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We had the privilege of interviewing 66 Saints band members Molly Lannon Kenny and Lisa Orth last week as part of our oral history project. Listen to their song “Driver“, which will be performed by a live band in “These Streets.”
Image by Ellen Forney
June 27, 7-9pm
Open to the public via Twitter: #projectroomSEA / #10Art10Tech
Read some of the Twitter results here.
Read a review from The Stranger here.
To kick off the summer program series, Solutions, The Project Room is bringing together ten artists and ten technologists for an introductory evening of investigation, problem-solving, and socializing. This is part I of a series dedicated to mixing makers of art and technology.
Organized in the “speed dating” format, participants will engage in brief one-on-one conversations in which they’ll get to know what the other person makes (as best they can in about seven minutes) while “chaperones” eavesdrop on the dates and Tweet their observations in real time.
By the evening’s end– 100 conversations later– the group will have generated a few problems to be tackled at the following public event on July 11.
Event #2: Dinner and a Movie - July 11 will be free and open to the public, so come to TPR July 11 to continue the experiment with us!
With these different types of “makers” coming from diverse creative backgrounds, the goal is to tap into the rich intellectual capital in this region and encourage people to think about how problems are addressed and solutions are tested in fields that often do not interact with each other. Participants will stretch their brains, expand their vocabulary and find common language in the space of problem-solving. While the problems may seem concrete on the outset, all sorts of theories and philosophical reflections are expected to emerge as we think about how each creative realm addresses problems. At the conclusion of the evening, a groundwork should exist for future connections that will continue to grow as the experiment continues.
The Participants
Technologists:
Pete Bjordahl: Founder and CEO, Parallel Public Works
Ezra Cooper: Software Engineer, Google
Hsu-Ken Ooi: Founder, Decide.com
Charlie Matlack: CEO & Co-Founder at PotaVida; PhD Candidate at UW
Elisabeth Robson: Computer Scientist
Ethan Schoonover: Technology consultant, web design
Korby Sears: Senior Producer, Discovery Bay Games; Principal Composer, Tejas Tunes
Sooyoung Shin: Software Engineer
Redwood Stephens: Mechanical Engineering Department Head, Synapse
Dave Zucker: Mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, designer, tinkerer
Artists:
Byron Au Yong: Composer
SJ Chiro: Filmmaker
Lesley Hazleton: Writer
Jean Hicks: Milliner, visual artist
Bill Horist: Improvisational musician, Composer
Jeffry Mitchell: Ceramicist/Visual artist
Amy O’Neal: Dancer, Choreographer
John Osebold: Composer, performer
Stokley Towles: Performer
Claude Zervas: Sculptor/Visual artist
Chaperones- follow them on Twitter during the event, or at projectroomSEA:
Matthew Baldwin: Writer @matthewbaldwin
Brangien Davis: Arts & Culture Editor, Seattle Magazine @brangien
Jen Graves: Art Critic, The Stranger @JenGraves
Nancy Guppy: Producer and Host, Seattle Channel @azwithnancyg
Harmony Hasbrook: Designer and Writer, Parallel Public Works @ParallelPW
C. Davida Ingram: Writer, artist, cultural worker @idebelle76
Charles Mudede: Social critic and filmmaker @mudede
Sasha Pasulka: Vice President of Product & Marketing, Salad Labs @SashRocks
Joey Veltkamp: Artist and Art Writer @joeyveltkamp
Jenifer Ward: Associate Provost, Cornish College of the Arts; Editor, TPR’s Off Paper @jenifer_ward
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This program has been co-created by Interdisciplinary Artist Susie Lee and Decide.com Co-Founder Hsu-Ken Ooi in partnership with The Project Room.
The oral history portion of These Streets has begun! To add their unique stories to the history of Seattle music, women from rock bands in the late ’80s/early ’90s are being interviewed on camera by TPR Founder Jess Van Nostrand. The interviews, filmed by Wes Hurley at TPR, feature musicians from bands such as Faster Tiger, Capping Day, Maxi Badd, Miracle Baby, 66 Saints, The Walkabouts and others. The interviews will be housed at the University of Washington Women Who Rock Digital Oral History Archive. And, starting this fall, the interviews will be released online on a weekly basis, leading up to the preview of These Streets at Seattle’s ACT.
