There will be a viewing of the second movement work-in-progress of the Blued Trees symphony. I have composed a statement for ISCP Open Studio event beginning tonight at 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn, and continuing tomorrow from 1:-8: PM:
"Blued Trees," is a five part operatic symphonic installation that began June 21, 2015 with an overture in Peekskill, New York and will conclude with a coda during the American presidential Election in 2016.
The overture was accompanied by an international Greek Chorus at twenty additional sites.
Peekskill was chosen because it is the site of a proposed natural gas pipeline expansion within 105’ of a failing nuclear facility, 30 miles from New York City.
The first movement is taking places in six states in America so far, as a series of 1/3 mile “measures,” of a score that is simultaneously spatial and acoustic. The score corresponds to a pattern that prevents the movement of heavy machinery through corridors for proposed natural gas pipelines. Each note of the score is indicated as a vertical sine wave with a non-toxic slurry of ultramarine blue and buttermilk to grow moss.
The site of each of the installations for the overture and first movement are in various stages of copyright filing, registration and notices of cease and desist against violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). The goal is to litigate this premise first in the United States Supreme Court, and then at the United Nations, as an Earth Rights issue.
The immediate goal in the Untied States is to contest the abuse of eminent domain law by fossil fuel corporations, with the sword of copyright law. Success will depend on engaging the mainstream in a conversation about what is public good, and the process of fundraising to support the litigation process at each site.
The second movement, developing at ISCP, compares the Newtown Creek superfund site to what will happen to the entire state of New York, should proposed natural gas infrastructure continue to proliferate. It will culminate with a performance of the first three movements December 15, 2015. The music of the symphony is being developed as both a matter of local ambient sound and as classical repertoire with bel canto and other conventional instrumentation.
The variations in the movements are based on an iterative score created for the overture. The painted trees are the soloists for this work, and due to the corruption of the legal process, should we fail, will also become martyrs to the cause of freedom. The process for all concerned, especially the trees, is exhausting.
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