SINGLR: An Overview - Chapter from the thesis 'Opera is Dead, Long Live APPERA!'

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SINGLR is a novel fusion of music theatre and contemporary participatory online dating, conceptualised as an “App-era.” This project unfolds through three distinct stages:

1. Initiation: Participants download the SINGLR app, which parallels Tinder or Grindr in its operational framework but differentiates itself by exclusively utilising voice recordings, more specifically experimental “extended vocal technique” voice recordings for user profiles, eschewing images and text.

2. Interaction: Users can update their vocalisations as frequently as they like and engage in vocal exchanges, while direct interaction remains prohibited. These vocal contributions are systematically aggregated and synthesised into a complex sonic tapestry that forms the auditory backdrop for participants’ inaugural face-to-face encounter at The SINGLR Salon.

3. Introduction: Participants convene for the first time in a public setting, at a nomadic cocktail bar called The SINGLR Salon, where they perpetuate their communication through vocalisations, now enhanced by live electronic tracks and sound design composed from their cumulative vocal data.

A friendly bot character within the app delivers vocal tutorials and guidance, accessible via an integrated YouTube channel, thereby augmenting the user experience.

This three-stage structure creates a distinctive extension of EMT across digital and physical realms, connecting to the concept of “extended” EMT introduced in Chapter 1. The app functions not merely as a tool for organising performance but as a performance space itself, creating a framework for vocal exploration and exchange that occurs primarily in virtual space before culminating in physical encounter. This approach extends EMT beyond the temporal and spatial constraints of conventional performance, creating a durational experience that unfolds over weeks rather than hours and occupies both digital and physical territories.

The bot character offering vocal tutorials creates a pedagogical element that extends EMT into educational territory, democratising access to extended vocal techniques that might otherwise remain the preserve of trained performers. This educational dimension aligns with the participatory methodology outlined in Section 1.4.2, positioning non-specialists as essential co-creators rather than passive consumers. By guiding users through vocal exploration, the bot extends EMT’s traditional concern with specialised vocal production into everyday vocal practice.

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App Design and Functional Objectives

SINGLR is meticulously designed as a profile-based, media-driven communication app that exclusively focuses on voice interactions. Users record and upload vocalisations as profile “pictures,” explore others’ contributions, and engage with appealing voices. The app’s operational structure is delineated into six-week cycles, culminating in SINGLR Salons—live events where vocal contributions form the auditory backdrop. This structural framework gives rise to a meta-opera and a communal experience, fostering genuine connections through the inherent power of the human voice.

The concept of a “meta-opera” emerging from the app’s structure aligns with the metamodernist framework discussed in Section 1.3, creating a performance that oscillates between earnest exploration of human connection and playful subversion of dating app conventions. By framing the entire six-week cycle as an operatic structure, SINGLR extends EMT beyond discrete performances into durational experience, treating everyday interactions as components of an ongoing composition.

The app’s design deliberately subverts conventional dating app priorities, replacing visual assessment with vocal encounter. This inversion is connected to the political engagement and social critique discussed in Section 2.1.3, challenging the ocularcentrism of contemporary digital culture by prioritising auditory exchange over visual consumption. By focusing exclusively on voice, SINGLR extends EMT’s concern with embodied presence into questions of digital embodiment, exploring how vocal identity functions when separated from visual identity.

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3.3.3 Experiential Design and Theoretical Framework

User Engagement and Experience

Frequency of Usage: Users engage with the app once daily, cultivating a ritualistic and anticipatory rhythm. This deliberate pacing accentuates the collective, cathartic experience reminiscent of traditional performative practices.

Duration: Each cycle spans six weeks, mirroring conventional opera rehearsal periods. Throughout this duration, users participate in a bespoke singing course conducted by a bot character, exploring their vocal potential and fostering a sense of community.

