Homesick: a multisensory & spatial journey to Earth, space, and sea in 3 Movements
Created and performed by Rhiannon Catalyst with Paul Geluso, Asukaya Bailey, and Jeremy D. Slater for the NY Electronic Art Festival. Homesick is a multisensory & spatial journey to Earth, space, and sea in 3 Movements: From a Distance (A remedy to treat homesickness for the planet Earth) / Lullaby for Apollo 11 (a remedy for sleep in deep space) / So Deep (a remedy for sinking ships) Opening set by Whisp3rkick (Jeremy D. Slater and Rhiannon Catalyst)
June 20th, 2019
Harvestworks 596 Broadway Suite 602 @ Houston Street, Manhattan
As we look back towards the optimism created by Apollo 11 on the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing, back towards the birth of the Earthrise image and Overview Effect and forward towards near-future moon and mars missions, multidisciplinary artist Rhiannon Catalyst in collaboration with Paul Geluso, Harvestworks, Kaya Bailey, and Jeremy D. Slater creates a multisensory narrative journey in 3 movements, each an example of using sound, light, scent, and storytelling as remedies to heal and strive to inspire care for places that need our love and attention.
From a Distance (A remedy to treat homesickness for the planet Earth): Imagining a future immersive capsule and AI recalling and remixing senses of place on Earth for space explorers to virtually visit their home planet when feeling disconnected, requiring the sense of home (or virtually recalling places that no longer exist, should home become uninhabitable). Also exploring the notion of creating site specifically with others in places that have disappeared. The first time we saw the Earth from space it changed our species and psychology forever- we saw the whole and dominant societies began collectively working to protect the planet (as many indigenous groups long had). As we set our sights further out into the universe and study the effects of longer periods of time away from Earth in space, Catalyst wonders about the roles artists will continue playing in helping to preserve our humanity, keep us connected, and aid the psychological and emotional health of space explorers while working to inspire stewardship of spaceship Earth. The artistic journey involving spatial soundscape, vocals, visuals, instrumentation, and scent is a celebration of terrestrial beauty, humanity, and resonant spaces both natural and human made. The notion of being homesick has been ever present for Catalyst as she moved constantly throughout her life. Working to stay connected and inspire others to feel connected has long been at the center of her work as an artist as well as professionally with BELLA GAIA (an immersive live show and VR experience developed in collaboration with NASA that simulates the Overview Effect, and one of the inspirations for this piece). She continues reaching to explore the planet, sky, and space while wondering what the ultimate sense of homesickness for Earth would feel like, aspiring to help those who feel disconnected both within the atmosphere and outside it, and using experiential & experimental art and sound as tools for healing (herself, others, and our collective sense of connection).
Lullaby for Apollo 11 (a remedy for sleep in deep space):A virtual trip to the moon and lunar orbit. Our journey, leading to a lullaby designed to help those without gravity to get some rest, incorporates audio samples released by NASA in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11. It’s not easy to fall asleep in space.
So Deep (a remedy for sinking ships): A binaural dive into the hull of a rusting ship. The hauntingly beautiful sounds of a massive ship’s resonant bilge… a journey through the currents to the place where nature collides with industrial fallout, and out to sea where the waters are still wild and free. The Bilge Siren serenades the rusting depths and caverns to activate steel and capture the space in case we must conjure and create in the memory of her form. To steward, to care for and to free her.
With an opening set by Whisp3rkick (Jeremy D. Slater and Rhiannon Catalyst) Event will include guest visual artists as well as scent (any scent involved will be used minimally, with natural essential oils diffused in air with no smoke or carrier oil)Acknowledgement notes: Some works include samples recorded with and credited to Zhenya Warshavsky, David Rothenberg. Lullaby for Apollo 11 includes samples recorded and released by NASA, as well as samples recorded in the New York Hall of Science. Sincere gratitude to these individuals and institutions, and to Harvestworks and Paul Geluso, for making these projects possible and inspiring exploration.
