Whiteness (Excerpts)

A cantata and live performance that explores the complexities of being visibly brown and invisibly white.

Paul Pinto and Kameron Neal are recreating and adapting their film Whiteness into an uproariously funny live performance. In this festival preview, they share excerpts from the forthcoming adaptation. Paul’s live body, electrifying voice, and a chorus of floating heads harmoniously muse on privilege, appropriation, and the history of “whiteness” in the United States through chants, loops, micro-pop songs, and green screen trickery. In their MAXmachina residency they further explore the inner thoughts of a mixed-race American trying to navigate the complexities of being visibly brown and invisibly white. Whiteness perfectly captures the ridiculousness and anxieties of constructing our identities in the public eye.

MAXmachina Artist Profile

Kameron Neal is a multidisciplinary artist working in video, performance, and design. He uses technology as a tool to encode history and craft compelling performances of self. A Princess Grace Awardee, NYU ITP Fellow and NYSCA/NYFA Fellow, Kameron is currently a Public Artist in Residence in the NYC Department of Records where he is researching new ways to engage with the city’s municipal archives. He recently directed Whiteness: Part One, an immersive 360° video cantata in collaboration with Paul Pinto that was presented at CultureHub and La MaMa. In 2020, he co-created MukhAgni with Shayok Misha Chowdhury, an irreverent multimedia performance memoir that was presented at Under the Radar. His work has been featured in music videos and performances by Billy Porter and Rufus Wainwright. Kameron’s work has been written about Forbes, The New York Times, National Geographic, HYPEBEAST and presented by a variety of institutions including The Public Theater, BAM, Ars Nova, SohoRep, Digital Graffiti, New Orleans Film Festival, the Williams College Museum of Art and SoundScene at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum. Kameronneal.com‍.

Paul Pinto is a composer, performer, opera-sermonizer, and multi-disciplinary dabbler who makes music, new media, micro-theatres and durational performance by himself and with his friends. Some of those friends include the collectives thingNY, Varispeed and LoveLoveLove. His last few releases include Just Love, Patriots with Jeffrey Young, Empty Words with Varispeed, and Robert Ashley’s Improvement and eL/Aficionado. He’s toured Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King, originated the role of Balaga in Dave Malloy’s Great Comet of 1812, and wrote and performed in the autotuned opera Thomas Paine in Violence, the dance arias 15 Photos, and the cyclorama video installation Whiteness: Part One. During COVID times, Paul’s created music for the Prototype Festival, Colgate University, The Fisher Center, the Look + Listen Festival, American Opera Projects, Culturehub, LaMama and online and interactive shows with thingNY. Recent commissions include The Approach for Quince, I pass’d a church for Rhythm Method String Quartet, and Overture for Yarn/Wire. This year: Dom Juan at the Fisher Center’s SummerScape, 15 Photos with Kristin Marting and HERE Arts, and Whiteness: Part Two with Kameron Neal and WNET.

Credits

Writer & Performer  Paul Pinto

Video & Direction  Kameron Neal

Creative Technologist  Sylvia Ke

Cinematography  Zanni Productions

Assistant Cinematographer  Adele Overbey

Makeup & Costumes  Madison Cagle

Audio Mixing & Mastering  Philip White

Tech & Materials Ableton Live, Max for Live, Touch Designer, QLab, OSC, DSLR camcorder, Multiple projectors, MIDI controller, A treadmill