Coral Douglas

Artist Statement

As a composer and experimental artist, my work explores sound, semiotics, embodiment, and social imagination. Informed by somatic methodologies, my practice explores how musical structures can impact the body over time: how materials, gestures, and systems of control can play with one's expectations and desires. 

Conceptually, I'm invested in fluidity and multiplicity; more specifically, I'm interested in how the mind fills gaps or parses excess information. I'm interested in structuring an affective experience of time through the use of queerness as a formal method. I also explore rituals/systems as spaces of reassurance and tension, revealing how constraint and agency co-produce meaning. My work frequently addresses environmental concerns through an ecological lens, recognizing the fragile and interconnected nature of networks that connect more actors than are immediately visible.

I'm also deeply interested in the role of the audience. There is radical, latent potential in how performance can create in-groups of those who have shared a singular experience. My work stages the concert as a temporary community, one that acknowledges the different asks placed on performers and non-performers, though inviting both to imagine. Technically, I work across hybrid notation, conduction, fixed media, and live electronics, blending acoustic instruments with field recordings and found sound.