Lady Dice and the Emerald Oyster Honeycomb: A New BlipVert and Synaesthetic Interdisciplinarity

Abstract

As a composer, I spend hours in my studio creating eclectic and complex electronic music. Onstage, this music is radically transformed as I become BlipVert, a performative alter-ego which fervently remixes and alters the music, furthermore adding ancillary frenetic physical reactions to the dense electronic textures. BlipVert’s physicality imbues it with conspicuous synaesthetic quality: sound and vision are intimately conjoined in BlipVert performances thereby portraying BlipVert as a compelling construct of visual-music. BlipVert epitomizes my oeuvre, which is ultimately defined by what I refer to as snapshot composition: a collection of contrasting creative ideas which are exhibited as a complex of interconnected parts. My doctoral thesis composition Lady Dice and the Emerald Oyster Honeycomb, a music-drama in five scenes for BlipVert, two percussion batteries, and two sopranos, attempts to expand BlipVert’s identity by thoroughly exploring the expressive possibilities of visual-music through various mediums: graphic scoring, interpretive conducting, color-composing, word painting, and electronic technology. Ultimately, Lady Dice and the Emerald Oyster Honeycomb represents a profound coalescence of expressive activities which formulate synaesthetic interdisciplinarity: interconnected properties working together which amplify the concept of visual-music and illuminate the essence of snapshot composition as a unique creative practice. Audio available for streaming on Aviary: https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/1787/collection_resources/136913