Hacking Grains (2022) is an immersive installation and musical theater work that explores the interconnectivity between ritual, technology, and Asian identity + futurity through food and sound.

“The rice cooker is reimagined as a cultural synthesizer. The seemingly docile appliances dominate the space with harsh yet meditative electric drones. This combined with the smell of rice cooking turns the space and listeners into ritual. LED lights are embedded within the units and activated halfway through, creating a lightshow reminiscent of neon restaurant signs & and edm raves. At the end of the piece, the rice is collected and served to the audience by the performers. We then partake in a collective meal.”

Hacking Grains is broken down into 4 movements：

i. rice as ritual

ii. feeding the machine

iii. ddr

iv. 吃饭

Hacking Grains was composed by Trevor Van de Velde and premiered by Chromic Duo (Lucy Yao & Dorothy Chan) at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College in April 2022.

This project was supported by the Hopkins Center for the Arts: Arts+Technology Integration Grant.

Creative Team: Trevor Van de Velde (composer, engineer, co-director), Hamed Sinno (co-director), Olivia Shortt (costumes, make-up artist), Lucy Yao (performer), Dorothy Chan (performer).