POE (...and the museum of lost arts)

You are invited to a 5.1 surround sound focus screening of POE […and the museum of lost arts] at Harvestworks Media Arts Center. Reception precedes and Q&A follows with members of the cast and crew. This event is free but donations of any size are still being accepted at the USA Projects. Join our community and help us finish this project! Seating is limited, admission by reservation only (no walk ins) RSVP to email [ [email protected]] with the names in your party, and contact phone number.

www.elisekermani.com/poe.html

About the project:

POE […and the museum of lost arts] is part fiction, part historical, and part documentary.
An experimental performance film, a collaboration between more than 30 artists from New York's downtown dance, music and film scene directed by MiShinnah Production's Artistic Director, Elise Kermani.
Filmed at various locations in New York State including the deteriorating Bannerman Castle on the Hudson River, Brooklyn's Litchfield Manor, the Poe Cottage in the Bronx and Lower Manhattan's 3LD Art and Technology.
A fictional, time-traveling Charles Baudelaire recites Edgar Allan Poe's biography in his own words in a theater remodeled after the 19th century Barnum Museum lecture hall. Baudelaire is assisted by Techne, who guides him in his lecture.
The cinematic audience is the final layer in a 'film within films' in this performance art piece.
The POE Project expresses a regret at loss of the physical, the loss of film, of live performance, of acoustic sound, and foreshadows our ultimate merge with the digital medium.

Credits:

The all-star cast includes Rinde Eckert (Charles Baudelaire), Theo Bleckmann (Edgar Allan Poe) and Pamela Z (Techne-goddess of invention). These stellar singer/performers were joined by puppeteer/dancers Luis Tentindo (Roderick/Stage Hand) and Laurel Tentindo (Eliza and Virginia Poe). The music was written and performed by the above singers and Elise Kermani (electronics) in collaboration with instrumentalists Kevin James (trombone), David First (guitar) and Tom Chiu (violin). Other important collaborators include: Stefanie Koseff (video design), Barbara Kilpatrick (still photography), Melli Hoppe (unit director), Ivaylo Getov (cinematography), Solomon Weisbard (lighting), Alex Smolowe (editor), Natasha Kermani (director of post production), and Nashwa Zaman (sound editing), Vlad Kucherov (color) and Paul Geluso (sound mastering). Amelia Saul is our design manager.

Elise Kermani - Biography

Independent intermedia and sound artist Elise Kermani has presented her work nationally and internationally at venues such as The Kitchen, P.S. 122, Roulette, DiverseWorks, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Randolph St. Gallery, Texas Gallery, and festivals in Europe including Turning Sounds in Warsaw, Poland,Fraunkulterfestival in Regensberg, Germany and Hor-Fest in Stainach, Austria. Kermani has composed several scores for choreographer Vicky Shick including Undoing (2003) and Repair (2005), Plum House (2007), Glimpse (2009) andNot Entirely Herself (2011) - traveling and performing in Budapest in 2009 and Dublin in 2010. In addition to writing scores for dance Kermani has also created several audio designs for visual artist Barbara Kilpatrick including Venus Hum, a DVD installation which was installed at the New Arts Program Exhibition in March, 2006, and Keep Sake at the Acram Opera House, in August, 2008. She has also created sound scores for Austrian visual artist Evelin Stermitz including Blue House (2009), Silence (2010) and Into the Mirror (2011). In the 1990's she could be seen performing her solo multimedia work Private Eye/Public Hand (1993), Artem(Is) Rising (1993); and singing with the avant pop ensemble Trousers. Her 2008 film/theatre project JOCASTA (www.elisekermani.com/jocasta.html) is a modern retelling of the Oedipus Cycle filmed on location in an abandoned barn in upstate New York and will screen at the AGON international meeting of archeological film in Athens, Greece in May, 2012. Kermani received her PhD in media philosophy from the European Graduate School in 2007 and her book Sonic Soma:Sound, Body and the Origin of the Alphabet, published by Atropos Press in 2009, is available on amazon.com.