About Me
Welcome to our temporal home, our house of mixed meanings, where we rest the soul by troubling it. Welcome to ActionStation #2:The Desert-a still-life display in a what-if scenario that comes alive.A series of imagined environments viewed both as a multi-media installation and a vocal/dance/electronic music performance, echo::system is a live art installation conceived by composer/choreographer/performer Grisha Coleman.In a 70-minute journey through space and time, Grisha Coleman's performance installation, echo::system—The Desert, immerses audiences and performers in a fully synthetic environment comprised of audio and visual media, digital movement analysis, robotics and live performance. This setting recreates a desert ecosystem simultaneously made up of a virtual and “real†space, reflecting on how one affects the other.This artificial desert landscape tells the tale of an ancient species that interfaces with its future. The inhabitants of Coleman's desert environment are Mudmen and Mummies, Suits and Skateboarders. To simulate the fluidity of the natural world, the sonic and technological environment constantly shifts and regenerates as the story unfolds and as audiences walk through the space, they will trigger subtle changes in their surroundings with their steps, body heat and even their breath.The concept behind echo::system is to find a symmetry or resonances between science and art. The scientific data upon which the installation is modeled, serves as the blueprint for the artificial desert environment; the evolutionary histories of the species living in the environment are inventions of Coleman and her creative team (sound, video, light, architecture and performance).The echo::system series boasts a dynamic team of collaborators from the fields of the performing arts, natural sciences, computer technology and metaphysics, including creator and composer/choreographer Grisha Coleman; population biologist Mike Bryant; architect and designer John Oduroe and Pittsburgh-based Lubetz Architects; videographers Maya Ciarrocchi/Peter Kirn; lighting designer Tony Mulanix; sound designer Leon Rothenberg/Mark Huang and Guillermo Brown; Pittsburgh-based fashion designer Namiko Ogawa; and writer Onome Ekeh.The piece is performed, vocals and movement, by Grisha Coleman, Anitra Brooks, Sherwood Chen, Wendell Cooper, Monstah Black, Soomi Kim, and a group of skateboard artists.Producer/Management: Heidi Riegler