Impact: By eschewing visual biases and prioritising vocal qualities, SINGLR aims to uncover how the sound of individuals meeting, with no spoken word at all, can create an EMT aesthetic, which is also encouraged by the formation of meaningful connections. Users receive three matches daily, promoting intentional engagement and mitigating choice overload. The app supports vocal polyamory, allowing for multiple conversations and enhancing the user experience.

The daily engagement rhythm is connected to the ritualistic aspects of performance, as discussed by Richard Schechner and mentioned in Section 2.1.5 about site-specific performance. By establishing a regular pattern of interaction, SINGLR extends EMT’s traditional event-based structure into habitual practice, embedding artistic engagement into users’ daily routines. This approach aligns with the fusion of art and life discussed in Section 2.1.2, treating everyday digital interaction as a site for ongoing performance rather than an exceptional event.

The six-week duration creates a temporal framework that extends beyond conventional performance timeframes, connecting to durational performance practices pioneered by artists like Marina Abramović and Tehching Hsieh. By stretching the performance across weeks rather than hours, SINGLR extends EMT’s temporal dimensions, creating space for development, evolution, and emergence that would not be possible within conventional theatre timeframes.

The concept of ‘vocal polyamory’ introduces a relational dimension that extends EMT into questions of intimacy, connection, and ethics. By facilitating multiple simultaneous vocal relationships, SINGLR extends EMT beyond dyadic performance structures into network-based composition, treating the web of connections between users as a compositional element rather than merely as an audience structure.

Transformative Potential: Reimagining Music Theatre

SINGLR redefines music theatre by intricately integrating elements of social media, dating, and vocal exploration into a singular EMT structure. The app’s design promotes daily engagement, fosters emotional connections through vocal interactions, and facilitates genuine relational dynamics, aiming to achieve and capture a complex and “Baroque”- sounding aesthetic. In addition, SINGLR the APPERA frames the real-time narratives generated from the app.

The reference to a “Baroque” aesthetic connects to historical operatic traditions while reimagining them through contemporary technological means. This temporal oscillation between historical forms and contemporary contexts exemplifies the metamodernist framework discussed in section 1.3, creating productive tension between tradition and innovation. By aspiring to Baroque complexity through algorithmic means, SINGLR extends EMT’s relationship to musical history, treating historical aesthetics not as fixed forms to be preserved but as living traditions to be reinterpreted through new media.

The framing of real time narratives positions the app as a generator of stories rather than merely a platform for connection. This narrative dimension extends EMT beyond abstract sound into dramatic territory, treating users’ interactions as elements of an emergent story rather than isolated exchanges. This approach aligns with the research question in Section 1.2, which explores the interdisciplinary integration of narrative, music, and social practice into a hybrid form that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

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3.3.4 Technical Specifications and Algorithmic Dramaturgy

Overview of Technical and Functional Specifications

User Profiles: Public profiles are articulated through concise vocal clips. Users browse profiles sequentially and receive notifications when they are matched with someone who has also liked their profile in return.

Messaging: Vocal exchanges are central, with a daily limit imposed to encourage thoughtful communication. Users can report abuse, with cases subjected to manual assessment.

Security: Minimal user data is stored locally and secured with SSL certificates.

Audio Quality: Vocalisations are maintained at standard bitrates, with pitch detection algorithms enhancing the auditory experience.

User Interface: The app is designed to be intuitive, engaging, and enjoyable, balancing anticipation and user availability, aiming for a special moment for exploration and connection each day.

The technical specifications extend EMT into software development territory, treating code and user experience design as compositional elements rather than merely as technical support. The sequential browsing of profiles creates a curated experience that extends EMT’s traditional concern with pacing and dramaturgical structure into digital interaction design. By imposing daily limits on messaging, the app creates artificial scarcity that extends EMT’s traditional use of constraint as a generative principle into algorithmic territory.