Images (top to bottom): These Streets creators Gretta Harley (left) and Sarah Rudinoff; Carla Torgerson of The Walkabouts; Bonnie Hammond (left) and Laura Vanderpool of Capping Day
More about These Streets:
These Streets is an original work of theatre inspired by women rock musicians in Seattle during the infamous “grunge” years. The story centers on five musicians who share a house from 1989-1994 in the Greenlake neighborhood as was inspired by over 25 interviews conducted with the women musicians who were an integral part of the Seattle music scene and whose stories and songs have been overshadowed by the familiar bands and retrospectives. We meet these characters when they are young. We hear their music and witness the challenges they face as their tight-knit community unexpectedly explodes and their city becomes an international rock Mecca. We also meet the characters in the present, their stories evolving just as much as the city around them. These Streets will include music from that era as well as new songs, all played and sung by the characters and a live band. These Streets will have its premiere at ACT Theatre in Feb/March, 2013.
These Streets is a theatrical show about Seattle women rockers who blazed a trail during the early 90’s and who are now older and finding ways to stay vital, making music and art in a city that has changed as much as they have.
Above stills by Wes Hurley
The Fisher Ensemble presents a script reading session for the upcoming film Magda G by Garrett Fisher and Ryan K. Adams. Actors will present scenes from the movie script to a recording of Fisher’s vibrant score. If you have been following The Klavihorn project, this is the next thing you should see!
June 3, 2:00-4:00 pm
About Magda G
Garrett Fisher is currently composing his most ambitious opera to date, Magda. Infused with hints of the Greek tragedy Medea,Magda (with libretto by Amy Schrader) will be based on the wife of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Magda bore six children, whose names all began with the letter “H,” supposedly out of reverence for Hitler. In 1945, in the Führerbunker, Magda Goebbels murdered her children before committing double suicide with her husband. In Euripides’ play, Medea murders her children to seek revenge against her unfaithful husband. Magda, on the other hand, performed the act as protest against a quickly changing political landscape. The opera explores the similarities and differences between these two figures and their stories.
In 2012-2013, this opera will become the key element of a new film, Magda G, directed by Ryan K Adams and written by Garrett Fisher/Amy Schrader. The film centers on the actress Johanna Halcón who stars in the production, and who finds herself implicated in the opera’s story and subject matter in unusual (and unfortunate) ways. This Greek tragedy-within-an opera-within-a-film reveals itself much like a Russian doll, and resonates with our own culture’s struggle to discern what is real and what is propaganda, what is historical and what is fictional, cutting to the very core of our struggle to make sense of a confusing and ever-innovating universe. Magda G has received support from 4Culture.
About Garrett Fisher
For the past 16 years, with the support of the Fisher Ensemble, Seattle-based Garrett Fisher has been developing a music-based theatrical genre that combines ritual and myth and bridges ancient and modern traditions. The New York Times heralds these operatic works as “fusions that have both a ritualistic intensity and an improvisatory freedom…a strong, unified and strikingly individual utterance of unambiguous beauty.”
Garrett Fisher studied at Oberlin College and Conservatory. During his childhood, his family lived in such locations as Istanbul, London, and Paris. When he moved to Seattle in 1994, he studied Indian vocal music with Shujaat Hussein Khan and developed an interest in the Indian classical form of the Raga. Since then, Fisher has woven his own “ragas” into his operatic scores. These govern not only musical elements but theatrical direction and dramatic intent, an approach accentuates the value of collaboration with all participants.
