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PREVIEW: THE TOUCHING PITCH PROJECT (DRAFT, DIGITAL NOTES/ESSAY – Oct. 31, 2022)
iii. Tributes to Rebecca Hall, Ndubueze Mbah, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Maxine Gordon, Kapwani Kiwanga, Brittany White, Isabel Galleymore
(Notes continued from part ii.)
ACCESS AND PROCESS
The 24 tracks across these 3 albums will be interleaven with 26 rhizomatic prose chapters exploring personhood, temporality, ephemera, assimilation, perfectionism, grace, shame, genre, tradition, innovation, technology, capital, gift economies, scarcity, abundance, disability justice, and other topics and stories touched by improvisation. Listener will eventually have the option to access the totality of these recordings and writings as a standalone interactive VN-RPG (visual novel role-playing game) with choice-driven branching narratives and multiple endings.
In this video game, even the smallest and seemingly banal choices may resonate with immediate or latent consequence. Will you build a virtual world where improvisation thrives, or one where it becomes outlawed by the ruling GOAT party (Gatekeepers of All Taste)? What do these mysterious GOATs – which are actual talking mountain goats with frightening telekinetic powers – want? Day to day, will you spend your limited practice room hours learning repertoire or inventing new licks? Will you spur factionalism among improvising communities, pitting the expansionist Add-Libs and bloodthirsty Vamps against one another in corporate-sponsored reality competitions? Will you found a for-profit conservatory and amass more power than you could ever have imagined? Will you survive?
I am developing this multi-modal project in collaboration with the University of Michigan Press (host platform and release TBD) and with support from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.
In the 2022-23 academic year, I have the pleasure and privilege of working with five Radcliffe Research Partners. Their names are Andrew Gong, Conan Lu, Grace Kim, Peggy Yin, and Sky Jung.
Project updates (dev diaries) will be rolled out as they come. Akin to improvisation, the process is sometimes the point, so it makes sense to show it. Please email williamcheng@gmail.com if you would like to receive updates.
I am using SoundCloud only as a temporary host site for these private playlists.
(end of notes, Oct. 31, 2022)
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