Composition for orchestra or a specific in individual is a electro-acuoustic audio-visual piece that explores what is an unimaginable state in society: a possibility of one.

While it is said that to live is to be among people, and to die is to cease to be among people (Arendt, Vita Activa, 1996, p. 8), the contemporary society lives under the terms of post-capitalism and hyper-productivity, constant movement and communication, which is impoverished of richness in interpretation, all of which lead one into extreme individuality. In the end, the subject is captured in amxiety, an unbearable feeling of alienation, not to mention that alienation is charactersed by powerlessness and meaninglessness (Berardi, The Soul at Work, 2014). Therefore, a question must arise: how to live when it the conditions to be among people are no longer possible?

Nina Dragičević – Composition for orchestra or a specific individual, mvt. 1 from Nina Dragicevic on Vimeo.

As the title implies, the composition seeks to present a creation, constructed by a collective or an individual. In that regard, it aims to show (at least) two important hypotheses: one, that a collective’s work is one’s work, and vice versa (one’s work results in a collective), and second (which derives from the first), that a creation is that which ties one to a collective – no matter how individually it is performed (or constructed), it is always in relation to the collective (the society). Furthermore, the creation is constituted by particles of the society, even produced by the society.

Composition for orchestra or a specific individual, mvt. 2 from Nina Dragicevic on Vimeo.

Nina Dragičević – Composition for orchestra or a specific individual, mvt. 3 from Nina Dragicevic on Vimeo.

Visual part or add-on of the composition is not to be regarded. The author made the videos for a live performance, in which she could not and was not allowed to participate due to illness. In a desire to be and to be among people, as well as a lack of possibility to have a collective perform the work, she reaches for another media – video. The result: overcoming of invisibility, an unseen (almost omni-) presence(ergo post-modern form of living) of the individual (an author) among the collective (the public) through auditory and visual persistence of a subject and what is a rather typical post-modern world relation, even mutual work.

Premiered at festival Živa književnost in ŠKUC Gallery, Ljubljana, 13. 6. 2014

sound and video: Nina Dragičević