3.What We Kept

Rooted in Kupalle, a pre-Christian Slavic holiday marking the summer solstice, What We Kept honors a tradition my culture has kept alive against active suppression. The visuals draw on the rituals, nighttime singing, bonfire leaping and wreath weaving which carry a folk memory that predates the Soviet Union and current political regimes and outlasts attempts to erase it.

As a Belarusian Canadian, working on this piece meant collaborating directly with the elders in Toronto who carried these traditions out of the motherland and kept them intact. I brought projection mapping and digital tools to a choir performance built on inherited knowledge, using technology to amplify rather than replace the ritual at its center.

This piece is a composition made of GLSL shaders built and sequenced in TouchDesigner for a real-time performance of three traditional Belarusian choir songs; Soltntse (Sun), To To To, and Temniye Noche (Dark Nights). Each shader is visually informed by the songs' mood and reacts in real-time to the pacing and amplitude of the singing.

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Choir: Javarovy Ludzi

Venue: Parish of St. Kiryla of Turau, Toronto