Protocol

$30.00

for bass-baritone and mixed ensemble
ca. 14’00”

Protocol (2025) follows an animal automated and optimized for human consumption—a life designed in a sterile laboratory, fattened in a cramped factory farm, and terminated in a filthy slaughterhouse. What's in a life held captive, deemed expendable, and mercilessly shortened?

Protocol is written for the inimitable Evan Luca Gray.

for bass-baritone and mixed ensemble
ca. 14’00”

Protocol (2025) follows an animal automated and optimized for human consumption—a life designed in a sterile laboratory, fattened in a cramped factory farm, and terminated in a filthy slaughterhouse. What's in a life held captive, deemed expendable, and mercilessly shortened?

Protocol is written for the inimitable Evan Luca Gray.

 

Text by Adrian Wong

I. laboratory

Zero eight five four [square meters per pig]
Eight five zero [grams gained per day]
One eight zero [life expectancy in days]

What's in a life?
Born
Fattened
Slaughtered
Harvested

II. farm/factory

Sixty-seven squared [inches of space to live]
Fifteen high [inches of space to live]
Three hundred laid [eggs laid per year]

Guts hanging out
Feet caked in shit
Feathers torn
Infected
Suffocating
Eyes pecked out

 

III. slaughterhouse

The smell of death hangs in the air

Two six six one [live countdown of pigs killed]
One three three zero
Six six five
Three three two
One six six
Eight three
Four one
Two zero
Ten
Five
Two
It'll be painless

Painless
Just to stun us
Feel nothing
Just a stunning

Suffocating
Cut and bled

What's in a life
Captive
Expendable
Shortened