The Altering Shores
Virtual Reality & Environmental Storytelling
About
Interweaving sound, language and image, The Altering Shores is a four-screen video performance with live music. Set in the marshlands and industrial wastelands of our local Delaware River watershed and others worldwide, the experience presents a kaleidoscope of climate futures through fragmented language and multi-layered sounds and images. Participants are guided through this uncertain terrain by lead artist Roderick Coover, poet Nick Montfort, and composer Adam Vidiksis.
The Altering Shores was presented by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities as part of its two-day Virtual Reality & Environmental Storytelling festival on Saturday, November 23rd, 2019.
The Altering Shores will be presented as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival from September 9th to October 2nd, 2021.
https://annenbergcenter.org/event/the-altering-shores
Upcoming Installations:
The Floods: A massive video experience (96x20ft) in the Crane Icebox that immerses spectators in a kaleidoscopic journey in marshlands and industrial wastelands of the Anthropocene now being transformed by floods. The work addresses questions of land-use, industrial contamination and sea-level rise through richly layered images, sound and generated language. Viewers travel along the marshlands and industrial wastelands of our local watershed and others worldwide that are shaped by industrialization. The sounds, images and text flow like waters, following a computer-code based system that gathers materials together in ever-changing experiences. Like ocean tides, the code-driven work is always changing. This work will be presented from 12-6 pm on September 9-12, 2021 at the Crane Arts Center’s Icebox Space.
The Floods Live Performance: In this special live concert spectacle, drummer Vidiksis leads an ensemble of internationally renowned musicians in an hour-long concert performance that responds in the moment to the ever-changing video images, electronic sound, and text generated by THE FLOODS. Vidiksis is joined by Archer Spade musicians Dan Blacksberg (trombone) and Nick Millevoi (electric guitar) and SPLICE Ensemble musicians Keith Kirchoff (keyboards, harmonium) and Sam Wells (trumpet). These virtuosic improvisers activate the unique acoustics of the massive Icebox space. These performances will take place at 8 pm on September 10-11, 2021 at the Crane Arts Center’s Icebox Space.
Water on the Pier: An immersive public art installation that combines large-scale video, a massive soundscape, and interactive elements driven by the ebbs, flows, and forces of the Delaware River. It will be presented on the Cherry Street Pier from September 16-23, 2011, as part of Philadelphia’s 2021 Fringe Festival.
3 minute VR sample
Credits
Adam Vidiksis, composer
Rod Coover, video and direction
Nick Montfort, poetry