Izzy Yellen: Kernels

As my big final project/performance/writing/concert/etc. that will conclude my time here at Lawrence, I am working closely with Copeland Woodruff (who's guiding me in opera studies, theatrics, staging, the list goes on) and Matt Turner (who's guiding me in improvisation, songwriting, poetry, the list goes on) to shape something that blends my passions for many mediums into one thing. I am also getting help from John Shimon in digital visuals that will play a part in this production, and it is this last component that I will be focusing on in these blog updates throughout the term.

To begin writing and planning this production, Copeland advised me to figure out the kernels. The concrete concepts that I wanted to convey through the project. They could be autobiographical, but that doesn't mean that the performance would have to follow a narrative of any sort. But the kernels would greatly inform pretty much all other aspects of the project—the music, lyrics, poetry, visuals, staging, acting, the relationships between all these mediums, and beyond. As of now, the primary kernel is the different ways I have created throughout life, with a focus on now and as a child.

What we're reading in class, Jean Baudrillard's Simulations, fits in well with this idea of creating a multimedia project that evokes these feelings and thoughts because, in a way, the final product will be a simulation of them. I don't want it to be a simulation of solely or specifically my life and creative process, but rather a more general concept, stripped away from its creator, in an effort to instill in its audience something that they will learn to be, or already know, universal. In a comparison to a Borges short story in which cartographers create a map so detailed that it is the same size as the thing it details, Baudrillard claims that "it is the map (the simulation) that precedes the territory (the original concept)." While some of my territory comes before the map, I'm sure the process of creating this will lead to maps detailing a nonexistent territory, and that is an exciting prospect.

I know I didn't talk about the visual or any specific things besides the ideas behind it, but these will all come later I'm sure. For now, I'll leave you with three albums that I think will influence a lot of this project (and not just its music).