CAR[n]E

CAR[n]E is a composition for four voices and live electronics. Conceived as a diptych, the first part of the piece confronts the disappearance of the human body in the design of standardized, button-heavy audio technologies. In the case of female bodies, this disappearance has been compounded by the erasure of women from the history of electronic music composition. In this section of CAR[n]E , four female voices perform as a polyphonic synthesizer, each using her human form to mediate the other bodies into carnal expressions of synthesized sounds.

The second section features the problematic reappearance of female bodies in the audio ecosystem of ASMR. With its overwhelming presence of attractive young women performing acts of care (auscultation sessions, beauty treatments, sleeping aids), online ASMR channels signal how capitalistic societies – while promoting individualism and eliminating investment in social welfare – offload the weight of care onto women’s shoulders.

CAR[n]E was commissioned by Heroines of Sound and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, and premiered in The Heroines of Sound Festival 2023 with the voices of Anna Clementi, Alessandra Eramo, Lorena Izquierdo, Ute Wassermann and costumes by Don Aretino and Muyao Zhang.

Photos by Udo Siegfried: