Ken Ueno (Music) is a composer, vocalist, improviser, and cross-disciplinary artist. During the period of his Associate Professor Fellowship, Professor Ueno plans to work on an evening-long chamber opera, Daedalus Barricades/Nadar Baloons, commissioned by the Boston-based Guerilla Opera company, which will premiere during their 2013-2014 season. The opera takes as a point of departure the research of Ueno’s collaborator Lara Pellegrinelli, an NPR journalist who has conducted research on the recent proliferation of steel barricades in New York city as barriers during the Occupy Wall Street protests. Drawing from this research, Ueno’s opera will create an allegorical narrative that will comment on our current tendency towards restricting free speech and limiting access to public spaces for protest.