History of the ProjectSeven Enigmas began over two years ago as a set of seven brief solos that Peter Sparling intended for performance in small or unconventional spaces, such as art galleries, store lobbies, and back yards. As miniature studies in shape and expressive coloration, the dances were created in silence, out of a rhythm of extended phrases. Sparling performed the dances for Daniel Roumain, and shared with him the images and associations that had inspired the choreography. Roumain then composed a „sound score¾ on his keyboard synthesizer, creating aural atmosphere in which they could take place. Sparling then invited Jim Cogswell to design a set for them. Cogswell charted the shapes that each dance carves out, configuring the shapes as three dimensional sculptural forms, and envisioning a series of film and video projections to complement them. He also assembled a team of emerging visual artists from the School of Art & Design Graduate Program to bring the project to life -- Robert Andersen, video artist and film maker, Jeremy Kaplan, kinetic sculptor, Kai Kim, painter and installation artist, Masha Ryskin, printmaker and fibers artist, and Russ Taylor, performance artist. Undergraduate students Jennifer Concepcion and Philip Lee joined the project when it was offered as a course, and participate in the performance. Gary Decker of the Theater Department contributed technical expertise to the group and helped to make Cogswell¼s designs feasible for the demands of theatrical production. In the design of the costumes, John Gutoskey also consulted Sparling¼s original images, and created separate costumes for each solo. In order to achieve a futuristic effect, he used multiple metallic textures within a limited color palette. As Sparling and Cogswell worked together, ideas about the exploration of inner and outer space arose from the conjunction of the dances and the sculptures. The dome of the first solo reminded Cogswell of the brain images from the Edgewarp program shown by Fred Bookstein during a talk at the Institute for the Humanities during their tenure there as Faculty Fellows. The contributors originally planned to use the brain images to evoke the human search for knowledge, but Bookstein soon realized the the grids could also be used to map the dances, applying scientific technology to artistic purposes. At the same time, Cogswell asked John Clarke to participate; Clarke had previously shown some of the Hubble images to him, and he was struck by the similarities between the landmarks within the human brain and the stars and planets in these images. Another crucial link between art and science in the Enigmas was provided by Robert Andersen, who incorporated the dancing grids and the Hubble images into video sequences that would harmonize with the project as a whole. He used various computer programs to coordinate the timing and motion of the sequences and to create special effects. During the production, he operates the videos from a separate booth, switching sequences in time with the dances. Seven Enigmas premiered at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, on July 12, 1997.
The Hubble Spacecraft Telescope Images |