The pitch detection algorithms create a layer of computational listening that extends EMT’s traditional concern with human perception into machine perception, creating a hybrid listening environment where both human users and algorithms attend to vocal qualities. This algorithmic dimension is connected to the research question in section 1.2, regarding how digital technologies can be applied to develop novel experiences in EMT, treating algorithms not merely as tools but as active participants in the performance ecosystem.

The user interface design extends EMT’s concern with staging and presentation into digital space, treating screen layouts, interaction flows, and notification systems as compositional elements rather than merely as functional necessities. By deliberately balancing anticipation and availability, the interface design extends EMT’s traditional concern with audience experience into user experience, treating digital interaction as a performance to be carefully choreographed rather than merely as a delivery mechanism.

Theoretical Framework: Spatial and Participatory Dimensions

As a hybrid project, SINGLR aims to navigate and reconceptualise the spaces of interaction and performance in both the online and analogue realms. Kwon’s delineation of contemporary site-specificity as “infiltrating media spaces such as radio, newspapers and the internet” resonates with the project’s hybridity. Both SINGLR’s on and offline meetings, the SINGLR private “chat” and the SINGLR Salons, wherein digital vocal contributions coalesce in physical spaces, create an ephemeral but hopefully profound sense of place and community, which in turn produces a unique set of sounds and relationships. Additionally, in Bishop’s framework, participation extends beyond mere inclusion, fostering active co-creation and redefining the roles of both audience and performer. SINGLR’s alignment with participatory art practices amplifies its metamodernist aesthetic, which is arrived at through a communal and democratic EMT ethos.

Kwon’s conception of site-specificity extending into media spaces directly connects to the site-responsive methodology outlined in Section 1.4.2, treating digital platforms as locations with their distinctive characteristics rather than neutral containers. By creating performance spaces within the dating app format, SINGLR extends EMT beyond physical venues into virtual territories, treating code, interface, and algorithm as architectural elements that shape performance experience just as physical architecture shapes live performance.

The creation of “ephemeral but profound sense of place and community” connects to the blurring of boundaries between participant and audience discussed in section 2.1.1, treating community formation itself as a performative achievement rather than a prerequisite for performance. By generating community through vocal exchange rather than assuming pre-existing connection, SINGLR extends EMT beyond representation of community into active community building, treating performance not merely as an expression of existing social relations but as a generator of new social possibilities.

Bishop’s framework of participation as active co-creation aligns with the participatory methodologies outlined in Section 1.4.2, positioning users not merely as audience members but as essential collaborators whose contributions fundamentally shape the work. By treating users’ vocal exchanges as raw material for composition, SINGLR extends EMT beyond professional production into collaborative creation, treating everyday vocal expression as legitimate artistic material rather than merely as amateur approximation.

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3.3.5 Philosophical Implications and Cultural Context

Algorithmic Mediation as Extended Consciousness

SINGLR operates within a cultural context where algorithmic systems increasingly function as extensions of human consciousness, mediating perception, desire, and connection in ways that fundamentally alter social experience. The dating app format exemplifies this extension, creating algorithmic matchmaking systems that shape romantic possibilities according to computational logic rather than chance encounter. By appropriating this format for artistic purposes, SINGLR creates a critical intervention that extends EMT into the terrain of algorithmic critique, treating algorithms not merely as subjects of performance but as contexts within which performance occurs.

This approach aligns with the philosophical concept of “extended mind” developed by Andy Clark and David Chalmers, which suggests that cognitive processes extend beyond the brain to include technological tools and environmental supports. Through this lens, SINGLR can be understood as creating a framework for extended vocality, where users’ vocal expressions become distributed across digital space, creating a collective soundscape that transcends individual embodiment. This extension of vocality aligns with the research question in Section 1.2, which explores multiple vocalities and modes of communication, examining how digital mediation influences vocal identity and expression.

