Virtual Paper by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker
Somewhere on Planet Earth, July 5, 2023
PROLOGUE
As an artist I’ve moved increasingly towards a space of amorphous boundaries around my work, with the intention of fostering space of freedom for questions and dialogue. What I have witnessed over the years is a co-opting and exploitation of both my work and identity as commodified objects for a variety of exploitative initiatives and purposes. It has become clear to me that advocating for healthy boundaries around my work and setting clear lines of communication for all involved is a necessary act of love for my work and an integral part of reclaiming my personhood.
MISREPRESENTATION & DEHUMANISATION
People build narratives and expectations about people they hold at any distance. When we place people on pedestals and put them behind glass, when we objectify them for display, misrepresentation is the byproduct of the acts. In my personal experience, narratives around me and my work have been primarily co-opted by white voices, and presented in large public spaces where I have no voice or space to represent myself accurately. Some examples include:
- A series of national conference presentations on my work without my knowledge or consent that I’ve only found out about while they were occurring from posts by friends and colleagues.
- An email from a student who found my work in a library and decided to present one of my stave notation works for piano composed over a decade ago when I was still in college, who said my work evoked the “real meaning” of carpetbaggers era south and “what black people must have felt.” None of my work is ever centered in Black trauma, and this remains a deeply insulting and troubling email.
- A review by I Care If You Listen on my non-narrative album Chaotic Neutral (which I repetitively mentioned prior to the publishing of the review and in all relevant publicly accessible data on the album) intentionally has no narrative, ended up as an article that I did not see until after it was published, centred the review on a narrative about the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons, which I have never played or even engaged with as the thematic linchpin of my work.
- Internet database listings of my work that reference only stave notation works I wrote in early college or high school and promoted as my current work for performance consideration.
In all these instances (and more not stated here), what is missing is the element of dialogue that is so central to my work and my personhood. Such actions are dehumanising on a variety of levels because:
It is a form of identity erasure when one singles out my Blackness, often for lists and presentations about Black artists without acknowledging my Latina and Asian heritage. As a multiracial individual it is always difficult to navigate spaces where you don’t tidily fit. It is that experience of not being able to be contained by the confines of a description box that informs my work as well as a permission to create without the freedoms of the well-worn boxes of singular identity, like composer, performer, engineer, author and so many other roles that I have embodied and will embody at a variety of times throughout my existence on this planet.
Furthermore, to distil my work to a reductive palette set forth by the white lens that Black music is merely informed by the trauma of chattel slavery, racism, poverty, hip-hop culture, and gospel music is a clear choice to refuse to recognise the diverse intersectional experiences that inform my work.
Misrepresentation is a product of laziness, projection, and a tool of objectified exploitation. Laziness, because living artists are reachable and it merely requires an investment of time and intentional care that people are choosing not to make; many times because they feel compelled to get things done quickly for status, and because capitalism has created a society in which constant movement and production are valued over slow and intentional connection. Projection, because rather than respecting the personhood of someone they would rather commit to the narrative they have manufactured for that individual in their mind. Meanwhile, objectified exploitation manifests as using others’ identities to further one’s own personal or professional goals, whether on a conference stage, white savoiourism, or clout – it comes from a disingenuous place.
MOVING FORWARD
What we are not doing anymore is masking to conform to the confines of preconceived notions of my identity and the confines of aesthetic expectation boxes held overhead by a string of funds from questionable means; or pretending that I am easily encapsulated by definition whether it is the body of my work as an artist or my being as a human on this planet.
Often, I find that the people who are misrepresenting me are those who are pushing stave notation works that I wrote in college as an Elizabeth (many versions and iterations of healing and exploration away from the energy ball on this planet I am today) are white academics seeking to add to the checklist of diversity from a racial identity point without challenging the status quo of notation and aesthetic diversity.
