This performance focuses on the default staging of digital music, which most often includes someone sitting or standing behind a computer. This is especially true in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when performers and audiences alike are relegated to screen-based interactions. The links between performer action and sonic result can be inscrutable within these settings. What is happening behind the screen? Is the performer affecting parameters in some software? Coding? Checking social media? The staging of electronic music performance can also be reminiscent of a lecture or presentation, particularly in festivals where both exist; an artist might give a talk in addition to a concert, for example (or a performance, in addition to an interactive artwork…) Prominent music journalist Simon Reynolds coined the term “conceptronica” to categorize the acts populating such festivals. The performance “Conceptronica, Ontologica, & Phenomenologica” riffs on this term, and uses the constraints of a laptop-based performance as a starting point. Methods used in this audio-visual presentation include Google slides, karaoke to original songs, and bespoke music-games.

Note: this performance contains flashing lights