Glass sculpture and installation figure prominently in the scenographic design
of the piece, functioning as a metaphor for magnifying, reflecting, distorting,
seeing through, being distanced from, separating, and containing.
is central to seeing and being seen on a simple physical level, but it is
also an essential element in all the media and computer technology we depend on,
as well as a central element in weapons and nuclear technology. As such glass
plays a large part in determining whose images, stories, and values are reflected,
framed, and/or preserved, and it made sense for us to base the scenographic elements
in Welcome to Paradise: A Requiem around this material.
We were drawn to work with glass as a central element because of its metaphorical
properties: both extremely delicate and extremely durable, easily breakable, and
infinitely able to be refashioned. Thorsteinsdottir's figurative glass sculptures
highlight the fragility of human flesh, and her enormous custom-made sculptural
bowls are able to be used both as visual objects and as sound reflection and sound
sources. Exploring the possibilities of photo and video projections on the glass as
well as reflections and shadows from the performers' movements in the space, will
allow us to give a complex visual expression to our exploration of the distortion
of language and the death of meaning.
Multiple custom-designed aluminum speakers and sub-woofers of varying sizes will be
installed in various locations in the performance space and will function as interactive
elements with the live electronics, the performers and the public. These custom designed
aluminum speakers will be connected backwards so that they function as immense
microphones. They will then be filled with various materials such as sand, glass pieces,
balls, water, granulates etc, creating natural sound filters. These elements will be moved
and manipulated directly by the performers creating both a physical vocabulary and live
processing of the audio signals being sent through the speakers.
Some of Thorsteinsdottir's glass bowls will be filled with water or sand in the same manner
as the speakers, and will be installed and used as a musical element in the piece by the
percussionist, bowed or struck or rubbed. They will thus provide acoustic sounds able to be
processed in real-time with computer digital sound processing, using the music software
Max/MSP as well as other audio processing programs. In addition, the use of pre-recorded
samples of these glass sculptures, both processed and unprocessed unify the visual and musical
design.
Used military shells (obtained by the percussionist from a contact in the Swedish military)
will be installed in the space, and will function as unusual speakers and resonating objects,
with tiny speakers and/or piezo sound generators mounted on their surfaces, allowing soundfiles
(some taken from archival radio and tv sources) and/or live electronic signals to be played
through them, creating an eerie sound installation.