W.H.Y
W.H.Y. is an experimental archival project celebrating activists, political figures, theorists, and those that continue to prop up community and social movements, from Black, queer, feminist activists, psychogeography, witches and folklore storytelling, to overlooked working class histories and popular culture. Utilising analogue synthesizers, W.H.Y. translates this practice and research into a somatic and intra-spatial experience for the audience.
The first body of work under W.H.Y. is called ‘A Litany of Survival’: an experimental live a/v performance integrating the use of video synthesisers, archival footage, dronescapes and synthesised techno beats, combined with vocals referencing horror, satire and rage.
‘A Litany for Survival’ takes inspiration from Audre Lorde’s poem of the same title. Lorde (a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet) describes the constant fear that marginalised communities experience in a prejudiced society, and the way such relentless fear can silence any dissenting voices. In the work and performance, you hear writing and voice respond to Lorde’s work with breaths and screams and haunted spoken word over layers of modular synth beats with sharp hi-hats and snares, exploring psychogeography via sound design.