Like all Konantü works, the sound poem Vid Vida Vidajena is the collective realization of a task, the process of which unfolds an underlying design, to be interpreted and conveyed by each individual in collaboration with the others. Vid Vida Vidajena is accomplished in the form of a sound poem. The work uses sequences of words, some strange and some common, juxtaposed only according to alphabetical order, to be pronounced one by one out loud in a circle. The vocalizations reveal the sound pattern of phonetic repetition specific to each alphabetical grouping, making the sound aspect of each word its primary value. Words move around the circle as sounds dissociated from their meaning and connected to each other only by rhythmic/syllabic variations on a common, repeating sound. The work requires an awareness in the moment of the connection between sounds in a way that suspends our attachment to meaning and semantic coherence, jamming our conventional approach to deciphering language. Once the mystery of language, of the peculiar correspondence between a vocal sound and the meaning of a word, has been exposed in the circle through the nonsensical beauty of the vocal pattern, then the participants begin to reencounter other patterns of verbal connections. As the work progresses through continuous and evolving cycles, meaning begins to resurface as the connections between sounds and words are reexamined in the new context. This happens in the unexpected progression of sounds as continuous words explore the expanding offshoots from a single root (flor, flora, floral…), or the way one sound can splinter into a series of divergent words with conflicting meanings (sol, solacio, solamente…). The seemingly random juxtapositions, determined by an objective order that ignores any semantic dimension, give way to more deliberate combinations, so that once the possibility of semantic logic insinuates itself in the circle, the will to make order – whatever order — from disorder, takes over. Participants, reclaiming subjectivity, gain the capacity to compose the collective poem by manipulating the alternate values of sound and sense, in concert with each other, to create an experimental vocal work from what began as a pool of random words. Each performance of the work is unique, even if the word bank is identical, because different voices, different energies, and ultimately different creative choices, lead the work in unpredictable directions, giving it a unique composite identity. Overall, the work proposes a collective experience where participants engage with each other and the words at their disposal to both observe and drive the dynamic play between sound, logic, nonsense, and meaning.
The poem is created by the concatenation of words spoken out loud in a circle, by 8 volunteer participants, with no prior knowledge or preparation. At the start, each participant is handed an individual list of words that seem to make no sense together. These words are to be pronounced in numerical order, 1 at a time, at each participant’s turn in the cycle. As each participant pronounces their designated word, in the circular sequence, the sound pattern takes shape in the air.
Each cycle of 8 words comprises one vocal sequence, repeating a sound 8 times, which is usually the first syllable (or first 2 syllables) of words that exist on the same page of a dictionary. Their only connection to each other is their alphabetical proximity, which accounts for the recurrence of their initial sounds when spoken aloud. The underlying phonetic-alphabetical word sequences are revealed to the group as they are formed out loud with each connecting word. Each cycle begins a new and different phonetic chain.
The words are taken from a comprehensive edition of the Spanish language dictionary of the Real Academia Española, which includes words from all the Spanish language countries in the world. Since many of these words pertain to local vernacular of specific places, and many are indigenous words native to Spanish colonized lands, they are often unfamiliar to most average Spanish speakers, while other words are commonly known and widely used in standard Spanish. While the alphabetical order is a logical order familiar to all, it produces random juxtapositions from a semantic or poetic perspective. Both the oddness of certain words and their haphazard associations with others sets up an estrangement with the words as language, allowing their sound aspect to predominate.
The work includes a total of 320 words, divided into 40 phonetic-alphabetical sequences (a series of 8 words that all begin with the same sound); those lists are then each divided and distributed among the 8 participants, so that each of them will possess only one of the words from the original lists. These individual words, when spoken one by one in the circle, will vocally reconstruct the original alphabetical sequences.
The work is divided into three acts. Act I introduces the total 320 words in 5 series of 8 cycles that reveal the phonetic-alphabetical order initially unknown to the participants. Act II repeats the same words in different orders, re-introducing the potential for semantic meaning. Act III turns the order-making over to the participants who are free to make their own intuitive connections, by speaking the words of their choice (from the words they alone possess).
The poem-performance relies on a musician seated in the center of the circle – in this case an accordionist – to mark the breaks between sequences, and also respond intuitively to the meander that encircles them.