Artwork

In Conversation with Oyster (with interpreters)

The oyster was chosen for its inability to speak, positioned instead as a collaborator in an imagined exchange with two musicians acting as interpreters. This work stages a collaborative encounter structured through responsive notation and decision-making.
Performers are given two pitch sets composed of natural harmonics alongside a branching graphic score (decision score). The pearl’s movement within the shell determines the pathways of the score, which is performed from top to bottom. Two performers (keyboard/cello) choose notes intuitively from the given pitch sets, responding to one another in real time. Through attentive listening, the ‘interpreters’ translate impulses and the speculative logic of the shell—something they cannot fully know—into sound.

Composor: Chen Yang
Musician: Sophie Li

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