GenDyTrouble: Cyber*Feminist Computer Music (2015-)
The project GenDyTrouble: Cyber*Feminist Computer Music draws on the common etymological ground between generative art/music and gender (Latin: genus, generis, generare, Greek: genos, gonos) to perform a symbolic collision between Iannis Xenakis’ “Génération Dynamique Stochastique” approach to waveform synthesis (shortened to “GenDy”) and Judith Butler’s foundational work of queer-feminist theory “Gender Trouble.” It seeks to interrogate the socio-political implications of “natural” and “unnatural” sounds in the history of electronic music and asks whether, and under what conditions generative processes can be considered sources of emancipatory potential.
GenDyTrouble: Cyber*Feminist Computer Music is a sound performance with multi-channel capability. The piece is made up of several parts and draws together theoretical impetuses from cyberfeminism and algorithmic composition.
Commissioned by Goethe Institute Chicago and performed at Sexing Sound, Chicago (Oct, 2015). Other instantiations: Studio XX, Montreal (residency); (April 2018) Critical Media and the Arts, University of Birmingham (June 2018); Call & Response (residency) (July-August 2019).
ANNIE GOH 