As part of the Fisher Ensemble in Seattle, he has created and performed his original operas at On the Boards, Consolidated Works, and the Nippon Kan Theater, as well as in New York at HERE Arts Center and Judson Memorial Church. His operas have received acclaim from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TimeOut NY, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Gramophone, Fanfare Magazine, Classics Today, City Arts Magazine, The Seattle Times, NewMusicBox, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Seattle Weekly. He has been interviewed by WNYC (David Garland), KUOW (David Beck, Marcie Sillman), NewMusicBox (Molly Sheridan), and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Richard Campbell). The Fisher Ensemble received a “Best of ’08″ award from Seattle Magazine. His opera The Passion of Saint Thomas More, on the BIS label (Sweden), received a 10/10 from Classics Today and was re-released as part of a 30 year/30 recording commemorative set. He has received commissions from such organizations as CrossSound (Alaska), House of Dames, AC Petersen Dance, and the Esoterics (Seattle), and has received support from 4culture, the Allied Arts Foundation, ASCAP, Bossack Heilbron Foundation, Centrum Arts Colony, City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the King County Arts Commission, the King County Performance Network, Meet The Composer, Puffin Foundation, the Seattle Arts Commission and the Wiggly World Foundation. He was also awarded a Seattle Magazine Artist Spotlight Award in 2011. Garrett’s blog is available at www.garrettfisher.org.
About Ryan K. Adams
Filmmaker and Cinematographer Ryan K Adams has been making films for 15 years. He studied classic experimental cinema at The Evergreen State College. Adams’ collaborations with experimental filmmaker Jon Behrens have shown worldwide and are distributed by Canyon Cinema. As a cinematographer, Ryan has shot several feature length films including, The Oregonian, which debuted at Sundance in 2011. The film is currently distributed by Sundance and is available online (Itunes, Netflix, Hulu). Adams’ William Never Married won Best Cinematography at the 2010 Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles (available on Hulu). His collaborations with Seattle based artist, Susie Lee, on a series of video portraits called Still Lives, have been shown around the world and one portrait is currently on exhibit at the Frye Art Museum. Ryan’s most recent collaboration with the Fisher Ensemble was the creation of the video backdrops used in the performance ofKocho at Galapagos Art Space in 2011.
About the Fisher Ensemble
The Fisher Ensemble creates music-theater that seeks to be a vital part of our community and culture. Combining diverse influences into a unique sound, the Ensemble’s works invite audiences to re-imagine the contemporary world through lenses of myth and history. Since the company’s founding in 1994, the Fisher Ensemble has presented twelve full length pieces which incorporate music, movement and theater in both Seattle and New York City. Seattle-based composer Garrett Fisher creates pieces that highlight the ensemble’s eclectic instrumentation – regularly employing Indian harmonium, 6 string fretted acoustic bass, gongs, Taiko percussion, and flute. The Fisher Ensemble has expanded to garner international recognition as well as critical acclaim from the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal. The ensemble’s most recent work “Kocho,” was recently produced by Beth Morrison in New York City in 2011.
Above image: José Luis Muñoz performing “Les Voyelles” from Magda G in The Project Room. Photo by Adam Forslund
In my last blog entry I wrote about the challenges of producing live performance. How could I bring my pieces to life in a way that I felt was sustainable?
A solution: the medium of film
Over the past few years I’ve been on a slow but steady march toward film, which I felt could:
I wanted to develop a genre in which music (which usually arrives last in the filmmaking process) served as the backbone for a strong, but subtle visual narrative. In 2010, I created Sebastian, a web opera, a competition in which filmmakers created short internet films (two minutes or less) set to any part of the soundtrack. 39 films were entered from Albania, Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, US and the UK. A jury made up of a filmmaker, art critic and museum director selected the winner and runners-up. Here’s the winning video:
This offered me a chance to see how different directors would create films set to my music. I was blown away by the number of striking and creative submissions, and I’m glad that I wasn’t on the jury.
My next web undertaking was Psyche, the web opera in 2011. Based on the soundtrack of my piece Psyche, the web opera consisted of 16 short internet films set to the music. I worked with four different filmmakers who, in turn, worked with one another to create filmic visions that were both unique, yet complimentary. The only rule was that they couldn’t change the music. These were released episodically over several weeks and received 18,000 hits from viewers around the world.
With Magda, I wanted to go one step further: a feature film.
I found the recent feature-length dance film PINA, absolutely mesmerizing and inspirational, especially in 3D; yet I wanted to create a film that wasn’t a documentary of live performance, and I definitely wanted to stray from the live simulcasts offered by the Met (although it’s fun to watch sweaty, nervous singers up close). I wanted to find a way to create a story that was built on Magda‘s musical foundation, AND that could be told through characters and plot. I wanted it to be something that I’d go see in a movie theater.
My initial impulse was to embed the opera within the film, to create a play-within-a-play. This would allow the music to remain as a unit, while letting film’s plot focus on the actors/singers who perform in the opera. I created a cast of characters that (loosely) paralleled the characters in the opera. This would then mirror the opera’s own structure, which referenced the story of Medea.
By setting up the plot this way, and at the advice of dramaturg Ken Cerniglia, I adopted the strategy of verisimilitude in creating the world of characters. This would give the audience something to hold onto, and thus let them enjoy the abstract and dreamy world of the music and opera. However, a new problem presented itself: Magda Goebbels and her Nazi compadres are not a likable bunch, and if the actors who play them are created as parallels, what are the stakes? With the daily help and ruthless pens of Ken, director Ryan K Adams and co-writer/poet Amy Schrader, I’ve been fleshing out the screenplay, hopefully in time for our Sunday reading.
The summer months will be dedicated to the topic, Solutions, a series about creativity as an act of problem-solving. Is making something always a response to a challenge, issue, or problem of some kind? Is problem-solving different for different types of makers? Do we ever create more problems that we solve in our work? And, is this ever a good thing? More about this topic can be read about in an essay by TPR Founder Jess Van Nostrand in Off Paper here.
In addition to events featuring innovative makers of things, TPR will also embark upon a technology + art experiment. The experiment, co-created by artist Susie Lee and TPR Founder Jess Van Nostrand, takes place in multiple installments over the course of the summer and features innovative thinkers in the fields of art and technology. More info can be found at the following links:
Art & Technology: Speed Dating (Event #1)
Art & Technology: Dinner & A Movie (Event #2)
Art & Technology: Gettin’ it On (Event #3)
In addition to new programs, ongoing projects such as The Klavihorn and The Big Question Print Series will be featured with new material. And, TPR turns one year old on July 14! Take a look at the calendar for specific dates as programming unfolds…
Top image: Prototype still image for “Shadowplaying” 2008 by Susie J Lee
We had some awesome people come out for callbacks! I heard some awesome songs and got to hear the some of the writing for the first time. The scenes are really great and it’s very exciting to see real live people play these characters. Thank you to everyone that came out for your brave work!
“Recognize the problem, and you are halfway on the road to its, uh, its solution.” -Harold and Maude
Problem 1: the topic
When I tell people that I’m working on a film about Magda Goebbels, who was considered the “First Lady of Nazi Germany” and who killed her six children in the bunkers at the close of WWII, I’ve gotten several visceral responses:
In other words, I found I had a huge problem on my hands, and one that I couldn’t let go of. Magda is at once an infamous Nazi villain, an obscure historical footnote, Medea, an over-the-top drama queen, and an Ayn Rand lookalike. I felt something needed to be done.
Magda wasn’t born an anti-Semite: her first love was a prominent Zionist; her stepfather was Jewish. How did she end up as the First Lady of Nazi Germany, and one who knew about the camps? Why would she kill her children when they could have escaped and made a new life elsewhere? How could I tell this story fully and honestly? Magda seemed more problematic than a Shakespearean play.
Narrator
She wanted to make her mark. She wanted a better life.
She loved him. Would do anything for him.
