A NEW MUSICAL MASOCHISM/Limb Control Fundamentals

Investigating the liminal space between didactic execution and free interpretation inherent in all musical performance, an environment for structured improvisation is created where the performer’s movements are dictated by electric shocks sent to her muscles, which force her limbs to move involuntarily. Just as the process of musical indeterminacy, popularized by mid 20th century experimentalists, aimed to free the artist from the shackles of his or her own preferences, during play the masochist desires experiences that exceed the limits of his or her own imagination. The potential of the human body is expanded beyond conscious control to enable experimentation with complex rhythmic structures and fast movements that the performer would be unable to execute of their own volition. Transmogrified into a literal input/output conduit of musical execution, the musical masochist’s contract (or score) is enforced physical obligation determined by the electrical impulses.

Commissioned by Oliver Bown and Lian Loke for Vivid Music: Musify+Gamify, 2015