“Rhiannon Catalyst is a multidisciplinary artist who activates many senses at once…much of her work celebrates global and cross-cultural influences, and the intersection of art and science.” – Institut Ramon Llull
“…stunning, interdisciplinary range of performances – helmed by Creative Director Rhiannon Catalyst… Her experience lends an eclectic, mesmerizing eye to the potential for creative wonder to promote intercultural understanding and respect.” – AUDRA LAMBERT, Ante Mag
“Rhiannon… resplendent in a red satin petticoat and bustier, was singing from a perch halfway to the ceiling.” “I love that everyone comes with this attitude of ‘I’ll bring tools,’ ” said Ms. Erbach-Gruber, an event producer/D.J./musician/you name it, last seen singing in red satin on a perch at the House of Yes. “I just love the effort.” Recently, Ms. Erbach-Gruber reminisced about an Alice in Wonderland party at the Lunatarium, with a white paper rose garden that guests, in playing-card costumes, painted red with cans of paint she handed out. A huge volunteer team had been corralled to paint a section of the 20,000-square-foot loft’s floor in a chessboard pattern, and guests danced so hard they erased all traces of it.” – Penelope Green, The New York Times
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COLLABORATORS
Paul Geluso, Asukaya Bailey, Jeremy D. Slater
https://rhiannoncatalyst.com/in-the-news/
Rhiannon Catalyst is a multidisciplinary artist, vocalist, curator, and artistic director. As an artist she’s particularly interested in exploring and creating moments where personal, collective, and at times ancestral narratives collide, as well as inspiring senses of connection and wonder in science and the natural universe, and sharing “a sense of place” through sound.
She’s spent the last two decades working professionally as an advocate of multimedia arts and culture, creative resistance and DIY culture, creative technology, and art focused on sustainability (primarily by curating and directing multimedia venues). Catalyst creates site-specific multisensory performances and installations using sound, light, movement, costumes and scents to tell stories. She creates, records, and performs collaborative and often interactive sonic and theatrical pieces designed to celebrate the unique acoustics of particular spaces and illuminate the cultural and historical significance of particular locations and moments in time. Her work often involves field recordings of rivers, oceans, cities, crossroads, and reverb from ships, rockets, and cavernous spaces… places of great cultural exchange and intense resonance. Her soundscape “CrossCurrents” was created in the bilge of a sinking ship and premiered at Ataraxia: Tesseract. “Resounding NYSCI,” created in collaboration with musician, author, and ecologist David Rothenberg and recorded largely in The Great Hall, was designed to celebrate the acoustics of the storied space, The World’s Fair, and the spirit of innovation, and premiered at the World Maker Faire / The New York Hall of Science. She started ambient / noise project Whisp3rkick with Jeremy D. Slater and co-produced “Silence Becomes the Noise” for the NoDAPL Noise compilation to benefit the Sioux Nation. She has an extensive history of performing, songwriting and releasing albums with DJs and live electronic projects with a few of her favorite performance highlights being the more unusual locations like inside the rusted hull of a ship, under the Space Shuttle Endeavor (for Yuri’s Night LA at the California Science Center), and on top of a German military tank modified to carry turntables in the Love Parade SF as well as countless traditional venues and stages like Central Park’s Summerstage. She’s performed alongside as incredibly diverse range of people including legends Ari Up, Lee Scratch Perry, and Tony Allen of Fela’s Africa 70.