She weighed the options. Made compromises.(from Magda G; words by Amy Schrader)
Problem 2: the Money
Last fall Beth Morrison Projects produced my piece Kocho at the Galapagos Art Space in New York. The space offered amazing acoustics, a theatrical sensibility, and a venue that welcomed a piece such as mine. My pieces – which mix music, theater, movement, and visuals – are not a lot of things. They aren’t traditional opera, they aren’t musicals, they aren’t dance, they aren’t theater. They aren’t performance art. They need beautiful acoustics and also an advanced lighting plot. They don’t set out to “alienate” audiences a-la-Brecht, but instead immerse the audience with a sense of ritual.
It takes a lot of money to pull off such a show and in a way that meets the needs of the piece. And because live production is so ephemeral, I began to wonder if there was a more cost-effective way to present my pieces, one that did them justice but at the same time reached out to a greater audience.
This problem began to grow exponentially as I wrote music for Magda, which included five lead characters, 6 chorus, an instrumental ensemble of 6, dancers, the Klavihorn, as well as a documentary about Magda Goebbels.
Magda (sung): δύστανος ἐγὼ μελέα τε πόνων,
ἰώ μοί μοι, πω ς ἂν ὀλοίμανI can’t stand this pain, this misery-
What do I do? I wish I could die!(Libretto is partially excerpted from Euripides’ Medea)
Next up: A Solution to Magda with New Problems: a Feature Film
And join us for a reading of the film script set to music on June 3!
These Streets has begun the oral history portion of our project by filming Carla Torgerson of the Walkabouts at The Project Room. More interviews are scheduled for next week and they will be available for viewing late summer/ early Fall. I’m really excited to hear some fascinating stories from awesome ladies!
In March 2012, The Project Room presented a two-night performance in which actors improvised “tours” of artwork by famous Northwest artists. Each actor was given ten minutes to do or say whatever they wanted regarding the artwork on display, and the audience was encouraged to ask questions and make observations of their own. The program was created by video artists Kevin & Jennifer McCoy as part of the Beginnings series that looked at new ideas, personal beginnings, and Northwest history. Read more about Northwest Passing here.
Curious about what the artwork actually was?
(Top to bottom): Baboon #1, c. 1937 by Morris Graves (1910-2001); charcoal and tempera on craft paper. Courtesy of Perkins Coie, LLP
Rusting Time Band, 1970 by Guy Anderson (1906–1998); oil and metal assemblage. Courtesy of Woodside/Braseth Gallery
Winter Dance Time, 1946 by Helmi Juvonen (1903 – 1985) ; lithograph. Courtesy of the King County Public Art Collection & 4Culture
Woods Cat, date unknown by Kenneth Callahan (1905-1986); ink on paper. Courtesy of Perkins Coie, LLP
Untitled, 1961 by Mark Tobey (1890 – 1976); lithograph. Courtesy of Mary-K McCoy
Smelt, date unknown by George Tsutakawa (1910-1997); sumi ink on paper. Courtesy of Perkins Coie, LLP
Hey you Golden lovers. We decided to cancel our June 1st fundraising show at ACT because we are using this time to cast, write and create this rock music/play,These Streets. We will be shifting our fundraising efforts to an on- line auction and an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Stay tuned for amazing items to be auctioned off for the benefit of These Streets and more insider info about the show.
Also, we will be holding call backs this for some of the roles for the reading workshops in July. A big thank you to everyone that auditioned. Your hard work is completely appreciated and we wish everyone at the callbacks the best of luck. Can’t wait to hear these wonderful actors make our words come to life. It’s sure to be a crazy ride and it’s great to have so many awesome people on board!
This view is pretty unchanged, if you take away the Macy's sign. It still says, "The Bon Marche" on the side of the building.
We are having a writing retreat this weekend in downtown Seattle for “These Streets”. Thank you swanky friend who lent us her place to write for the weekend.
We have our lap tops and Zorro the dog with us and it is an amazing sunny day in Seattle. Happy to be writing about this city while we look at the skyline.
We are very excited about how the project is shaping up and looking forward to the next set of workshops!
We will try to think of other rock symbols before we wear out the devil horns… but they do bring a certain nostalgia.
