NON:onLINE
NON:op's immersive platform for virtual performance
volume 1:5
Please Join Us
as we investigate alternative futures
through music, poetry, performance, and observation
SHARE. INTERACT. COLLABORATE.
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Welcome to the October issue of NON:onLINE!
Power
a poem by NON:op member William Brooks
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Power
rests in the
prefix. Take it
away and
there's life:
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I am
appointed
in you. I am
please to be
gruntled.
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Add one,
add none, add
NON:there’s freedom,
resistance,
rebirth.
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NON:op.
How many?
Not one, not none.
No number,
NON:sense.
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NON:I’m
NON:content
in the NON:best
of NON:worlds.
NON:NON.
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NON:white
NON:Coltrane
NON:creative
NON:reason
NON:Pence
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NON:black
NON:Crawford
NON:bicycle
NON:shoehorn
NON:Cage
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NON:gas
NON:Harris
NON:apple pie
NON:despair
NON:Chance
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NON:heart
NON:Biden
NON:Chaminade
NON:treason
NON:Trump
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But not
NON:senses.
Pluralities
carry no
prefix.
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Many,
Multiple
(NON:quantities),
Manifest,
and More.
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Become,
I, you, us,
anonymous.
Robustly
no-one.
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And the
virus? It’s
in the prefix.
It clings, it
destroys.
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Power
rests in the
prefix. Take it
away and
there’s life.
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A Comparative Listening Event in Auburn Gresham and Southeast Evanston
A Partnership with Open House Chicago, October 16 – 25, 2020
The
economic disparities between different Chicago neighborhoods have been
clearly identified and displayed in community activist and photographer Tonika Johnson's Folded Map Project.
From the perspective of sound and the field of acoustics, are these
inequalities also apparent? For example, is the soundscape different in
Lincoln Park and Englewood; Austin and the Gold Coast? How is it
different and why? How does economic investment or de-investment affect
the sound of a neighborhood? NON:op Open Opera Works' Christophe Preissing and artist Allen Moore partner with Chicago Architecture Center's Open House Chicago to consider these questions.
Aural Neighborhoods
is adapted for social distancing with self-guided outdoor soundwalks in
Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood and southeast Evanston. These
communities were selected because they are approximately the same
distance from Chicago’s loop, and they include sonic points of interest
that roughly mirror each other in geography and content. Get the OHC2020 app
today! It includes clearly marked sound trails, and information and
brief recordings to learn more about the unique sound markers in each
neighborhood.
Walk
one or both trails using the OHC2020 app with or without headphones,
listen to complete recordings of each soundwalk below, and respond to
prompts on our Aural Neighborhoods blog. Finally, should you wish to share recorded audio, video, or images of your soundwalk experience, contact us for a link to upload your documentation so that we may share it with the world.
ACCESSIBILITY
Both Aural Neighborhoods Sound Trails are wheelchair accessible.
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Auburn Gresham Sound Trail
Photo by Stephen J. Serio
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Southeast Evanston Sound Trail
image courtesy of the city of Evanston
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NON:op Open Opera Works
is excited to be a Community Partner with Open House Chicago (OHC)
2020! OHC is a free annual architecture festival presented by the
Chicago Architecture Center (CAC). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
CAC transformed Open House Chicago to prioritize the community's health
and safety by creating an online and outdoor festival. To access OHC
2020 events, programs and tours, visit the Open House Chicago website or download the OHC app—available today!
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Aural Neighborhoods Sound Trail Designers
 Allen MooreA
Black American Interdisciplinary Painter, Experimental Sound Artist,
Educator, Youth Mentor and Curator, Moore’s work emphasizes the
importance of nurturing the Black Imagination with social representation
as it examines both visual and experimental music. Born and raised in
the Historic Village of Robbins, IL, he holds a B.A in Arts from Chicago
State U., an M.A. in Arts from Governors State U., and an MFA from
Northern Illinois U. (2016), and his work is featured in (among others)
Sixty Inches From the Center, (Gather), Movement Matters, Bad at Sports
Contemporary Art Talk (ANX 2015 Roots and Culture) and the Netflix
Original Series “ Easy ” Seasons 1 and 2. Selected exhibitions: Heaven
Gallery, Compound Yellow, Experimental Sound Studio, Elastic Arts,
Threewalls, The Museum of Contemporary Art, SAIC, Roots & Culture
Gallery, Lula Cafe, The Star Media Group, Union Street Gallery, The
Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. Recent curatorial projects:
GATHER, and the P.O.W.E.R. Project.
Christophe Preissing
A
sound composer, intermedia artist, curator, and producer, Christophe
creates sound focused on the space between and among art forms and
artists, while investigating non-hierarchical relationships among
materials, co-creators, and audiences. Residencies and fellowships:
Beloit College, Indiana University, Millay Colony, Ragdale, Virginia
Center for the Creative Arts, Djerrassi, Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Support and recognition: Pritzker Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation, American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer,
Illinois Arts Council, and Illinois Humanities. Selected productions:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Cultural Center, Illinois Institute
of Technology, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Recent
sound installations: Blood Lines: Remembering the 1919 Chicago Race Riot (Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, Chicago); Portrait of Carrie Sandahl (with painter Riva Lehrer, Evanston Art Center); SUS: the long thin wire (a performance installation for suspended string trio, long wires, and piano resonator) and Street Sheets
(with Hugh Sato and Mario Gonzalez, Jr., Columbia University, NYC). Mr.
Preissing is founder and artistic director of NON:op Open Opera Works
(nonopera.org).
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[ PARTICIPATE ] in Blood Lines
Still Accepting Video Readings for the Online Installation!
