About “Compatibilism”

This piece invites the audience to explore the idea of the cell’s decision-making process with the composer on the stage. The seemingly random and unpredictable decision-making process is free but at the same time predetermined and restricted by the environment. The audiences are asked to freely improvise the electronic instrument that was built by the composer. This explores the freedom aspect of cell’s decision making; the electronic instrument and Max/Msp patch that are created by the composer enables thousands of musical combinations to produce the different tones. However, the limitation of the chips’ capabilities prevents the infinite possibilities.

Nan Yi is currently a composition/theory PhD student. She is interested in writing musical pieces about her inner feelings, social justice and nature. Nan Yi’s main music interests beyond the classical genre are hip-pop and reggaeton.