In approaching “beginnings” and the origin of ones ideas/thoughts– a current theme within The Project Room– I’ve decided to have the 4th print in this series derive from material generated by others (anyone except yours truly)…
And with that, I invite you to throw yourself into the melting pot with your thoughts & feelings. Over the next few weeks, I will be collecting drawings, writings, and what not in a ‘melting pot’ at The Project Room (or simply submit a comment below from afar). Crayons, pens, pencils, and materials will be provide for you to articulate… and what exactly? For the sake of a seed, I have chosen a simple theme to build from…
I challenge everyone to take a moment to reflect upon common and frequent destinations in one's life. It can be a physical place, a common thought or feeling, a repetitive dream, a book you continue to revisit, an activity or simple habit/ritual. There are many ideas that pop to my mind- but alas, I must build from yours…
I plan to take all of the material together, and somehow piece them together into a single print. How this becomes a reality?? I’m not so sure yet … But this Saturday, I will kick this project off in The Project Room from 1-4pm, set up and ready to go. Come by and throw something in the pot! (if you can’t make it Saturday, the pot will be there for another 2 weeks…
Charles Spitzack continues his open studio hours this Saturday from 1-4pm. He is currently working on the sixth print in his limited edition series of twelve woodblock prints in response to TPR’s Big Question, “Why Do We Make Things?”
The works are available for sale, either individually or as a boxed set. Email jess@projectroomseattle.org for more info.
Read more about the program here.
Above image:
“Futurist Manifesto” 2012 Woodblock by Charles Spitzack; Print No.4 of 12 from The Project Room Big Question Print Series
Visit Charles in TPR on Saturdays from 1-4pm as he demonstrates his process and takes your suggestions! Watch Charles at work and contribute ideas as he continues the series. Refer to the calendar for specific dates.
“Disjointed…” is the second of 12 prints in this series. I came upon this image after hours of writing and sketching different ideas and thoughts revolving around The Project Room’s basic question- why do we do the things we do (make things). This print represents a place I often find myself in when contemplating the origin of work and motivations. It’s not a subject I like to dwell on, as it opens an endless stream of thoughts that often paralyze my work and progress.
After hours of attempting clarity and writing on this open-ended subject, I grabbed a blank slate and thought through a simple sketch. The image of a person pulled from multiple angles in an unnatural and unrealized form, surrounded by square plains broken apart not matching up. In other words: Often how I feel when venturing out into something new.
It’s always much easier to look back on my work and discover more about it then. The quote that rings to mind was from a print teacher I had in school who said, “It’s important to use archival paper, because we do not know what we are doing while we are doing it, and only upon reflection can we gain a greater light”… or something to that extent. But it is a belief I hold very strong and have outlined my process around: create and ask questions later.
When looking over this piece with Jess V, she pointed out how it looked like someone trapped inside the walls/maze from my previous print. I enjoy that- not something that had crossed my mind at all. The print proves a feeling of trapped unknowing vastness, stuck inside our own limited and limitless selves.
I also see a common theme of my current work in this print: the chaotic & fast-paced environment of the modern age, bombarded with a stream of images, triggers, & entertainment from many different angles, with phones/computers fragmenting our brains- this figure resembles this. Determining all the small factoids which amount to a creation, alas, is a difficult (and unachievable) task. I think I’ll keep shooting first & asking question later.
The Project Room presents the making of Magda G, a new film and opera by Garrett Fisher and the Fisher Ensemble with Ryan K Adams. Central to the project is the exciting restoration of the Klavihorn, a rare instrument that plays an important role in the film. The work of restoring the instrument will be presented by the Fisher Ensemble in collaboration with The Project Room. The Project Room will display the drawings and host the rebuilding of the Klavihorn which will culminate in the first Klavihorn performance in almost 75 years.
This project is part of Beginnings, the program series that follows several new ideas as they develop into finished works representing a variety of disciplines.
