bernal project
The Project Continues to Grow.
OZET
6 March 2010
Ontological-Hysteric Incubator
My Bernal Project research began in January 2007 when I read a book from 1929 by J.D. Bernal in which he imagined a future when some of the inhabitants of earth would leave our own solar system on multi-generational voyages and travel deep into our galaxy. It is hard for us who have never left the Earth to imagine that this 'here' (Earth) becomes a 'there'. Astronauts on the International Space Station have already begun to feel this strange psychological shift in perspective. When we leave Earth, the persons aboard will create a new and original emotional community that will, perhaps, find difficulty in dealing with these psychological and emotional changes as unimaginable experiences are met. The Bernal Project is about the experience of one such emotional community in the final stages of complete transformation to a completely digital and possibly immortal way of life.
The piece started a new stage of development after I began collaborating with writer/actor Scott Blumenthal in the late Summer of 2008. It is exciting to imagine how the work will grow.
This webpage is a public documentation of the progress. It maps out the plan and catalogs performances of completed sections.
The original conception of each scene was based on aphorisms by Karl Kraus.
scene 1.
"Since the day man first tried to conquer space, the earth has been mobilizing."
scene 2.
"The superman is a premature ideal, one that presupposes man."
scene 3.
"Technology is a servant who makes so much noise
cleaning up in the next room that his master cannot make music."
scene 4.
"Progress makes purses out of human skin."
scene 5.
"There is no doubt that a dog is loyal.
But does that mean we should emulate him?
After all, he is loyal to people, not to other dogs."
scene 6.
"It is the height of ingratitude if a sausage calls a pig a pig."
scene 7.
"When animals yawn, they have human faces."
scene 8.
"To be human is erroneous."
Performance History
formula.
Tenor saxophone, trumpet.
First performance 8 October 2007 at the Rattlestick New Music Series.
Aaron Meicht (trumpet)
Seth Meicht (tenor saxophone)
scene 2.
Trumpet, chimes, computer playback.
First performance 3 December 2007 at the Rattlestick New Music Series.
Aaron Meicht (trumpet/chimes)
scene 5-7.
2 violins, trumpet, alto & tenor saxophone, 2 clarinets, electric guitar,
2 acoustic guitars, keyboards, chimes, computer playback, 2 actors.
First performance 9 May 2008 at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater Experimental Music Series.
Alex Barreto (actor)
Eric km Clark (violin)
Kara Feely (actor)
Travis Just (alto saxophone/clarinet)
Aaron Meicht (trumpet)
Seth Meicht (tenor saxophone/clarinet)
James Moore (electric guitar/acoustic guitar)
Quentin Tolimieri (keyboards/chimes)
Harris Wulfson (violin/acoustic guitar)
scene 8.
2 violins, trumpet, tenor saxophone, computer playback.
First performance 18 February 2008 at the Rattlestick New Music Series.
Eric km Clark (violin)
Aaron Meicht (trumpet)
Seth Meicht (tenor saxophone/clarinet)
Harris Wulfson (violin)
There's a distance at which control returns to us
Spoken text, trumpet, saxophone, computer playback and live processing.
First performance 2 October 2008 at the SINTESI/dogpile Festival at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.
Scott Blumenthal (text/speaking)
Aaron Meicht (trumpet, processing)
Seth Meicht (tenor saxophone/clarinet)
LULLABY FROM THE FIRST GENERATION OF THE [YOUR SHIP NAME HERE] TO THE LAST
Slide show, two singers, audience.
First performance 6 March 2009 at the Object Collection Benefit Concert at Listen/Space.
Scott Blumenthal
Aaron Meicht
Selected Bibliography
Bernal, J. D. The World, The Flesh and The Devil. (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1929)
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh. The River Cottage Meat Book. (Ten Speed Press, 2007)
Finney, Ben R., ed. Interstellar migration and the human experience. (University of California Press, 1985)
Janik, Allan. Wittgenstein's Vienna. (Simon and Schuster, 1973)
Kraus, Karl. Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths : selected aphorisms. (Engendra Press, 1976) - scene titles
Kurlansky, Mark. Choice Cuts. (Ballantine Books, 2002)
Prantzos, Nikos. Our cosmic future : humanity's fate in the universe. (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Rosenwein, Barbara H. Emotional communities in the early Middle Ages. (Cornell University Press, 2006)
Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot : a vision of the human future in space. (Random House, 1994)
Sagan, Carl. The Varieties of Scientific Experience. (Penguin Press, 2006)
Singer, Peter. Practical ethics. (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
Singer, Peter. The expanding circle : ethics and sociobiology. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981)
Space station. DVD. Directed by Toni Myers. (Warner Home Video, 2004)
Toulmin, Stephen. Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity. (University of Chicago Press, 1992)