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evoking the essence of the ancient practice of the Delphic Oracle
old technology meets new in this re-animation of the performer/pythia
as medium, mediator, instigator, vessel and author of digital and analogue transmutations.
Gender specific vocal registers are wilfully subverted and fractured, extended vocal techniques and ethnic modes of vocalisation make available unusual acoustic resonances that spiral into new acoustic and physical trajectories full of fluid pluralities, evolving sonic entities, transient characters, choric
commentators, beasts and mythical fauna and flora.
Performance Schematic for Pythia:Delphine21
IMAGINE…you are standing on a high plateaux below Mount Parnassus in the ancient sanctuary at Delphi home of the Pythia: the Oracle through which the god Apollo speaks. It is the 20th July 2016 there is a full moon. We are here at a moment of social, political and economic crisis – it was at such times that the leaders of the ancient world came to Delphi to consult the Pythia/Oracle. The Pythia was famous for her riddles and cryptic messages – the warning KNOW THY SELF in relation to her counsel was not always heeded – the ego of the listener often got in the way!
The sun is beginning to set. You can see the coastline the Gulf of Corinth below and the fiery glint of the sun on the sea. The trees are beginning to release the smell of hot pine resin and the Cicadas are singing.
We have come to a modest house, a temple in the sacred grove (the ancient GREEN ROOM) where actors gather and make offerings of libations (milk, honey, wine) and personal gifts. They give preys to Apollo and Dionysus and to the much older earth energy that underscores and animates everything in nature. It is in the Green Room that the actor dedicates his/her self to the theatrical journey in the company of the energies of balance and chaos, and where s/he begins the process of transformation into an avatar for that journey.
She puts on a mask – a white face – separating and erasing the image of her everyday self in order that an Other self (selves or entities) might be seen/heard and mediated.
The sun is beginning to set. You can see the coastline the Gulf of Corinth below and the fiery glint of the sun on the sea. The trees are beginning to release the smell of hot pine resin and the Cicadas are singing.
We have come to a modest house, a temple in the sacred grove (the ancient GREEN ROOM) where actors gather and make offerings of libations (milk, honey, wine) and personal gifts. They give preys to Apollo and Dionysus and to the much older earth energy that underscores and animates everything in nature. It is in the Green Room that the actor dedicates his/her self to the theatrical journey in the company of the energies of balance and chaos, and where s/he begins the process of transformation into an avatar for that journey.
She puts on a mask – a white face – separating and erasing the image of her everyday self in order that an Other self (selves or entities) might be seen/heard and mediated.
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She has fashioned a costume made from found/resonant materials: sheep and goat wool/fleece from Iceland together with Yorkshire breeds such as Herdwick, old blood stained bandage from thee beloveds bike accident a few years ago...a vintage dress (deconstructed) a heavy horse driving harness with blinkers, various feathers: finds of the garden, seashore and lake, together with our Bodycoder interface technology – new technology meets the old in this sacred space.
We are in the realm of magic which is the ancient underscore of acts of performance – natural magic is defined as the gathering together of significant materials in the service of a strong intention which is focused within a performative structure sometimes identified as ritual. Wool – for the pythia sheep/goat herder – and my village home Blood – for the bond of the collaborative making and lived creative experience Horse hardness – Plutarch tells us she (the Pythia) was dangerous to herself and others and therefore tethered (she is not tethered beware!) Feathers – she speaks to and through birds (totem/familiar) Voice – pneuma Body - medium of nature - natures instrument in the moment of time and space |
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Mark Bokowiec – composer
Mark Bokowiec is the manager of the electro-acoustic music studios and the Spatialization and Interactive Research Lab at the University of Huddersfield. Mark lectures in interactive performance, interface and system design and composition. Composition credits include: Tricorder a work for two quarter tone recorders and MSP, commissioned by Ensemble QTR. Commissions for interactive instruments include: the LiteHarp for London Science Museum and A Passage To India an interactive sound sculpture commissioned by Wakefield City Art Gallery. CD releases include: Route (2001) MPS, Ghosts (2000) Sonic Art also on the MPS label, Counterdance - the early works (2014) on VOD and Amera selected finalist for the Arts Electroniques des Concours Internationaux de Bourges prize on ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ CeReNeM (2011) as well as a large body of work for the Bodycoder System The Bodycoder System
The Bodycoder uses a sensor array warn on the body of the performer comprising of a number of bend sensors (generally warn under the costume) and navigational gloves that gives the performer full physical control of real-time sound processing and spatialization. Bend sensors on the torso, legs and arms provide live motion/bend data which is mapped to a variety of sound processes that enable the performer to manipulate her own acoustic voice. We call this Kinaesonics. |
Julie Wilson-Bokowiec – performer
Julie is a performance artist and writer. She has created new works in opera, contemporary dance, performance art and theatre including: The Red Room (Canal Café Theatre) nominated for the Whitbread London Fringe Theatre Award and The Last Cuckoo (for Olivier award winning actor Paul Copley) nominated for the 20th Mayer-Whitworth Award (Royal National Theatre) and recently Lost Boy Racer for the Tour de France/Yorkshire Festival Grand Depart 2014. As a performer she has collaborated with such luminaries as Hermann Nitsch and Genesis P-Orridge, Lindsay Kemp and company, Malcolm Poynter (Rational Theatre), Trestle Theatre Company, Techno Twins, along with a variety of leftfield musicians and bands. Julie is the sole performer of an extensive repertoire of works for the Bodycoder System that range from full length/full evening theatrical works such as Spiral Fiction commissioned by Digital Summer, part of the cultural programme of the Commonwealth Games, Manchester to an extensive repertoire of shorter concert pieces. Commissioned works include Cyborg Dreaming for the Science Museum, London, Lifting Bodies for the Trafo, Budapest (part of the Hungarian Computer Music Festival supported by the British Council) and Zeitgeist for KlangArt, Osnabruek. Works for voice and Bodycoder System including the Vox Circuit Trilogy and currently V’Oct(Ritual). |
For more information about the Bodycoder System and its development please go to our Bodycoder page.
PYTHIA:DELPHINE21 is strongly informed by our experiences in Athens in February 2016 aspects of which are fully embodied within the work. This pieces has been made with the kind support of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - department of music (school of philosophy) and Professor Anastasia Georgaki. We would like to thank Vassilis Boutos the Artistic Director of the International Animart Festival for hosting the premiere performance at Delphi. We would also like to thanks the directors of the Museum of Delphic Festivals the former home of Eva Palmer-Sikelianos and Angelos Sikelianos in Delphi for the honour of presenting the work at the house. PYTHIA:DELPHINE21 was created at the University of Huddersfield in the SPIRAL Spatialisation and Interactive Research Lab.