Phosphene Variations and Studies in Feedback

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Date:
December 10, 2010
Time:
7:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Venue:
The Watermill Center

On December 10th, the Watermill Center hosts a performance by music/video/dance collective The Brain Factory entitledStudies in Feedback, and Jason Akira Somma, who will unveil and experiment with the first interactive holography installation Phosphene Variations.

About Phosphene Variations and Jason Akira Somma

Somma will discuss and experiment with Phosphene Variations, an interactive holographic video installation in early stages of development. Each performance will feature a free-floating human subject who reacts when touched by viewers, allowing them to have an active role in shaping the choreography and direction of the piece. The first performer in this series is 92-year-old former Martha Graham and Hanya Holm dancer Frances Wessells. Somma’s exploration with this new technology has created new mediums for dance and choreography, and extended Wessells’ career as a performer, bringing her talents and special presence to new audiences. Future variations will include celebrated performers such as William Forsythe, Carmen DeLavallade, and Claire Cunningham, among others. This is the first showing of the piece after years of planning and development.

About Studies in Feedback and The Brain Factory

Studies in Feedback is a new work from the performance collective The Brain Factory, meshing the video feedback design of Jason Akira Somma, the electro-acoustic cello soundscapes of Chris Lancaster, and the movement and vocals of Alison Clancy. The haunting video imagery and sound score are created live without computers or computer programs. Video feedback is created when the camera films its own projection and bounces the signal back and forth, creating fractal imagery. Somma has refined this technique to create emotionally charged alien landscapes that are also somehow familiar. Lancaster’s musical score is created with a modified classical cello running through 18 effect pedals and real-time samplers. The results echo the imagery of the video and deepen it with feelings of birth, decay, beauty, and death. Bringing a performative human element to the piece is Alison Clancy, who traverses between the microphone and the camera’s frame, creating new fractals and sonic shifts. The artists perform this piece as a kind of ritual, allowing each person to create their own path. This improvisational freedom is central to the work as all of the elements are composed live, mixing technology with the perpetually varying actions and reactions of the performers to produce a unique work of art with each performance.

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    Water Mill, NY 11976 United States

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