This immersive music video cantata surrounds the viewer in a white void, while a chorus of floating heads muse (in 4-40-part harmony) on privilege, appropriation, and the history (or plague) of “Whiteness” in the U.S.A. Written and performed by Paul Pinto, Whiteness: Part One is part of a series of mixed-media works setting the author's maddening inner thoughts as a mixed-race American (visibly brown, and invisibly trying to not be so White) as a series of chants, rants and micro-pop songs, set to a whirling video directed by Kameron Neal.

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS

Paul Pinto and Kameron Neal are a duo that often spend months dabbling in self-portraiture that sparks intimate dialogue about identity. Pinto is an interdisciplinary performer and wordy operatic sermonizer. Neal is a video artist and typographically driven designer. Collectively, they are curious and exploratory artists obsessed with disembodied heads, choral armies, verbal gymnastics, immersive encounters, subtly sexual reverb, strong gestures, hidden agendas, hyperbole, and biting self-reflection. Their work looks to their past (maybe not your past, but it’s close enough) to unearth the drawbacks and celebrations of personal, collective, and national self-fashioning. Their heroes include Boyz II Men, Tony Oursler, Daniel Koren, Beyoncé, outer space, immigrants, and the American public school system.

The Awards for Digital Excellence in Opera are supported by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.