Not only is using my stave notation works as an example of who I am a gross misrepresentation of the current artist I am today, it also, plays to respectability politics – it is not unnoticed that the works by Black, Indigenous, Latina, Asian, and other artists who have been historically excluded from access and opportunity is that organisations and institutions are still focusing on the ability of these identities to express themselves within the Eurocentric palette of sound and notation from the last few hundred years without significant modifications or total abandonment for forms and tools that are an organic deviation. What wins funding and programming opportunities reliably is a person of colour writing in conventional orchestral, band, and chamber music forms that are slightly outside but not too far in deviation from the “accepted accessible norm” or works that fetishise trauma themes including genocide, chattel slavery, incarceration, war, famine, etc. In these ways, there is no deep material change in the oppressive structures or systems of inequity. What remains are merely Lisa Frank decorations on a band-aid too small to cover the deep ulcerated wounds spewing pus from the massively traumatised body of our industry. Radical change is funding these voices on the fringe and incorporating them as regular fixtures; furthermore, recognising that placing a white woman as lead of an organisation that has historically and systemically committed human rights atrocities, banned access and disempowered representation to people of colour is not enough to make the changes necessary to dismantle and set fire to the structures that continue to under their leadership oppress and to exclude from participation people of colour. To make it clearer, white people in places of power must step aside and give their positions to people of colour, and realise that revolution is not going to be commensurate with wealth but sacrifice and reparations must be made to build a better world for the happiness of everyone.The goals in our specific industry are not prestige and accolades but rather wide sweeping sustainable careers with freedom for artists to experiment to express without the shackles of granting guidelines and audience survey metrics.
FUNDAMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS IN ENCOUNTERING MY WORK
In taking the time to write this collection of thoughts and expressed values around my own work, I intend for this to act as a resource for those interested in studying my works from an academic point of view, as well as those seeking to present and perform my works or collaborate on something new.
GENERAL CONCEPTS
Essential to an initial understanding of the spaces in which I create work and the core values which radiate into all aspects of my life – is the tenet that art does not end when the curtain closes and the lights go down, it flows like ocean waves and weaves like thread. The lessons and ideals contemplated in a single work are not an end, and all performances are relational (within nonlinear timelines are connected) such that the entirety of the form of a piece is a modular collective of active moments on stage and practice space, punctuated by moments of rest to explore other uncurated sound worlds in between.
The decision to create space for experiential interpretation of my work by not dictating a specific narrative or concrete image was to initiate dialogue between people. As I have encountered with increased occurrence over the years, reductive interpretations that are based on colonial expectations that as a woman of colour, my work can only be based in traumas of chattel slavery and struggles with racism, bodies murdered by authorities, and other themes of violence and oppression.
I believe that in order to support a dialogue that restores my personhood and returns to the true intent of my work, the collective of individuals experiencing my work should be endowed with an understanding of the walls around the philosophical sandboxes specific to each work. The addition of this information, as part of my practice, is not akin to a program note with narrative or concrete image, but rather it is pertinent background contextual information for the assistance of fuller discussion and processing.
NON-NARRATIVE NATURE
In the past, I have openly said that I do not place specific narrative on my works, this was an intentional action meant to give validation and space to the thoughts, feelings, experiences, and imagination of the people existing in concord with my work receivers or initiators of sound. The growing problem that has presented itself over time is the overwhelming misunderstanding of my intentions, and rather than existing in the sonic and visual moments of my work within the boundary that individual experience is not universal dogma; what has occurred is the projection of personal narratives onto me. Amidst a sea of assumption I have become increasingly dehumanised and exploited for the marks on academic papers, press, programming, and the personal purposes of others.
What I am discussing herein moving forward is not about narrative… It is about understanding and beginning crucial dialogue about fundamental non-narrative ideals that are central to the creation and presentation of my work.
It is important to know that my work is non-narrative, whilst there are specific or relative questions that are considered in some works, there are often many other pieces that exist because the sounds coalesced together in that space and moment in that form, whether captured by some form of technology for future play or released to the ether in gratitude for the experience. There’s no storyline fictional or otherwise attached to my work, and this is deeply intentional. (It should also be noted that, recording and dissemination of recordings is not about number of likes or clout for me, and recorded works exist for the same reason that stars appear in the sky endlessly – they exist because they exist, they were meant to exist – that is to say the resources that coalesced these sounds and recording techniques happened to exist at the same time in the same place and given a set of conditions they burst forth, a new cosmic birth.)
It bears continued repetition, as it has been misconstrued countless times, there is no storyline (fictional or otherwise attached to my work) and this is deeply intentional. Non-narrative work is confrontational, it invites and forces the person in the experiencing role with the work to face the thoughts in their own mind – if specific questions or philosophical considerations are present, one drifts into meditation on that topic. Modern minds are noisy, they are full of lists of tasks to accomplish, things to buy, as well as thoughts on interpersonal drama to categorise, ennui quelled only by pursuit of more things.
Often concert experiences are distraction avoidance of thought through embracing the narrative of a work or by constructing questions or statements about the event to demonstrate learnedness for clout. Entering the space where my work exists is about active listening and active consideration, it’s a rejection of purpose based thought structures and embracing new cognitive shifts.
