Optophono – The Great Learning (Paragraph 7)

My second contribution to an Optophono release, I worked with Gascia Ouzounian to develop the card system that was designed for the previous release, ‘Long for this World’.

This new release contained a performance of Cornelius Cardew’s vocal improvisational work ‘The Great Learning (Paragraph 7)’ through a multi-channel video performance and also via a piece of software that allowed the user to control the parameters of the performance. The software interface was designed as a simple colour interface with colour attributes representing the parameters of the performance.

I took this visual idea and, partnering it with my interest in Josef Albers’ ‘Interaction of Color’, produced a card game which was “intended both as a simple and solitary diversion” and as a complement to the software.