Week 3 - The Real & Kristevan Chora
Real/Chora
I rolled out of these readings completely clueless—but from discussions we had in class last week, I think I’ve started to grasp some mild concept of what Lacan and Kristeva are getting at. I was really into this idea of sort of the intense pleasure or shock (like a gasp) in a moment of realization or experience being akin to “the real.” And while (attempting) to discern the Chora I wanted to explore more into that realm.
From looking around a bunch of random .edu sites on Kristeva’s chora—UCLA, Purdue, U Chicago, etc. what I did manage to grasp was some sense of pleasurable chaos—before some discerning has developed. Some space with life and death “drives” are definitely kicking but not necessarily with clarity as to the situation at hand.
Lately I’ve been focusing heavily on fragmentation as a concept in all my work—in a sort of Glitch Feminism bent, the desire to avoid all classification as being a liberatory refusal is very appealing to me. Something about the topic at hand here gives me kind of similar energy. When things are uncategorized, simply loaded with feeling (or affect, ugh), they can have far more powerful impacts on us. But rather than this take the form of total random chaos—which I think mostly creates sort of noise-art—what I’ve been interested in is sort of finding a way to keep this shock value and this jaggedness while still creating an artistic experience that feels in some way just cohesive enough to situate folks in a creative space. In other words, how can I create emotionally legible chaos?
I think the answer could be in moving to extremes without blending the spaces in between. Capturing that daily feeling of dissociation or disembodiment through shocks that begin as pleasurable through surprise, but then remain pleasurable through repetition and desire to hear them once more, through familiarity and comfort.
Anyway so I had this half baked track and I decided to take it even further into the splintered direction I’m referring to, and here’s how it came out.
Some things I would point out:
Instrumentally, I wanted to get as split up as possible, like bossa nova guitar put against hardcore and metal—just all over the map. And vocally, I wanted to shift processing, distortion, chopping, and spacialization as frequently as possible. We hear parts hinted at slightly before they arrive to break up a sense of cohesion while remaining in one clearly running track.
As a general idea—this to me looks at the sort of shock value of memecore shitposting—bass boosted memes that slap in halfway through to wreck speakers—mashups that start as a joke but end with you playing them at a party. Something about the slamming of these things is so pleasurable in a way that defies serious/ironic that speaks to me. I leave in the laughter mid take to push this.
On a vibrational level u get this really intense dynamic that can be felt without normative ear drums etc, which was a focus for me given discussions & reading. I wanted to provide a sense of displacement on that front heavily.
And vocally, since we’re discussing this non-discerning unformed state, I figured I’d let my mind do like half-word-lyrics—little stream of consciousness phrases focused on melody. This way the listener can simply hear what they want to hear, and the song can provide abstract guidance in a way that feels just slightly suggested.
Anyway—once again I have tried something and am relatively sure I did not nail wtf Chora is, but I certainly had a good time trying.