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Blood Lines, Eugene Williams, Nancy Goede (reader)
Blood Lines, B.F. Hardy, Charles Nolley (reader).
NON:op is currently seeking a diverse group of readers for an online re-creation of our 2019 Blood Lines installation. During this time of social distancing and cultural change we invite you to participate in this project by video recording yourself reading
the name of one or more persons killed in the 1919 uprising. Readings
will be combined with sound from the 2019 installation at Augustana and a
video featuring maps, historical newspaper accounts, a timeline, and
neighborhood images.
Beginning in October, we will post a list of names for the SAY THEIR NAMES
project, a second larger online installation that invites participants
to record themselves reading the names and details of Black persons
killed by law enforcement since 1919. This installation will grow as
more names are added to the database. Once names are posted you may
select and record yourself reading from this list.
Ron Browne—one of the original Blood Lines
readers—is compiling a list of Black persons killed by law enforcement
since 1919. If you would like to contribute to the database, or to
assist Ron with this important research, please contact us at non [at] nonopera [dot] org.
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[ COLLABORATE ] L's GA : Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
concept by Salvatore Martirano, video by Ronald Nameth
Kameron Locke as the gas-masked politico in a clip from his response to L’s GA
NON:op is commissioning new (re)compositions in response to L's GA : Lincoln's Gettysburg Address,
Sal Martirano's 1967 multimedia anti-war composition based on Lincoln's
renowned speech. To find out more and apply for a NON:op commission,
visit the L’s GA Participate page. Applications are due on November 1, 2020.
L's GA
protested against a government that drafted young men—especially
African-American men—as cannon-fodder for American imperial dreams; that
incarcerated, deported, or killed Black Panthers and other activists
for daring to assert that persons really are created equal;
that poured billions of dollars into war machinery and the firms that
built it; that enabled cities and cultures, home and abroad, to be
destroyed in the name of safety and security.
In addition to the commission, you are invited to interact with L's GA : Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in other ways. Visit the L's GA web pages to explore a range of documents on the Gettysburg Address and Martirano's piece; discuss and respond with others to explore how the two texts might be viewed, used, remixed, or repurposed in today’s world; submit documents about the Gettysburg Address—a photograph, a recording, an object, a text—or about L’s GA; or create a new performance or (re)composition in response to Martirano's piece.
a single frame from Ronald Nameth's three film composite for Martirano's L’s GA
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Yes, this method of communication is practical enough.
I tell you it's two meters long. ... I tell you love's seventeen meters long.
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The Gas Heart, Act 2, TikTok video 3 - "Love's Long"
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NON:op invites you to participate in The Gas Heart with short TikTok
videos. Tristan Tzara's 1921 three-act Dada play resists both the art
and conventions of theater AND the bankrupt culture and society in
post-war Europe. With Trump and his enablers—the ultimate bankrupt grifters—in charge, The Gas Heart is once again relevant. One can easily imagine these banalities
coming from our commander in chief: "I have an American hairdo." "Your
daughter is quite charming." "Do you care for sports?" "You know, of
course, that I own a garage."
Here's where you come in...
Do you TikTok? We do!!
In this time of political depravity, you are invited to submit TikTok videos for our Gas Heart video production. We will post six videos—two per act—on TikTok (search for nonopera) and on YouTube.
Consider submitting a video an act of resistance, a political statement, your American duty—
—along with your VOTE in the November 3rd election!
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[ PARTICIPATE ] in American Biography
Our American Biography is useful knowledge for the future history we are making now.
Lynette Quek's filtered/media, the first item in the American Biography Archive
We have begun building NON:op’s shared online American Biography.
An
open, digital archive, American Biography is intended to grow as an
ongoing, living, collection of personal histories, stories, and
memories—as writings, images, videos, sound, or any combination—a place to hold individual, specific, personally-remembered experiences.
American Biography is dedicated to gathering diverse experiences
with America, by people living in America, visiting America, or who are
experiencing America from outside America. We are beginning the project
with histories focused on experiences of missing voices—of sounds we can no longer hear.
Continue reading to find out more about American Biography and how you can participate.
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NON [ NEWS ]
Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events recently awarded NON:op a 2020 ArtSpace Fund Grant for production costs from our HPSCHD@50 Festival. NON:op also received an Illinois Arts Council Program Grant to support general operating support.
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Part Time Opportunity
Web Developer/Designer –
NON:op is seeking a Web Developer/Designer to take our website to the
next level, by working with our Social Media assistant to integrate
Social Media and email platforms with our NON:onLINE immersive platform.
Qualifications: proficiency in video hosting, live streaming, online
interactivity, Zoom; demonstrated organization skills, ability to manage
multiple projects, a willingness to take direction; and the technical
ability to create a website that supports NON:op’s vision and goals.
Please contact non [at] nonopera [dot] org.
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Board and Artist Opportunities
Do
you support NON:op's mission? Do you enjoy immersive performances that
are fun AND intellectually challenging? Want to become more involved?
Join our board and artist team as we build a more diverse and nimble
organization to respond to these critical times. Please contact
Christophe at non [at] nonopera [dot] org for more information.
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SUPPORT NON:op by purchasing HPSCHD@50 merch!
Also available are Musicircus T-Shirts, John Cage CDs, HPSCHD@50 buttons, and souvenir programs. Click here to order and support NON:op and its artists.
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Thank you for taking care of each other by staying indoors and practicing social distancing.
We hope you and yours are well and staying safe as we create an alternative future.
SHARE. INTERACT. COLLABORATE. ... VOTE!
Christophe, Ann, Bill, Theo, Joshua, Saba, and the rest of NON:op's Artists and Board of Directors
If you are able to support NON:op's artists and mission, please donate today.
All donations are tax deductible. Thank you.
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