Monster Voice II - Split Tongue
for live audio performance
live audio performance / 4-channel audio




NOV 2, 2024
Cake-cutting Algorithms Festival,
Gwangju, South Korea

SEP 4 - 6, 2024
New Inferfaces for Musical Expression 2024 (NIME),
HKU, Utrecht, Netherlands

JUL 7 - 13, 2024
International Computer Music Conference 2024 (ICMC)
Hanyang University, 
Seoul, South Korea

DEC 5, 2023
Youngjoo Jennifer Ryu Portrait Concert,
Lee Gang Sook Hall,
Seoul, South Korea
Program Note
⟪Monster Voice: Split Tongue⟫ is a live recitation composition of a spoken language dedicated to female pain, one that may become a new method of communication for women who hurt. A new sound language based on phonetic symbols, designed using SuperCollider, is read aloud on the custom-built body-worn Arduino instruments.

The pain of a hurting woman is difficult to convey to others. Instead of language the content of pain has been vocalized through whimpers, cries, screams, or silence. Following in the footsteps of generations of women who have attempted to verbalize their pain, the language dismantles the existing [consonant+vowel] language system. Instead, it incorporates the structure of [sound+vowel] to interpret the writings of women who came before us. At the same time, the language is an attempt to vocally communicate the chronic pain of the composer/performer herself, who suffers from fibromyalgia. The process of physically translating the new language, Monster Voice, through the custom-built body-worn instruments revive and give voice to the pain of the composer/performer and the women of previous generations.



“Monster Voice: Split Tongue,” in Proceedings of International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression , 2024.


2024 Youngjoo Jennifer Ryu