Excerpt 2 minutes 28 seconds
TESSERAE OF VENUS - GHOSTDNCE
2009 18 min
Video, still photography, and ambient sound design by Christina McPhee
Music by Pauline Oliveros
Tesserae, tile like forms, echo the surface of Venus. Here they stand in to signal supersaturated carbon and methane topographies of our sister planet, Venus. In California, large scale energy landscapes, from natural gas and geothermal plants to water control, dominate huge landscapes. Could it be here that the first poetics of a future landscape of carbon saturation appear? What does living in a landscape of massive ambient atmospheric threat and beauty feel like? What is the deep connection between our footsteps, our voices, our machines, our breathing and our planet? How are we finding ourselves in these places both beautiful and dangerous, slipping on the sticky tiles of the tesserae, slimed with carbon-laden air, strange brews, and luscious sunsets...
Sites: Sacramento River Delta Natural Gas; Salton Sea Geothermal System; Ballona Wetlands and the California Aqueduct, Los Angeles.
Concept, direction, videography, montage, sound design: Christina McPhee 2009 http://christinamcphe
Ambient site sound composition remixed to the music of Pauline Oliveros, Ghostdance, by permission ©Deep Listening Publications, ASCAP).
Apple HDV 1080i60 digital video 16:9 1920 x 1080
Sound: multichannel (2 to 5) Dolby, 48 khz
Tesserae of Venus Ghostdance, video installation
with music by Pauline Oliveros
premiered in Northern Ireland
curated by Kathy Rae Huffman
ISEA (International Society for Electronic Arts)
University of Ulster Art Gallery, Belfast, August 23 -September 1, 2009