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The Alpha Orient

Lisa Park and Yoko Ono

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2022

Peggy Kyoungwon Lee
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Abstract

The alpha brain wave sonification inaugurated by Alvin Lucier in Music for Solo Performer (1965) ushered in biofeedback as a new possibility for art and a racialized fantasy of the “Orient.” The “Alpha Orient” encompasses sonic methods equating alpha brain waves with the supposed exceptional “composure” and “silence” of the East. Eunoia (2013-2014) by Lisa Park and Yoko Ono’s 1964 Cut Piece and 1965 Sky Piece for Jesus Christ expose the Alpha Orient as an ableist fantasy of the Asian woman in the remarkable soundness of her self-control.

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Article
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TDR , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 45 - 59
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press for Tisch School of the Arts/NYU

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References

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