Economusic: Keeping Score

How can performers deliver detailed data about dire dilemmas—climate disaster, extinctions, the prison-industrial complex, exponentially growing inequality, et al—without the audience turning away or tuning out?  

Economusic converts socioeconomic data into music.  The performer “conducts” a group-participatory experience that shows the simultaneity of social processes through “economusical chords.” For example, I have the audience hum/sing the Incarceration Rate while I “harmonize” on my flute with the Unemployment Rate.  The audience members feel the data in their ears, larynxes, and lungs as they “sing along.”  There is noise, then quiet, then disquiet.

This data-synesthesia piece has been in praxis since 2011, performed internationally (across North and South America, Europe and New Zealand), and is constantly updated and upgraded, including my development of an electronic app for looping Economusical scores.  The goal is to keep audiences mentally dilated/delighted as we explore pressing and difficult issues.