ARS EX NIHILO
Ars ex nihilo is a performance series showcasing experimental local artists. Our goal is to stimulate creative growth in the East Bay Area, instigating the production of new works and fostering community interaction, discussion, and collaboration.
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unum: MYTHOLOGY
Megan Meyer
"Fauna of Mirrors"
Erika Oba
"Silence to Sorcery"
Ryan Page
"Solar Quadrature in Tired Recursion"
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Megan Meyer
"Fauna of Mirrors"
Choreography & Concept: Megan Meyer
Music: Josh Casey, with Yari Bundy and Jesse Austin
Set Design: Dan Gottwald and Megan Meyer
Dancers: Thea Anderson, Sophia Colmenarez, & Shannon Stubblefield
Fauna of Mirrors is based on the ancient Chinese myth that alternate societies live beyond the surface of mirrors. Jorge Luis Borges devoted a section to the fauna of mirrors in his 1957 publication, The Book of Imaginary Beings.
Megan Meyer is a performer, director, and multimedia producer based in Oakland, CA. She studied classical vocal performance at the University of Minnesota, contemporary dance at the Centre Chorégraphique National in Montpellier, France, and choreography at Mills College. In 2013, she was the recipient of Bay Area Dance Watch’s Spirit of Dance award.
Erika Oba
"Silence to Sorcery"
Stephanie Neumann (soprano sax), Adam Adhiyatma (bass clarinet), Erika Oba (flute), Megan Meyer (dancer), Sophia Colmenarez (dancer)
Silence to Sorcery is an attempt to sonically explore the Japanese mythological concept of "kotodama". The word roughly translates to "sound spirit", and is an old Shinto concept that individual sounds carry spirits. With knowledgeable use of this, it is believed that one can powerfully affect their bodies, environments, and world through sound. This piece is written for woodwinds and dancers, and as a group we will examine multiple facets of "kotodama" mythology.
Erika Oba is a composer, pianist/flutist, and educator based in the SF Bay Area. She is active in a wide variety of settings including big bands, original jazz groups, indie rock bands, dance, and theater. She received her BM in Jazz Piano from Oberlin Conservatory and is currently pursuing an MA in Music Composition at Mills College.
Ryan Page
"Solar Quadrature in Tired Recursion"
In contrast to McLuhan’s positioning of light as a purely formal or form-generating phenomenon, I am particularly interested in its contradictions as a semiotic object, a physical manipulator of information and a penultimate form of pre-biological mediation.
The Sun’s central position throughout the formation of disparate religious traditions can be at least partially attributed to its power of giving form. Fire, in this context, is a deicidal technology, displacing the sun’s power and establishing in perpetuity vision’s position with the perceptual hierarchy. It is a weak reminder of a god’s blinding power when a lens flare distorts film, but this alteration is nonetheless present throughout cinema, becoming as widely recognized a formal gesture as the analog clip-distortion of gunshots and screams.
Sections of films are selected for their depictions of the sun, these are transferred to a single vhs tape which is then altered by its exposure to sunlight. This tape is played back on a CRT television, recorded in high definition digital video and slowed to 50% of its original speed.
With live scoring from the filmmaker.
Ryan Page is a video artist and composer who performs live electronic music and video.
Cost: $10-$15 sliding scale