Dr Zubin Kanga will give two performances of Philip Venables’ Answer Machine Tape, 1987, one of the centrepieces of his Cyborg Soloists research project, at major international venues: 30 November at the Concertgebouw Brugge (Brugge/Bruges, Belgium) and 5 December at Kings Place (London, UK)
Dr Zubin Kanga
Created in a collaboration between Dr Zubin Kanga, composer Philip Venables and dramatist Ted Huffman, Answer Machine Tape, 1987 focuses on New York visual artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death of Peter Hujar – his former lover, close friend and fellow artist – from an AIDS-related illness in 1987. The work’s focal point is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers, to explore not just his life, but that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.
As part of Dr Zubin Kanga’s Cyborg Soloists research project, the work uses new sensor technology – the Keyscanner created by the Augmented Instruments Laboratory (Imperial College) – allowing the piano to function as a typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. In Answer Machine Tape, 1987, the audience eavesdrops into a private world, messages are transliterated into a musical fabric, become character studies, become reflections on a community, become attempts to decipher meaning. Transcription, and its failure in the face of extreme difficulty, becomes a poignant metaphor for the AIDS crisis and its devastating effect on a generation.
These shows finish a busy autumn of performances for Dr Kanga, utilising technologies as diverse as light sensors, motion capture, AI, new digital instruments and audio-visual interaction, in performances at Noordezon Festival (Groningen, Netherlands), FarOut Festival (Milan, Italy), Sound Festival (Aberdeen Scotland) and Rafel Festival (Valencia, Spain).
More information
Book for the Kings Place performance of Answer Machine Tape, 1987 at: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/classical/zubin-kanga-performs-philip-venables-answer-machine-tape-1987/
For more about Cyborg Soloists see: www.cyborgsoloists.com
