NO CONTEST: WE WILL NOT BE RANKED

A light-based score, intervention and parade

Pushing back against the notion of capitalist “best of” contests, our band Chicharra intervened in the local alternative news weekly’s “Best of Burque” showcase, interrogating competition and the setting of some kind of standard or “top” for music and art. They were nominated for “Best Avant Garde,” a conceptually flawed category in a popularity contest. Instead of punting the invite, I chose to use it as an opportunity to turn the concept upside down. I enlisted a dozen musicians often missed by these kinds of contests, and together they performed a score she created that’s triggered by light. The performance emphasized plurality and heterophony, a texture of many voices at once, though not necessarily together. (Think: The din of a marketplace.) They marched through Downtown, past the Best of Burque ticket-entry points, the bar crowds, and stopped at the still not functioning transit stations for long-promised Albuquerque Rapid Transit. Many paraded and played.

light-based score / hand-woven VHS veils / megaphones

2019