Dating Apps as Dramaturgical Structures

Dating apps possess inherent dramatic structures, creating narratives of anticipation, revelation, connection, and rejection that parallel those found in theatrical narratives. By repurposing these structures for artistic purposes, SINGLR reveals the performative dimensions of everyday digital interaction, treating swipes, matches, and messages as dramaturgical elements rather than merely as functional means of communication. This approach extends EMT beyond explicit performance into the implicit performances that structure contemporary social life, treating dating itself as a form of improvised theatre mediated by algorithmic systems.

This dramaturgical dimension is connected to the fusion of art and life discussed in Section 2.1.2, where everyday digital interactions are treated as sites for artistic intervention, rather than as separate from artistic practice. By revealing the theatrical dimensions of dating app interactions, SINGLR extends EMT’s traditional concern with explicit performance into the realm of everyday performance, treating digital social rituals as legitimate theatrical material rather than merely as topics for representation.

Voice as Resistance to Visual Consumption

In a digital culture dominated by visual self-presentation—from carefully curated Instagram feeds to Tinder profile photos—SINGLR’s exclusive focus on voice represents a form of resistance to the visual consumption of identity. By eliminating visual elements, the app creates a space where identity and attraction emerge through vocal qualities rather than visual appearance, challenging the “ocularcentrism of contemporary digital culture.” This approach extends EMT’s traditional concern with embodied presence into questions of digital embodiment, exploring how identity and connection function when freed from visual representation.

This resistance to visual consumption is connected to the political engagement and social critique discussed in Section 2.1.3, creating a performance format that challenges dominant modes of digital self-presentation. By privileging voice over image, SINGLR extends EMT’s critical potential into digital activism, treating artistic choices about mediation and representation as political interventions rather than merely as aesthetic preferences.

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3.3.6 The “Extended” in SINGLR as EMT

SINGLR exemplifies the concept of “extended” EMT introduced in Chapter 1, creating a performance framework that extends beyond traditional boundaries in multiple dimensions:

Spatial Extension: The project spans both digital and physical spaces, creating a performance that begins in the private settings where users interact with the app and culminates in the public space of the SINGLR Salon. This spatial extension aligns with the research question in Section 1.2, which explores how unconventional locations can expand the expressive possibilities of EMT, treating digital platforms as legitimate performance venues rather than merely as promotional tools.

Temporal Extension: By unfolding over a six-week cycle rather than a conventional performance timeframe, SINGLR extends EMT’s temporal dimensions, creating space for development, evolution, and emergence that would not be possible in traditional theatrical formats. This temporal extension connects to durational performance practices, treating time itself as a compositional element rather than merely as a container for performance.

Participatory Extension: The project extends participation beyond conventional audience roles, positioning users as essential co-creators whose vocal contributions fundamentally shape the work. This participatory extension aligns with the methodological framework outlined in Section 1.4.2, treating participation not merely as an audience development strategy but as a fundamental compositional approach.

Vocal Extension: Through its focus on extended vocal techniques, SINGLR extends EMT’s traditional concern with specialised vocal production into everyday vocal practice, democratising access to experimental vocal approaches. This vocal extension aligns with the research question in section 1.2, which addresses multiple vocalities and communication modes, thereby establishing a framework for examining how diverse vocal approaches can operate in digital contexts.

Technological Extension: By engaging with dating app formats and algorithmic matchmaking, SINGLR extends EMT into contemporary technological contexts, treating code, interface, and algorithm as compositional elements rather than merely as technical support. This technological extension addresses the research question of how everyday digital technologies can be leveraged to create novel experiences in EMT.

Through these multiple dimensions of extension, SINGLR creates a performance ecosystem that reflects the increasingly hybrid nature of contemporary experience, where boundaries between online and offline, between art and life, between professional and amateur have become increasingly permeable. By embracing this hybridity rather than resisting it, the project offers a model for how EMT can engage with contemporary technological realities while maintaining its experimental edge and critical potential.