Some of the most wonderful complaint-compliments I have received after performances of my work include sentiments that the experience was not a concert because one had to sit with their thoughts instead of focussing on watching performers “do their jobs.”
NON-LINEAR MODULAR INSTANCES
While I remain divorced from the sort of surface narrative that centres humans and individuals as a preoccupation, I am interested in extending the scope of the philosophical sandboxes in which my works exist for performers to the collective of voyeurs who engage with my work from behind the frosted glass. While narrative does not drive my work, curation of a set of ideologies and creation of parameters forms a container for exploration. Each work consists of a small impermanent world/galaxy that is explored by artists and discussed throughout the collaborative process of bringing the work to the “performing experience environment.” To expand and invite the collective into these worlds there must be an understanding of the spaces in which these works exist, and thus the introduction of text that forms the foundational equation framework for the sonic happenings for access will be woven into the public facing fabric of future works.
These moments of exploration of voice for artist exist as nonlinear modular instances — elements of the work are cellular and revisited but the form of the work is fluid and not fixed to the stage or show time but rather a connection of public and private happenings related and juxtaposed, ordered and disorder cones of time.
“We can create alternate spaces of existence in momentary encounters. What exists in these alternate spaces of consciousness? How do we download the parts of those worlds that we want to seed in this mutually agreed upon reality?”
IN REGARD TO AFROFUTURISM
As an artist of colour with ties to the African Diaspora who works with electronics extensively and speaks out about the harm of structural injustices rooted in colonial ideals frequently, there is a tendency to put me in the category of an artist of the Afrofuturism movement.
Afrofuturism puts revolution and tenets of a new aesthetic society at a distance in the moving target of a future, but my work and the individual experiential state of my work exist in the present and poses the challenge not to live in the comfort of the complacency of future at arms length but rather the liminal space of present-future and the alternate realities within the mind.
Afrofuturism is now, (much like a composer which I have also intentionally rejected as an categorical identity) laden with expectations of particular aesthetics. It also bears mentioning that (especially in new music spaces in the US where the concert population still remains largely whitewashed at many venues) there is a degree of fetishisation of African primitivism through a colonial lens that focuses on the animalistic and mythical, removing personhood from Black artists and removing their work from the present into a fantasy world with technological notes.
While I deeply respect artists aligned within this movement for all the strides forward that have laid the groundwork for me to create, I must push against the tidy placement of my identity and that of my work, into a personally ill-fitting box for an open space that allows me room to grow into unknown space in the future and create without the structural expectations of a genre box in the present.
FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF PERFORMERS
Largely abandoning stave notation for the past few years, performers are often daunted by entering a world of graphic, video, text, and object scores that involve specificity but leave room for crucial active collaboration and interpretation. The works I create are not scores that one purchases or finds in a library and presents without ever having a conversation with me, by design the works have places that require one to ask for clarification. I believe that the decision of a performer to present a work by a living composing artist is because they want to engage in active dialogue with someone who answers emails and is willing to schedule zoom rehearsals.
Specific ideals for performers to consider when learning my work for presentation or self-expansion or practice development in particular are:
- I am less interested in the perfect succession of sonic activities as represented on a linear timeline than I am by the cognitive behaviour of the mind when it engages with new modalities and the shifts as it adapts to new spaces and engages new neural pathways.
- I deeply value dialogue about the philosophical concepts behind the work within the process of preparing a work for performance. Even though many professional artists are in the habit of solitary or fixed group practice without the composing artist, the exchange of ideas through collaborative dialogue is extremely important to developing an performance of the work that is unique to specific performers and moreover because language about the manner of activities one can pursue within a philosophical sandbox scores are generally only suggestions that I pose for the invitation into the sandbox.
- Though I always leave a door open for my future self to explore, in general close and rapid sonic events for “virtuosic show” are not of interest or used in my works. I value an investment in the often uncomfortable spaces between sonic events. What do we learn about ourselves when we sit in these spaces where sounds are sinking into the noise-floor? What do we learn about the effects of the sounds we initiate and activate on spaces internally and externally?
- From a presentation aspect, the performative behaviour of concerts is never encouraged. These works should feel like a peeling back of the self – within a set of parameters established by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, who do you become?
