Thought Compositions is a participatory performance that explores authorship, bodily endurance and suspension, and the transmission of intention through sound. The work was presented for the first time in Besançon, France, as part of the Excentricités VIII: Corps désirants / Corps délirants Festival, curated by Julien Cadoret and Louise Vanardois.
The performance invited members of the audience to actively participate by handling a contrabass bow and producing their own sound compositions. The artist’s body functioned as a responsive instrument, remaining in continuous interaction with the public. Throughout the performance, the body was held in a sustained state of tension in order to realise the sounds generated by the bow. Communication between body and mind was reduced to a single channel: the movements of the bow, controlled entirely by the participants.
At the beginning of the performance, audience engagement was driven by curiosity, resulting in experimental and exploratory sounds. As the performance progressed, participants became more intentional in their actions, producing increasingly structured musical compositions. Over time, the physical strain intensified; the body’s movements became more focused and restrained, and the accumulated tension began to affect both physical and mental states. The compositions thus directly influenced the performer’s body, making the impact of shared authorship and exertion perceptible.
Toward the end of the performance, audience members approached the performer proactively. The resulting compositions became increasingly forceful, to the extent that the contrabass bow began to deteriorate under sustained use. The work concluded as a collaboratively produced outcome, revealing the layered effects of collective interaction, bodily tension, and sound.
The performance was curated by Julien Cadoret and Louise Vanardois, and documented by Zhengou Wu.