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3.3.7 Digital Vocality: Code as Extended Performance Space in SINGLR

The code that powers SINGLR the APPERA is not simply technical machinery—it is a performance script in its own right, a hidden theatrical score that shapes the experiences of everyone who uses the application. When we look beneath the surface, we discover that the code itself embodies the same principles as experimental music theatre, revealing unexpected connections between digital technology and human expression.

The Cast of Characters: Software Components Working Together

Just as a theatrical production brings together actors with different roles and skills, SINGLR assembles a diverse cast of software components:

json

"dependencies": {

  "@babel/polyfill": "*7.12.1",

  "@emotion/react": "*11.4.0",

  "acorn": "48.0.4",

  "audio-encoder": "*1.0.2",

  "axios": "40.21.1",

  "bcrypt": "*%5.0.1",

  "body-parser": "*1.19.0",

  // ...

}

This seemingly technical list reveals SINGLR’s priorities and concerns. The presence of sound-processing tools, such as audio encoders, alongside security tools like bcrypt, demonstrates how the application balances creative expression with personal privacy, creating both safe spaces for vocal exploration and protected boundaries between users.

Particularly revealing is the combination of React (for creating visual interfaces) with Wavesurfer (for visualising sound waves):

json

"react": "17.0.1",

"react-dom": "*17.0.1",

"react-redux": "7.2.2",

"wavesurfer": "41.3.4",

This pairing creates a bridge between what we hear and what we see—a digital counterpart to the way experimental music theatre combines sound and visuals to create multisensory experiences.

Unfolding Voices: How Digital Compression Mirrors Vocal Expression

The application’s attention to various compression formats reveals a surprising parallel to the way SINGLR works with human voices:

json

"decompress": "4.2.1",

"decompress-response": "3.3.0",

"decompress-tar": "4.1.1",

"decompress-tarbz2": "4.1.1",

"decompress-targz": "4.1.1",

"decompress-unzip": "4.0.1",

Just as these tools expand compressed files into their full form, SINGLR encourages users to expand their vocal expression beyond everyday speech into extended techniques. The array of different compression formats mirrors the diversity of human vocal expression—each format offers a distinct way of containing and revealing information, just as various vocal techniques provide different means of expressing emotion and identity.

The code’s attentiveness to multiple formats reflects SINGLR’s commitment to diverse forms of expression, refusing to prioritise any single way of compressing or expressing information. This technical diversity quietly reinforces the application’s celebration of vocal diversity among its users.

Marking Time: Digital Rhythms and Human Connections

The application’s handling of time reveals how digital and human rhythms intertwine:

json

"date-fns": "2.22.1",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/date-fns/-/date-fns-2.22.1.tgz",

"integrity": "sha512-yUFPQjrxEmlsMqlHhAhmxkuH769baF21Kk+nZwZGyrMoyLA+LugaQtC0+Tqf9CBUUULWWUJt6Q5ySI3LJDDCGg==",

"funding": {

  "type": "opencollective",

  "url": "https://opencollective.com/date-fns"

},

This time-management component controls when matches are made, when messages can be sent, and how long users wait between interactions, creating digital rhythms that shape human connections. Even the way this component is funded reflects community values, utilising an “open collective” model rather than corporate sponsorship, which mirrors how community theatre often relies on collective support rather than commercial backing.

The precision of the version number (2.22.1) suggests careful attention to how time is measured and managed, while the collective funding model suggests a more fluid, community-based approach to how the project is sustained—a balance between precision and flexibility that echoes the way experimental music theatre combines careful composition with improvisation.

Rehearsal and Reflection: How Code Improves Itself

Hidden within the code is a reflective practice similar to theatrical rehearsals:

json

"debug": "4.3.1",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/debug/-/debug-4.3.1.tgz",

"integrity": "sha512-doEwdvm4PCeK4K3RQN22ZC2BYUBaxwLARCqZmMjtF8a51J2RbO0xpVIoFRnNCODwajpwnAoao4pelN8I3RJdv3gRQ==",

"dependencies": {

  "ms": "2.1.2"

},

This debugging system creates a space for developers to observe, reflect on, and refine the application’s behaviour, much like the way directors and performers use rehearsals to refine a production before presenting it to an audience. The ability to turn features on or off (through optional dependencies) allows the development team to experiment with different approaches, testing various possibilities before deciding which ones best serve the users.

Transforming Language: Breaking Down Communication Barriers

Several components focus on transforming language between different formats:

json

"decamelize": "1.2.0",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/decamelize/-/decamelize-1.2.0.tgz",

"integrity": "sha1-9lNNFRSCabIDUue+4m9QH50ZEpA=",

"engines": {

  "node": ">=0.10.0"

}

This utility transforms text from one format to another, making technical language more accessible—a digital parallel to the way SINGLR translates specialised vocal techniques into accessible practices for everyday users. The module’s broad compatibility with different software versions reflects SINGLR’s commitment to accessibility across various contexts and communities.

Creating Digital Spaces: The Architecture of Connection

Components that handle web addresses reveal how the application creates navigable spaces:

json

"decode-uri-component": "0.2.0",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/decode-uri-component/-/decode-uri-component-0.2.0.tgz",

"integrity": "sha1-6zkTMzRYd1y4TNGh+uBiEGu4dUU=",

This module transforms encoded web addresses into navigable links, creating digital pathways between different spaces within the application. The way users move between profiles, messages, and gathering spaces mirrors the way audiences might move between different areas in a site-specific theatre production. The simplicity of this module (version 0.2.0) suggests a focus on straightforward navigation rather than complexity, making the digital space as accessible as possible.

Understanding Relationships: The Technology of Connection

The application’s approach to comparing different elements reveals its understanding of human connection:

json

"deep-equal": "1.1.1",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/deep-equal/-/deep-equal-1.1.1.tgz",

"integrity": "sha512-yd9c5AdiqVcR+JjcwUQb9DkhJc8ngNrOMahEBGvDiJw8puWab2yZlh+nkasOnZP+EGTAP6rRp2JzJhJZZvNF8g==",

"dependencies": {

  "is-arguments": "^1.0.4",

  "is-date-object": "*1.0.1",

  "is-regex": "^1.0.4",

  "object-is": "^1.0.1",

  "object-keys": "*1.1.1",

  "regexp.prototype.flags": "%1.2.0"

},

This component distinguishes between surface similarities and deeper connections, examining whether two things are merely similar or genuinely connected at a fundamental level. This technological discernment aligns with SINGLR’s emphasis on genuine vocal connection rather than superficial matching. The complexity of this system reflects the nuance required to understand genuine connection, acknowledging that meaningful relationships involve multiple dimensions of compatibility.

Setting Boundaries: Creating Safe Spaces for Expression

Components that define properties establish the rules and boundaries within the application:

json

"define-properties": "1.1.3",

"resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/define-properties/-/define-properties-1.1.3.tgz",

"integrity": "sha512-3MqfYKj2lLzdMSf8ZIZE/V+Zuy+BgD6f164e8K2w7dgnpKArBDerGYpMA4GHs/QMmKr+bLYolLIUE/1eJ4GUB8tQ==",

"dependencies": {

  "object-keys": "*1.0.12"

},

These definition components establish which features of the application can be changed by users and which remain fixed, creating a balance between structure and freedom. This technological boundary-setting mirrors the way SINGLR establishes certain parameters for vocal interaction, such as time limits or privacy settings, while leaving creative expression open to user choice. The balance creates a safe space for experimentation, with sufficient structure to provide security while allowing genuine expression.

Diversity in Code, Diversity in Expression

Perhaps most revealing is how the technological diversity within SINGLR’s code—from sound processing to security, from visual interfaces to network communication—creates a system that mirrors the diversity of human expression it seeks to facilitate. By bringing together technologies from different domains and traditions, the code creates a digital environment that welcomes diverse forms of human expression.

This technological heterogeneity is not merely practical but philosophical, recognising that complex human interactions require equally complex systems to support them. The code rejects technological uniformity just as SINGLR rejects artistic uniformity, creating space for multiple voices, formats, and approaches to coexist and interact.

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Beyond the Hidden: When Code Becomes Visible Performance

Seen through this lens, SINGLR’s code reveals itself to be much more than just technical infrastructure; it is an extension of the performance itself, embodying the same values and principles as the human interactions it facilitates. The code doesn’t simply support the artistic concept; it manifests that concept through its very structure, creating continuity between human expression and digital processes.

This integration creates a multilayered performance that spans both human and machine domains, combining predetermined structure with emerging behaviour, fixed rules with open creativity. The technology becomes not merely a tool for artistic expression but a form of expression itself—a digital counterpart to the human voices it celebrates and connects.

Unlike most applications, where code remains hidden from users, SINGLR deliberately makes its technical foundations visible. Throughout the pandemic performances, massive roll-up banners displaying the code architecture served as physical barriers between sociallydistanced participants, transforming technical documentation into protective sneeze screens that simultaneously separated and connected performers. During the SINGLR Salon, audiences witnessed code in action through pink-hued projections that elevated typically invisible processes into a visual art form.

This transparency represents a radical departure from our everyday relationship with code, which typically operates as an unseen force in our digital lives, sometimes even with potentially malevolent intent, as critics have suggested about data-gathering companies like Palantir. By making its code visible and even beautiful, SINGLR rejects the notion that technical systems must remain hidden. Instead, it celebrates the aesthetic qualities of code and invites audiences to appreciate the architecture that shapes their experience.

This approach closes the gap between human and machine domains, revealing the continuity between technical infrastructure and artistic expression. In SINGLR, code is not merely a tool that enables performance, it becomes performance itself and part of the aesthetic of the performance, a visible actor in the theatrical experience that embodies the same values it helps facilitate.

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3.3.8 Conclusion: Vocal Algorithms—SINGLR as a Digital Reimagining of EMT Practice

SINGLR the APPERA represents a significant advancement in the exploration of Extended Music Theatre (EMT), challenging conventional boundaries between performance, technology, and everyday life. By appropriating the familiar structure of dating applications and subverting their visual primacy, SINGLR creates a novel framework for vocal exploration that extends EMT into the intimate digital spaces that increasingly mediate contemporary relationships.

The project’s innovative approach to algorithmically mediated performance achieves several critical developments in EMT practice. By spanning both digital and physical realms, SINGLR creates a durational performance experience that transcends the temporal and spatial limitations of conventional theatre. The six-week cycle establishes a rhythm of engagement that transforms everyday technological interactions into artistic practice, embedding performance into users’ daily routines rather than segregating it as an exceptional event.

Despite the theoretical strength of SINGLR’s conceptual framework, the practical implementation revealed significant challenges in public engagement. Our efforts to recruit participants on Coney Street, a busy shopping street in York, demonstrated a surprising reluctance among the general public to engage with experimental vocal practices, even when framed within the familiar structure of a dating app. Despite the ubiquity of dating applications and online social platforms in contemporary life, the townsfolk of York approached the project with marked suspicion. Even enhanced recruitment strategies—from offering pink cupcakes and mocktails to live demonstrations of dancing and singing by performers Inggrid Patricia and Lydia Cottrell—failed to generate the anticipated level of interest.

This resistance illuminates a crucial tension between digital innovation and public reception. While dating applications have become normalised aspects of contemporary social life, the introduction of experimental vocal practices into this familiar format created a barrier that many potential participants were unwilling to cross. The reluctance to engage with the app suggests that technological familiarity alone does not guarantee engagement with artistic experimentation. Indeed, the subversion of familiar technological forms may heighten resistance rather than facilitating access. Once again, I found myself dealing with the question, What if the spectator does not want to be emancipated?

Perhaps most significantly, SINGLR’s exclusive focus on voice represents a deliberate resistance to the ocularcentrism of contemporary digital culture. In a mediascape dominated by visual self-presentation and consumption, the project’s emphasis on vocal exchange creates space for connections that transcend appearance, challenging users to engage with one another through sound rather than sight. This inversion of sensory priorities not only creates novel aesthetic possibilities but constitutes a form of political intervention, revealing how intensely visual bias has become embedded in digital social infrastructure.

The participatory nature of SINGLR fundamentally reconfigures the relationship between creator and audience, positioning users not merely as consumers of artistic content but as essential co-creators whose vocal contributions form the raw material from which the work emerges. This democratisation of the creative process connects to broader shifts in contemporary performance practice, where the boundaries between professional and amateur, as well as between artist and audience, have become increasingly permeable. By treating everyday vocal expressions as legitimate artistic material, SINGLR extends EMT’s traditional concern with specialised vocal production into more inclusive territory.

The technological infrastructure of SINGLR—its code, interface design, and algorithmic systems—functions not merely as technical support but as an extension of the performance itself, embodying through its very structure the same principles and values that animate the human interactions it facilitates. By revealing the performative dimensions of digital infrastructure, the project extends EMT’s concern with materiality beyond physical presence into code as a form of compositional material.

As a metamodernist intervention, SINGLR oscillates productively between earnest exploration of human connection and playful subversion of dating app conventions, between technological mediation and embodied encounter, between historical vocal traditions and contemporary digital contexts. This oscillation creates fertile territory for exploring how technology both constrains and enables human expression, revealing both the limitations of algorithmic mediation and its potential for creating new forms of connection.

The challenges encountered in public engagement with SINGLR also offer valuable insights for future EMT practice. The gap between theoretical innovation and public reception suggests the need for more gradual bridges between familiar practices and experimental approaches. Rather than presenting radical alternatives as complete systems, future iterations might benefit from more incremental departures from established norms, creating stepping stones that guide participants toward more experimental terrain. The difficulty in recruiting participants on the streets of York demonstrates that site-specific engagement strategies must account not only for physical location but for the cultural and social specificities of different communities.

Looking forward, SINGLR suggests promising directions for future EMT practice in increasingly digitised contexts. By engaging directly with the algorithmic systems that increasingly structure contemporary social life, the project demonstrates how EMT can maintain its experimental edge and critical potential while acknowledging technological realities. Rather than rejecting digital mediation in favour of an idealised notion of unmediated presence, SINGLR embraces hybridity, treating digital platforms not as threats to authentic performance but as territories for artistic intervention and innovation.

In the broader context of this research, SINGLR demonstrates how EMT can be meaningfully extended through everyday digital technologies, creating performance experiences that span multiple locations, timeframes, and modes of engagement. Its focus on vocal exchange in the absence of visual cues directly addresses questions about multiple vocalities and modes of communication raised in the research questions, while its appropriation of dating app structures exemplifies how unconventional contexts can expand EMT’s expressive possibilities. By creating a framework where performance emerges through participation rather than being delivered to passive audiences, SINGLR embodies the participatory methodology that has guided this research, treating interdisciplinary collaboration not merely as a production strategy but as a fundamental aesthetic principle.

In sum, SINGLR the APPERA demonstrates the continued vitality and relevance of EMT in contemporary contexts, showing how traditional concerns with vocality, embodiment, and presence can be productively reimagined through digital means without sacrificing their critical edge or experimental spirit. By extending EMT across multiple dimensions—spatial, temporal, participatory, vocal, and technological—the project presents a model for how performance can engage meaningfully with the complex realities of life in the algorithmically mediated present, even as it reveals the persistent challenges in bridging experimental artistic practice with everyday public engagement.