April 1, 5pm: Don’t miss the unveiling of the late 19th Century Klavihorn, restored to its original glory by Garrett Fisher and the Fisher Ensemble, Ryan K Adams, and Ben Blankenship. This special event will include a demonstration of the instrument.
Watch a preview here:
About the Klavihorn
The Klavihorn was invented in 1895, the same year America the Beautiful was written by Kathie Lee Bates. A hybrid of keyboards, horns, winds, strings and percussion, was touted as the “modern solution” to the orchestra, allowing its player to replicate instruments of an orchestra. The Klavihorn was one of the first instruments run by electricity.
During the 1930′s the Klavihorn enjoyed a surge in popularity when the Nazi’s claimed it as “an instrument for all time” (Joseph Goebbels) and required youth to study its technique. Hitler was conjectured to house one at his Berghof residence, and invited prominent artists to give private performances. In the late 30‘s, however, it came under suspicion as as being politically objectionable and Klavihorn performances were forbidden.
Only six Klavihorns were ever built and were thought lost during the Allie’s bombing in WW2. In 1979, a disassembled Klavihorn was discovered in an East Berlin bunker (along with a single recording of the instrument). Over the ensuing year, it was smuggled out piece by piece by archivist/music historian Martin Mueller; its remnants (along with a vast collection of instruments and antiques) were bequeathed to Seattle relatives decades later.
In 2010, while sorting through Muellers’ eclectic estate, great nephew Ben Blankenship stumbled across blueprints of the instrument. The Fisher Ensemble, which often uses instruments from multiple cultures and time periods, took interest in the project and hired Blankenship, as well as long-time collaborator Ryan K Adamsto restore the instrument.
The work will be presented by the Fisher Ensemble in collaboration with The Project Room. The Project Room will display the drawings and host the rebuilding of the Klavihorn which will culminate in the first Klavihorn performance in almost 75 years.
About the Garrett Fisher & the Fisher Ensemble
“There’s nothing else in Seattle like the Fisher Ensemble — and there may not be in the whole country, either…the sound is richly resonant and you never know how it’s going to shape itself around you” (Seattle Times). Founded in 1994 by composer Garrett Fisher, the internationally recognized Fisher Ensemble is an eclectic mix of vocalists, movers, actors, and musicians, including such instruments as Indian harmonium, 6 string fretted acoustic bass, gongs, Taiko percussion, English horn, electric viola and flute. Led by Mr. Fisher, the Fisher Ensemble has created several performance pieces that harness ritual and myth to bridge ancient and modern forms. Their work Kocho was produced by acclaimed creative producer Beth Morrison in New York City in 2011. www.fisherensemble.org
Garrett Fisher, Artistic Director of the ensemble, is currently composing his most ambitious opera to date, MAGDA G. Inspired by the ancient Greek Tragedy ofMedea, MAGDA G will be based on the wife of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Magda bore six children, whose names all began with the letter “H,” supposedly out of reverence for Hitler. In 1945, in the Führerbunker, Magda Goebbels murdered her children before committing double suicide with her husband. Fisher considers Magda a modern-day Medea. In Euripides’ play, Medea murders her children to seek revenge against her unfaithful husband. Magda, on the other hand, performed the act as protest against a quickly changing political landscape. Fisher, intrigued by the similarities and differences, sees Magda as a modern-day Medea, whose story resonates with our polarized ideological climate. The New York Times writes, “Mr. Fisher has combined elements of opera, dance, Indian raga, Japanese Noh theater and more into fusions that have both a ritualistic intensity and an improvisatory freedom…a strong, unified and strikingly individual utterance of unambiguous beauty.”
The Klavihorn’s restoration is supported by GlobalArts, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the presentation and promotion of new and historical musical work.
Above photo by Ben Blankenship
In moving to a new studio at the beginning of the year, I (and studio mates) have spent substantial time building it up, organizing our materials/tools, building and creating an ideal environment for ourselves to work.
