Let Us Speak Frog (For Red Culebra)
McEvoy Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Let Us Speak Frog; An experimental music performance with live animation and dance; collaboration with Red Culebra (synthesizer duet by electronic musicians and performance artists Guillermo Galindo and Cristóbal Martínez of Postcommodity), choreographer Gerald Casel, and dancers Audrey Johnson and Cauveri Suresh. Red Culebra invited me to collaborate in their ongoing project, a generative composition that speaks non-human languages and explores imagined ecologies. Using video game technology, I created a system of “playable” characters that move in response to strings attached to two old Playstation game controllers. During the live performance at McEvoy, two dancers operated the strings, generating a live animation performance of my characters that responded spontaneously to their physical movements. The combination of a large live animation projection, synthesizer performance, and dance created a ritualistic meditation that enthralled the audience for over an hour. I am particularly excited about the process of this collaboration where I didn’t control the animated movement but rather created a tool that gets activated by dancers (playeVisual Concept, 3D Models, Game Design: Christoph Steger
Concept and Music: Red Culebra (Guillermo Galindo, Cristóbal Martínez)
Choreography: Gerald Casel
Dancers: Audrey Johnson, Cauveri Suresh
VIDEO EXCERPT