Walker Art Center presents The Misfortune of the Immortals Sunday, May 22, 1994; 7 pm Walker Art Center Auditorium

Program Notes / Biographies

The Misfortune of the Immortals, a work- in-progress, will in its final form take place in an interactive computer-controlled stage environment utilizing an array of new technologies. These technologies extend the reach of the protagonists to the edge of their The Misfortune of the Immortals world: the stage space...and beyond. Sensors An interactive theater work in three parts, attached to the bodies of each performer created by , Mark Coniglio, establish a line of communication to the , and Woody Vasulka technological environment through MIDI Dancer, developed by Mark Coniglio, and a pitch follower which translates vocal material Characters: into information accessible to the computer for voice control of the environment, all Scientist - Joan La Barbara programmed through InteractorO, a software Human/Dancer - Dawn Stoppieilo program developed by Coniglio and Morton Prankster/Demon - I Nyoman Wenten Subotnick.

By placing technology at the forefront as a " Music composed by Joan La Barbara, dramatic device, allowing the performers Mark Coniglio, and Morton Subotnick access to specific realtime control of sound, " Video images by Steina and Woody Vasulka video, lighting, the entire stage environment, " Morphing sequences by Bruce Hamilton we provide a vehicle for the exploration of our " Lighting Design by Kyle Lemoi relationship with technology. Each of the three " Production Manager and Costumes by isolated characters attempts expression Megan Morris throught the use of these new tools. In one episode, a scientist, trapped in a minimally functioning body, struggles to communicate The Misfortune of the Immortals has been theories about the nature of the universe and developed during workshops and residencies at its beginnings and tries to create alternate Arizona State University/Institute for Studies realities by the only means available: vocal in the Arts; The Atlantic Center for the Arts; sounds and simple finger movements. In California Institute of the Arts/Center for another, a dancer enters into competition with Experiments in Art, Information and her technological double, an image of herself Technology (CEAIT); The Center for unencumbered by gravity or the limits of Contemporary Arts in Sante Fe; Telluride stamina. Finally, a prankster/demon performs Institute and Yellow Springs Institute. with great bravura a fantastic symphony of ' light and sound, triggered by the movement of The commissioning of the music for The his hands and body. Misfortune of the Immortals by California Institute of the Arts/Center for Experiments in These episodes will be embedded in a fabric Art, of Information and Technology (CEAIT) and overlapping scenes in which the set appears to the Walker Art Center, was made possible by a have a life of its own . As screens and lights grant from the Meet the Composer/Reader's move, sounds play, images and lights project, Digest Composer Commissioning Program the three characters are revealed in various funded by the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest parts of the set as if they were part of its Foundation and the National Endowment for world . the Arts. The title of the work is taken from a Max Ernst collage book and suggests the often fantastic, sometimes poignant and always ephemeral quality of our species' attempt at using technology to place us beyond nature.

Morton Subotnick is one of the United Stoppiello (An Adjacent Disclosure and Tactile States' premiere composers and innovators of Diaries). Currently Coniglio teaches Interactive electronic music. His work has emcompassed Music at CalArts. many of the most important technological breakthroughs in the history of the genre. In Woody Vasulka was born in Czechoslovakia, addition to music in the electronic medium, later emigrating to New York in 1965, where he Subotnick has written for symphony orchestra, worked as a freelance film editor and began chamber ensembles, theater and multimedia experimenting with electronic sounds and productions, including Jacob's Room stroboscopic lights. In 1974, Vasulka joined the commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and faculty of the Center for Media Study at singer Joan La Barbara, The Key to Songs for SUNY-Buffalo where he began investigating chamber orchestra and computer, and his computer and real-time digital video tools. groundbreaking Silver Aples of the Moon from With his wife Steina, he founded The Kitchen, a 1967. Currently, Subotnick co-directs both the New York City Media Theater. He and his Composition program and the Center for wife live now in Santa Fe, where he continues Experiments in Art, Information and his investigations into "digital space" through Technology (CEAIT) at the California Institute The Theater of Hybrid Automata. Steina of the Arts. He also tours extensively Vasulka was born in Iceland in 1948. She throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer attended the Music Conservatory in Prague and composer-performer. from 1959 to 1963, joining the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in 1964. After coming to Joan La Barbara's career as a composer, the U.S. with her husband, she has been active singer, and sound artist has been devoted to in the development of the electronic arts. Her exploring the human voice as a multi-faceted work has been shown and broadcast instrument, going far beyond its traditional extensively in the U.S. and Europe, including boundaries, creating works for voices, the show machine Vision at the Albright-Knox instruments and interactive technology. The Gallery in Buffalo, New York. San Francisco Examiner recently called her, "One of the great vocal virtuosas of our time." Choreographer-dancer Dawn Stoppiello La Barbara is an important pioneer in the field resides in Los Angeles, where she is currently a of contemporary classical music and soundart, member of the Bella Lewitsky Dance Company. and has developed a unique vocabulary of Before completing her studies in dance at the experimental and extended vocal techniques, California Institute of the Arts in 1989, she had including multi-phonics (the simultaneous already received the 1987 Princess Grace sounding of two or more pitches), circular Foundation USA Scholarship in Dance, and was singing, ululation and glottal clicks that have awarded a CalArts Inter-Disciplinary grant become her signature sounds. La Barbara has toward the creation of The Need, a large-scale premiered landmark compositions written for performance work utilizing dance, theater, and her by noted American composers including interactive computer technology. She recently , Larry Austin, , created the choreography for a collaboration , , Mel Powell, with composer Mark Coniglio called Tactile , Rhys Chatham, and Subotnick. La Diaries. Through the use of a slow-scan video Barbara has also worked in film and television link, this performance allowed dancers at the providing, among other things, the angel voice Electronic Cafe in Los Angeles and the NYU for actress Emmannuelle Beart in Date with an Television Studios in Manhattan to interact Angel, and voice and electronics for Steve during simultaneous performances at both Finkin's animated alphabet on the educational sites. Previous performances include those television show Sesame Street. with the Chicago Reperatory Dance Ensemble, the Los Angeles-based Jazz-Tap Ensemble, and Mark Coniglio began his career with a five- in John Cage's Sixteen Dances performed at year tenure as a producer for American the 1987 New Music America Festival. Gramaphone Records, during which time he received a performance of his work by the 1 Nyoman Wanton is one of Bali's most London Symphony Orchestra. A student of versatile dancers and musicians. He is well Subotnick's, Coniglio received his degree in known for his abilities in Javanese as well as music composition from the California Institute his native Balinese dance and music. He has of the Arts; subsequently developing an an advanced degree from National Academy of interest in electronic and real-time interactive Dance in Jogyakarta, Java, and was also composition. He also has developed both graduated from the Music and Dance software and hardware for interactive Conservatory in Bali. He has taught at the composition and performance. Recently, National Academy of Dance in both Bali and Coniglio has been active in the creation of Java, and at many music and dance programs collaborative media performance works with in the United States (e.g. The Center for World choreographers Tanya Hinkel (on The Becoming Music, San Jose State University, and Orchid), and with Dawn University of Wisconsin, among others).