Sat Sep 27, 2014 19:00 - Sun Sep 28, 2014

Duluth, Minnesota
United States of America

last passenger pigeon she slipped away forever into sky through iron bars into blue ...

Join St. Paul's Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble, composer Kathy McTavish and poet Sheila Packa for a Duluth performance of the new chamber work: høle in the skY. On this night we will present this media installation / live performance / discussion in fusion with radiø plutø artists:

Julie Gard
Rocky Makes Room
Kathy McTavish
Katelynn Monson
Sheila Packa
Kathleen Roberts
Richie Townsend
Jake Vainio

Gimaajii Mino-Bimaadiziyaan
(202 W. Second St. Duluth, MN)

see: http://holeinthesky.blueboatfilms.com/

free / grateful for donations

funded by an American Composers Forum JFund Commission. This activity is also made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State's arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

Please feel free to bring your devices to this immersive, live performance & installation ... you will have the opportunity to wander / drill down / traverse / write to the screen ...

from Zeitgeist:
Join Zeitgeist and Duluth composer/cellist/environmental activist Kathy McTavish for a performance of her new chamber work høle in the skY. Featuring electronic and acoustic music, video, and an interactive exhibition, høle in the skY explores a pre-apocalyptic world where extinction is imminent and our ecosystem is on the verge of collapse. Drawing on McTavish’s past work in ecosystem modeling, the work considers the delicacy of ecosystems, our human quest to recover those systems, and what it might mean to be the last of a species left alive.

from Kathy
For the live performance of høle in the skY, I created a text / video / minimalist sound installation - a landscape - that encloses the 4 musicians. The core story revolves around planetary climate change / extinction. Specifically, the core text comes from a book I wrote in 2012 called: "night train / blue window" about the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who died in the Cincinnati Zoo September 1, 1914. Another text is laced throughout the piece in counterpoint. It is the story of a girl growing up on the Iron Range of Minnesota. This text is from the book: "Night Train Red Dust: Poems of the Iron Range" by Sheila Packa. It provides an intimate human voice in a sea of rapid climactic change.

As a composer, improvisational cellist and installation artist, I am interested in the ways we stain each other. I am drawn to episodic stories, evolving myths, wandering installations, shifting landscapes, phantom exhibits, street music, ephemeral / improvisational / vanishing spaces, inarticulate languages, loose collaborations ... the infinite between.

Join us also on Sunday September 28th at 10:30 am for a light breakfast & discussion with Zeitgeist's Heather Barringer about creative collaborations and about sustaining an arts career / arts organization. She will share her experience developing creative partnerships, nurturing collaborations, fund raising and fostering community. This is an opportunity for us to share our experiences with each other & to further develop ties between our two communities.

We will meet at Gimaajii again but this time in Trepanier Hall. This gives you a chance to also see the beautiful work by Rodrigo Bello that is on display.

Fri May 16, 2014 19:30 - Sun May 18, 2014

St. Paul, Minnesota
United States of America

May 16 @ 7:30 pm
May 17 @ 7:30 pm (double feature with ørigin of birds)
May 18 @ 2:00 pm

Studio Z (275 East Fourth St. Suite 200, St. Paul, MN)

"last passenger pigeon
she slipped away
forever into sky
through iron bars
into blue ..."

see: http://holeinthesky.blueboatfilms.com/
and: http://originofbirds.blueboatfilms.com/

tickets available at the door and at:
http://www.zeitgeistnewmusic.org/hole-in-the-sky.php

funded by an American Composers Forum JFund Commission

Please feel free to bring your devices to this immersive, live performance & installation ... you will have the opportunity to wander / drill down / traverse / write to the screen ...

from Zeitgeist
Join Zeitgeist and Duluth composer/cellist/environmentalist Kathy McTavish for the world premiere of her new chamber work Hole in the Sky. Featuring electronic and acoustic music, video, and an interactive exhibition, Hole in the Sky explores a pre-apocalyptic world where extinction is imminent and our ecosystem is on the verge of collapse. Drawing on McTavish’s past work in ecosystem modeling, the work considers the delicacy of ecosystems, our human quest to recover those systems, and what it might mean to be the last of a species left alive.

from Kathy

For the live performance of høle in the skY, I created a text / video / minimalist sound installation - a landscape - that encloses the 4 musicians. The core story revolves around planetary climate change / extinction. Specifically, the core text comes from a book I wrote in 2012 called: "night train / blue window" about the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who died in the Cincinatti Zoo September 1, 1914. Another text is laced throughout the piece in counterpoint. It is the story of a girl growing up on the Iron Range of Minnesota. This text is from the book: "Night Train Red Dust: Poems of the Iron Range" by Sheila Packa. It provides an intimate human voice in a sea of rapid climactic change.

As a composer, improvisational cellist and installation artist, I am interested in the ways we stain each other. I am drawn to episodic stories, evolving myths, wandering installations, shifting landscapes, phantom exhibits, street music, ephemeral / improvisational / vanishing spaces, inarticulate languages, loose collaborations ... the infinite between. høle in the skY is part of a larger wandering, episodic journey I took for about a year called radiø plutø / the schøol of impermanence. I think of this as a collaborative story caravan. I drew inspiration for the form from things like the Arabian Nights / Canterbury Tales or from loosely structured grassroots movements like Idle No More. This journey was enriched by collaborations with cross-disciplinary artists that I worked with along the way. I kept thinking about story looms, the act of weaving ... or graffiti.

Fri Apr 11, 2014 19:00 - Fri Apr 11, 2014

Duluth, Minnesota
United States of America

Opening Reception
Friday April 11th, 7-11 pm
with live music by the cosmic pit orchestra

Workshop
Saturday April 12th, 3-6:30 pm

Open Gallery hours
Thur, Fri & Sat from 3-7pm

http://originofbirds.blueboatfilms.com/
#originofbirds

Artist notes

The ”origin of birds” exhibit at the Prøve includes a multimedia installation and interactive web site created by a film generator that I call the “graffiti angel.” The origin of birds mixes image, sound, data, text and a live twitter stream to create a video collage / a multi-sensory torrent. The installation includes multiple projections, live performance, and QR code “portals” into an interactive web environment for viewers with mobile devices.

The Saturday workshop / discussion will take a look at creative transmedia / storytelling across boundaries. I will share examples of artists / writers working in this emerging form. We will talk about the confluence of technology and art - drilling into some of the tools used to create the exhibit including html5, css3, javascript and Adobe Creative Cloud editing software. The workshop will be accessible to everyone.

The background story - the origin of birds:

According to an ancient Greek story, the god Chaos was the first to emerge at the creation of the universe. Soon after her came Gaia (Earth), Tartaros (the Underworld) and Eros (Love). In many versions, Chaos then gave birth to the Birds. From the primordial depths of time, from Chaos herself came these winged first beings. This wild birthing created migrations and flight.

In more recent times, soon after Darwin published his book, On the Origin of the Species, scientists began a heated debate about the origin of birds. Most scientists today believe that birds are one of the few remaining descendants of the dinosaurs.

In our own brief Anthropocene era, we are witnessing a rapid increase in the rate of extinction. We are in a geologic epoch marked indelibly by a human-created, asteroid-scale period of rapid loss of life as we know it on the planet. This planetary devastation is entering a very fast-moving era, and soon birds quite possibly will be swallowed back into some primordial chaos.

The origin of birds project is funded by the Jerome Foundation. This activity is also funded by the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council through the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.