10:37 Bill Buschel’s poetic introduction
18:32 Interview begins, discussion of our respective beginnings as artists
32:48 Brief continuation of early days, introduction to Catalyst Euterpe.
Lili and I are working on an upcoming project inspired by the Seikilos Epitaph, an ancient funereal Stele, and the Antikythera Mechanism, considered to be the oldest computer/orrery. Both the Stele and the Mechanism are believe to have originated in roughly the same time and location. The project will launch in November with two installations and a live performance in both New York and Trieste, Italy.
In advance of this work we were interviewed on Cosmos Radio, Hellenic Public Radio based in New York, by host Bill Buschel (Poet, Radio Host). Here is Bill’s blog post on us and the interview.
Catalyst Euterpe is a meditation on the paradox of the ephemeral and eternal – and how this paradox permeates life and culture, how it transforms and survives, and how it is embodied in the Stele itself – its inscriptions and history. Our project traces this paradox across time and media – beginning with the original, hand carved, marble stele, through various incarnations into a presence both within networked, digital culture, and as sculptural objects, music, poetry and performance.
The Antikythera mechanism, perhaps the original computer, embodies a change in mindset at end of the BC era. Together, the facts/empiricism of the mechanism, together with the paradox and poetic wisdom of the stele present two methods of approaching truth and meaning.
This edition, our first installment of this project (a second installment is scheduled for March 2019) will feature virtual/physical sculptural objects, a music composition, video and a live performance.
The sculptural objects will be exhibited as virtual artifacts in New York (locations to be determined soon), and in Trieste, Italy between November 17-28. In Italy the objects will be part of the Festival of Robotic Arts at the Hydrodynamic Station at the Old Port of Trieste, curated by Maria Campitelli – a founder of Trieste’s Gruppo78 and a leader in the curation of media art over the past half-century (!). We will be using Wave Farm’s transmission app for the performance.
We have also collaborated with mezzo-soprano Carlotta Buiatti and video artist/curator Fabiola Faidiga, both of Trieste, on a performance that will occur during the exhibition and feature music we composed based on the original composition, and will include video shot and edited by Fabiola, entitled Through the waves – a reference to the travels of the concepts and media of the work, and how they have spread and transformed across an expanse of time and space, and the connection, across water of us in New York, and they in Italy.
The title of the two works, in the US and Italy is: Catalyst Euterpe/Through the Waves