DilateEnsemble_CATENA

CATENA: sound/image through a hybrid network

as presented online January 13 & 14, 2022

a culmination of a 5 month residency funded by

ThoughtWorks Arts and CounterPulse theater in San Francisco

DILATE ENSEMBLE

Carole Kim (SoCal): video installation, direction

Gloria Damijan (Vienna): extended toy pianos, percussion

Scott L. Miller (Minnesota): Kyma, electronics

Luisa Muhr (New York): voice

Jon Raskin (NoCal): sax, concertina, electronics, recycled materials

With special guest:

Shinichi Iova-Koga: dance

Dilate Ensemble was formed at the beginning of the pandemic out of a mutual love of improvisation-based dialogue and a sense of urgency to find ways to connect and create in real-time over the internet. After performing online at numerous festivals, this marked the first time that Dilate Ensemble engaged with a physical space and a hybrid of live and virtually networked performers. CounterPulse’s upstairs studio and project basement were animated by audio-reactive video projection installations by Carole Kim and the remote presence of Luisa Muhr (voice/dance) and live presence of special guest Shinichi Iova-Koga (dance). Scott Miller’s audio ecosystem, based in Minnesota, served as the point of convergence for all sound processing. Variables within each node such as amplitude, frequency, physical characteristics of the room, speaker placement or microphones impact simple behaviors within this ecosystem that result in complex layered outcomes.

Hybridity will continue to be a part of our evolving communication landscape. There is much room to challenge and invigorate the topography that bridges physical and virtual spaces and the depth of communication that can be facilitated between these modalities. Dilate Ensemble investigates different ways of thinking about what “hybrid” presence can mean or how it can manifest. How will changing variables at each local “node” within the technological network impact the nature of the exchange? How can we actively amplify the points of connection that bridge local and remote presence? Is the concept of site-specificity relevant to networked spaces?

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SPECIAL THANKS

Thoughtworks Arts

CounterPulse Theater - SF

Headlands Center for the Arts

Austrian General Consulate

Shinichi Iova-Koga