagine my feet and legs as roots; upside down and weightless they become aerial roots, free to stretch, fall, and hover, exploring environments, narratives and histories. I invite you to be curious, creative and attentive to the living bridges you come across in your own lives. Find connections, reflect on resonances and challenge incongruencies.

I still find resonance in my words from that time. Though we are living in a drastically different time here six years later, we still need to find ways to create connections, build ones with pliable yet resilient roots, and challenge those that are bringing harm to the communities and ecosystems we live in. And with that I invite you to witness my little moment on a big stage with an iconic red circle:  Composing For A Body In Motion.

-Christiana