Arches

July 11, 12, 13, 14 1991 at Theater Artaud, San Francisco

written, directed and composed by Randall Packer

performed by Judith Bettina and Deborah Slater

created in collaboration with Larry Neff, Alessandro Moruzzi, Sigi Torinus, Diane Robinson, and Richard Zvonar

With Arches, we have resurrected the ancient labyrinth model to provide the setting for a pilgrimage, a search for the 'Center' through the circuitous corridors of 20th century modernist thought. Two pilgrims proceed through this complex landscape, a maze which takes them on an unimaginable journey to an inevitable destination. Through the efforts of our collaborative team, a group of independent individuals who have contributed both similar and disparate points of view, we have constructed our own mythology; a series of 'scenes' or 'vignettes' which add up to a kind of microcosm of a life with all the inherent complexities, revelations, wrong-turns, and contradictions.

From a perspective of hindsight at the end of the 20th century, with our pantheon of modernist forbears heavily weighing down on us, we have chosen to deconstruct their lofty ideas within the context of the maze. Thirty quotations were chosen from five years of entries in my journal (1982 - 1986), and then laid out in chronological order, over which the thirty scenes in Arches were constructed. The material used for the soprano part was derived from Judith Bettina's repertoire of 20th century vocal music, a group of composers that includes Arnold Schöenberg, Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez, Anton Webern and several others, each of whom were subjected to the mill of digital sampling techniques.

The labyrinth itself is an original design, but the ancient labyrinthine models of Crete and Egypt were incorporated for their circuitous interweavings. We have chosen to incorporate the multicursural pathway,which means in labyrinthine jargon there are choices to be made, rather than the linear route of the unicursural labyrinth. It is here that all of the elements of Arches join together; for each scene of the labyrinth is a 'moment' where specific sounds, images, and light correspond to a point in space. To quote one of our 'masters' Thomas Mann, "What is time? A mystery, a figment- and all-powerful. It conditions the exterior world, it is motion married to and, mingled with the existence of bodies in space, and with the motion of these. Would there then be no time if there were no motion? No motion if no time? We fondly ask. Is time a function of space? Or space of time? Or are they identical? Echo answers." The labyrinth imposes the existence of time as a constant on the two pilgrims who must grapple with an invasion of sound, image and text as a guiding light for their journey to the Center.

This relationship between the performers and the labyrinth brings up the role that interactive technology plays in Arches. Nearly all of the visual and sound elements of the work are manipulated live in performance meaning there are no audio or video tapes that must laboriously synchronize with stage cues. On the contrary, we are all a group of performers 'improvising' on our instruments (musical, visual, etc.) within the context of a carefully controlled structure imposed by the scenic layout of the labyrinth. There are several scenes which suggest a kind of media dance, where singing, movement, sound, images, and light all interact through imaginary spatial trajectories that have been choreographed by means of the collaborative process. At the center of this 'dance' is the Radio Drum, a remote control device which translates physical movement into electrical voltage which in turn signals the computers to activate the sound in a variety of ways.

The journeyers find their way through the maze by interacting, touching, exploring, singing, moving; with sound and images serving as a mirror, a reflection of their reception of the apparent disorder that surrounds them and the revelations that occur when they ascend to the higher perspectives. The labyrinth is the canvas for a media landscape; a modern labyrinth echoing the technological world we live in, a world that Marshall McLuhan foresaw viewing itself through the media, fabricating its reality through the media. Arches is the story of two travelers passing through a hall of mirrors, a magic theater of the unconscious mind.

– Randall Packer