She’s recently curated and performed twice for the Rubin Museum of Art, produced and performed an interactive song backed by a choir for Secret City at Judson Memorial Church, curated and created the scent for an immersive interplanetary EP release event for MEMBA (the imagined planet SAGA I smells like thunderstorms, dirt, and spices), Creative Directed Unity Earth Liftoff with official United Nations support, and she’s the Tour Manager and Transmedia Strategist for BELLA GAIA (an award-winning immersive and multimedia stage show combining NASA supercomputer data- visualizations, orbital views of Earth, and live performances of music and dance). Her work with BELLA GAIA and NASA has deeply inspired her art as well as her professional passion. www.rhiannoncatalyst.com
Paul Geluso is a sound engineer, musician, and educator. He currently serves as a Music Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Music Technology program at NYU Steinhardt. He also serves as the Studio Director at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts and co-edited a book titled “Immersive Sound” published by Focal Press-Routledge. He has been credited on hundreds music titles including Grammy, Latin Grammy, and Oscar nominated works. Working with multidisciplinary artists who use sound as a creative medium, his collaborative works have been exhibited at art institutions internationally. He has received individual artist grants for his original compositions from the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer and was awarded a Creativity + Technology = Enterprise grant to develop 3D speaker technology. Geluso received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Master of Music in Music Technology from New York University .
Asukaya (aka Kaya) Bailey
Asukaya Bailey has rarely met a DAW he did not like or get involved with.
He comes from a diverse background of Rastafarian Afro Caribbean roots and culture to create music layered with deep electronic roots. You can hear clear the influence of growing up surrounded by NYC’s Musical eclecticism and being a child of the later 70’s whose ears and senses have survived enough scenes and sub genres to fill an Encyclopedia from the 80’s to present day. In 2007 he founded Luminous Velocity Productions / Recording studio in Brooklyn, NY, in which he’s recorded, engineered, and produced music with people as diverse and celebrated as World renowned percussionist Bashiri Johnson, the late great Ari Up (Slits) and Anna Ozawa from the Slits, Coolie Ranks of Pilfers, Reggae Greats Milton Henry, Andy Bassford, Larry Macdonald, Aswad Kefentse, and Ras Menelik, Kevin Ramsay and Malik Crumpler forming the Cloak of Karasu, David Belqier and Little Everywhere, Phoenix and The Shadow, Hip Hop Yoga pioneer David Williams, Akim Funk Buddha, Akinele, and vocalist Rhiannon Catalyst. His work takes a variety of forms and entrepreneurial visions and he’s a true community builder. Seeking the soul in the machine through its quirks and glitches, and giving form to the wandering dream states he channels, he’s also a documentarian, videographer and experimental artist, allowing creations to take on life of their own for viewers and listeners and frequently messing with formerly broken gear to find new sounds. He’s performed at Koncrete Jungle, in Times Square, at Cannes in Paris, in LES Dive bars, for Brooklyn Sound systems, and many more including the Harvestworks Collective which is near and dear to his heart and mad scientist inclinations. His instruments may vary but for live sets his trusty Machine and
wit always help manifest the visions within.
https://www.youtube.com/user/LuminousVelocity/videos https://soundcloud.com/luminousvelocity/tracks
JEREMY D. SLATER is a multi-disciplinary artist working in the areas of sound, video, computer art, performance, and installation. Born in Reading, England and a graduate of both SUNY College at Buffalo and School of Visual Arts with an MFA in Computer Art. Performances include sound and live performed video that is ambient and sometimes interactive/reactive. Video work includes single and multiple channel videos for screening and installations with sound and ephemeral sculpture. He is currently curator of “sonic front”, a series exploring electroacoustic improvisation, electronic music, and sound art. He’s curated numerous performance events and gallery shows in New York including “A Sound Show” at Front Room Gallery, the sound/video performance series “kere.u” and “FLOW”, “Sun Khronos” at Millennium Film Workshop, and “Video as an Instrument” at The Tank and Supreme Trading Gallery. Jeremy Slater was one of the 1999 recipients of the Computer Art Fellowship from New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) and has attended the Experimental Television Residency, was guest musician at Watermill Center and HERE with Cave/Leimay, and was artist in residence at Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon in Seoul, South Korea. He has exhibited and performed in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, South Korea, and Japan. www.jeremyslater.net
