Upending is our collaboration with the extraordinary composer Maryanne Amacher for the new Empac performing arts center up the Hudson River in Troy, New York.
This “opera without singers,” which will premiere in early 2010, presents a drama of disorientation and reorientation that is enacted on both perceptual and thematic levels. The weightlessness of outer space is felt even in perfectly everyday representations as the grounding provided by gravity starts giving way. Ordinary objects, spaces, and persons are probed and queried from the unfamiliar perspectives uncovered on the micro- and macro-scale by contemporary science and neuropsychology.
For this project, our interest is in live stereoscopic cinema, where the illusory 3d space of stereo is projected onto the actual 3d of stage objects moving under computer control.
Horizon
Horizon is the public arts project originally commissioned for the Atlanta Airport in 2005 but only now moving into production. This summer we finished revising our original storyboard (illustrated above) to match a complete redesign of the new terminal, which is now to open in 2011.
Horizon now aims for an even tighter interactivity between artwork and events in the terminal. The artwork will respond more directly to its surroundings — to the movement and appearance of travelers as they traverse the space and to the actual airport activity seen through the large adjacent window. An example of this is illustrated on the main Horizon page.
Dan Goldwater is now out inspecting led factories in China so that we can choose the best display solution. Next step is the construction of a large prototype at Dan’s studio in Oakland.
Loops in Sweden
Our most ambitious collaboration with Merce Cunningham, Loops, will be exhibited in its new triptych form at Mejan Labs in Stockholm, Sweden, where it opens on November 20th. Should be worth seeing: it’s on three 52″ monitors there.
Ambitious programmers and scholars may participate in our experimental Loops preservation project by downloading the beta version of the source code to Loops (the digital artwork) and/or by downloading the archival versions of Cunningham’s motion-captured performance (links to both may be found here.
Agent
Marc is coding up the Choreographic language agent, which takes a novel approach to creating dance movements.
A first version, which of course runs on Field, will soon be put into practice by choreographer Wayne McGregor of Random Dance.
Revived
Three of our earlier dance collaborations have recently received renewed attention.
Hand-drawn Spaces has been designated a “masterwork” by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is providing the funds for its complete restoration. This was our first collaboration with Merce Cunningham, an installation we made in 1998.
The newly restored version will be presented in the public gallery of the World Financial Center here in New York in 2010. The nea designation came about through the generous advocacy of HarvestWorks, which also supported the creation of the original work.
Ghostcatching has been chosen by the Lincoln Center Institute as the focus work of art for its first online course for the professional development of educators, which it is launching this fall.
Ghostcatching will also be screened at the Brooklyn Museum in January.
BIPED continues as part of the Cunningham Dance Company’s active repertoire. For a recent performance in Berkeley, it received this rapturous review in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Other news
- St. Petersburg is now next April rather than this November. For the Kinodance film festival, we’ll be exhibiting Loops and, possibly, Point A –> B, with the details to be announced as they’re set.
- Field once again forms the core authorship platform for the responsive architecture project Hyposurface.