It’s been a wonderful thing to get carried away with. Such a place screams potential for creating and making things- something I find much enjoyment out of. Setting up such an environment has been, to admit, a bit of an obsession. I could have stopped setting up the studio long ago, but have been driving to keep building and perfecting beyond having the functioning needs met. A working studio opens so many doors, but also requires a certain amount of stability and continuity, and a great amount of resources- which in itself is a sacrifice, but for myself not a hard one to make, in fact, its basic.
And the doors that are opened?: The means and ability to create & build things… and why is this such a great endeavor? To share and express oneself in ways unachievable otherwise- is always one answer. Taking things apart and building them back together in new ways, also a deeply compelling reason. And thats where it links into the Project Room. Where does this excitement burst from- this drive… I do not know but I feel with it and act on it, and this studio is a means to do so…
Now to switch gears back from building the space to using what it has been made for, building in the space…
LAST TOOTH PRINTS: a collaboration between Jon Horn, Rainey Warren, & Charles Spitzack.
Studio Opening: Thursday April 12, 6:30pm / 800 E Denny Way, Seattle WA 98102
April 27, 7pm: Bladfold: An animated musical documentary film-in-the-making by David Nixon with music by David Nixon & Daniel Spils (Maktub, Super Sonic Soul Pimps).
Seattle musician, animator, actor, performance artist, Philosophy professor, and creator of the short film The Shelf (2011), David Nixon shares his new film in development about his father Brad Nixon, an influential and infamous leader of a cult-like sect of Buddhism in Seattle in the 1970′s. The audience will be encouraged to provide feedback and contribute ideas towards this new work’s final form. Nixon’s completed work titled The Shelf will also be shown. As part of theBeginnings program series, this event will look at Nixon’s use of his personal beginnings as creative material while sharing his process at the beginning of a new project.
Watch the trailer for the film
About the Artist: David Mitsuo Nixon is a multi-disciplinary artist (film maker, animator, musician, performance artist, banjo player, composer, choreographer, painter, actor, singer) and a philosophy professor at UW-Bothell where he teaches classes on The Meaning of Life, music, science fiction, and ethics (among other things). He’s a member of the music/theater/art collective “Awesome” and the alt-bluegrass trio The Half Brothers.
Read David’s response to our question, “What’s the First Thing You Ever Made?” in Off Paper- audio included!
Above: Still from The Shelf
Ben Blankenship‘s been hard at work on the Klavihorn – here’s a sneak peak of what it looks like!
Want to know more about the Klavihorn? Our restoration team will be at the event on April 1 at 5pm at The Project Room to answer your questions. If you really want to delve into the Klavihorn and meet the members of the Fisher Ensemble, RSVP to the reception after the event by liking the Fisher Ensemble on Facebook.
Want to know more about the Fisher Ensemble? Visit our website, Facebook page, or Twitter.
Thanks to the Project Room for all their support in our endeavor - go have a look at all the other events happening as part of the Beginnings series here at the Project Room!
An update from the Klavihorn restoration panel – we’ll be in the awesome space of the Project Room at the end of the week! I can’t show you the instrument yet, but I can show you these charts which Ben Blankenship has discovered as part of his research. Some of these early images show how scientists of the time thought that the Klavihorn worked – kind of a beautiful visual essay on the effect of sound and the image on Klavihorn audiences, circa the early 1900s. These images may have at one time formed a diptych, you’ll have to ask Ben at the opening.
Just as a reminder, there’s only 10 days before the Klavihorn viewing! Come join us on April 1st at 5pm at the Project Room. We’ll have a Klavihornier there to play the instrument for you and Garrett Fisher will be explaining how this remarkable instrument has influenced his work on the upcoming indie film and opera presented by the Fisher Ensemble, Magda G.
This is a free event and you can even continue the party at the reception following the presentation- just like the Fisher Ensemble on Facebook as an automatic RSVP.
Interested in the Fisher Ensemble and want to know more? Visit our website, Facebook page, or Twitter.
Be sure to check out all of the other projects coming up at the Project Room as part of the Beginning series, and a big thank you to Jess Van Nostrand for letting us use your space!