Performance and the preparation for performance is for the enrichment of the artist, energy commune with venues and practice spaces in moments and time; rather than an entertaining concert experience focused on the whims of an audience. My works require an active role of internal reflection for a performing artist, and after the presentation the artist serves a neutral role of interaction with the collective of experiencing individuals. The performing artist takes part in shared dialogue and experience download as an equal participant, rather than an elevated demi-god.
THE COLLECTIVE OF VOYEURS
I have intentionally avoided the use of the term “audience” in much of this virtual paper for a number of reasons. Instead, I have largely adopted the terms “collective of voyeurs” and “experiencing individuals” to address those coming into contact with my work.
Audiences as a monolith in the traditional concert role are imbued with entitlement (though the are often infantilised with spoon fed “accessible narrative or thematic programming context”) in this transactional relationship, an artist exists to serve an audience.
The non-profit industrial complex (particularly observed in the United State of America) places emphasis on an artists ability to meet and improve survey metrics that are focused on audience “engagement” and “satisfaction.” This preoccupation with a scaled capitalist customer service model, pulls the focus away from artists experimenting with their practice, but rather institutes confined spaces for expression. In exchange for financial support for survival the oppression and violence of capitalism continues to drain the life force from us all. Though art often holds itself as removed from capitalism, the ideals of product, service, and expendability are deeply embedded in the musical industry, it manifests trauma from the small child who becomes frustrated with their instrument because they make a “mistake” in a study to the professional gigging musician who struggles to improvise because they have lost their relationship with music as a space of playful joy to the arts administrator who refuses to hire an aesthetically challenged artist because they fear the loss of the revenue of concert attendees.
I specifically adopted the term “collective of voyeurs” because the group of individuals experiencing live works in particular, wants to be involved. As individuals within a group they want to crash through the fourth wall and enjoy a sense of intimacy either in conversation with the activity on stage or feel that the happening is specifically for them. In reinforcing the frosted glass barrier between artist and voyeur, the artist is pulled into a space of safety and freedom to experiment and exist as a natural being without the concrete barricade of expectations projected by an audience. At the same time, the term “voyeur” speaks to a relationship of tension, the voyeur wanting to be a part of activity, and an individual who feels the gaze of the voyeur from afar.
Further compounding the need for change, as a person of colour with ties to the African Diaspora, I am deeply aware of the parallels between a modern artist beholden to meet the whims and expectations of a primarily white new music audience (often presented in institutional spaces and elite venues) and the history of black minstrels in European high society. A deeply racist history of shows exploiting Black artists in dehumanising manners that still has needles in modern European cultural fetish of minstrel statues, caricatures, and folklore. As an act of self-advocacy and commitment to creating requisite boundaries to protect my personhood, an upholding of a glass block wall to create space while allowing others into my sonic energy space, is a necessary and revolutionary act for me to continue creating and existing in these spaces.
THE ACTIVE COLLECTIVE
Contrary to the belief that voyeurs are passive observers in this new dynamic, I welcome their active participation in the space following a performance experience. Therefore, I invite individuals experiencing my work as members of this collective to consider:
- The collective is passive in the performer’s experience as such this dynamic creates freedom and safety for the performer to explore themselves and the work.
- Following the passive collective experience of the work, individuals are invited into an active role of discussion and sharing of their experiences in the space. To engage in the active role of discussion it is essential that during what seems on the surface as a passive performance experience, there is an active internal processing and rendering of the work in their minds.
- Respect for the autonomy of the artist – the performer does not exist for the whims of the audience and presentations are not entertainment moments but invitations into spaces of conscious cognitive alternate realities.
COGNITIVE SHIFTS & CONSCIOUS ALTERNATE REALITIES
To think that the deep societal changes and cognitive shifts necessary to build an equitable world are simply a matter of adjustment to existing systems that are fundamentally skewed and prejudiced is deeply flawed. Yet, it is this modification mindset that plagues the industry and society-at-large. It is a mindset that serves the people who have always had seats at the tables of privilege, because to step down from power and authority, to give up the financial freedom accompanied with being a gatekeeper is scary to those concerned primarily with comfort and self-preservation. Revolutions are not comfortable spaces, but they are also not forever places. The discomfort we experience now in navigating our way to a better future is temporary, but it is the mountain we must climb to reach the fertile ground in the valley below.
In order to sustainably carry out a revolution on the scale of transforming society, we must divest from the framework and institutional structures that perpetuate the current problems.
In writing this virtual paper, clearing the digital air, I am dusting and sorting to make space for a new chapter of my work in Conscious Cognitive Alternate Realities.
The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker 