The Alpha Orient Lisa Park and Yoko Ono

The alpha brain wave sonification inaugurated by Alvin Lucier in Music for Solo Performer (1965) ushered in biofeedback as a new possibility for art and a racialized fantasy of the "Orient." The "Alpha Orient" encompasses sonic methods equating alpha brain waves with the supposed exceptional "composure" and "silence" of the East. Eunoia (2013-2014) by Lisa Park and Yoko Ono's 1964 Cut Piece and 1965 Sky Piece for Jesus Christ expose the Alpha Orient as an ableist fantasy of the Asian woman in the remarkable soundness of her self-control.