보컬놀이 | VOCALNORI

VOCALNORI is a custom-made performance system and form of play where I amplify my vocal sounds through Korean gongs and other metallic objects via electronic instruments.

VOCALNORI is my attempt at learning about gongs, cymbals, and metallic objects in an improper way: through singing and electronics. With VOCALNORI, I am seeking an experimental way of connecting to cultural artefacts; nurturing my desire to connect with a Koreanness that complicates “tradition” and embraces improvisation within identity and peoplehood.

I am interested in finding varying degrees of resonances from VOCALNORI, within and among the limitations the instruments involved impose on one another: My vocal sounds are filtered through, and limited by, the physical properties of the gongs. The gongs are in turn electronically stimulated by my voice through the transducers that connect my voice to the gongs. Various techniques of audio processing are used throughout the signal chain between the vocal microphone, the gongs, and the PA system. VOCALNORI is always changing—features are added, edited, or removed, and the ways the voice signal is processed through the gongs are constantly experimented with.

I am very grateful to composer/musician/scholar Matthew Goodheart for his support and generous teachings on computer music, transducers, and “re-embodied sound” that shaped the trajectory of VOCALNORI.

More releases featuring VOCALNORI can be found here. Collaborative projects involving VOCALNORI can be found here.