THE FLOODS
A Large Scale Installation and Live Concert Spectacle
The Crane Arts Center Icebox Space
1400 N American St, Philadelphia
For the live performance at the Crane Arts Icebox accompanying this installation, see THE FLOODS Live Performance.
For more recent performances of THE FLOODS, see THE FLOODS Live Performance: SPLICE Institute 2023 and The FLOODS Live Performance: Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente.
Info
THE FLOODS
Roderick Coover - Adam Vidiksis - Nick Montfort
September 9-September 12
Gallery Hours
Free
Crane Arts Icebox
Purchase tickets: https://fringearts.com/event/the-floods/
About
THE FLOODS is 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.
Roderick Coover’s images, gathered over the past decade from journeys on and around our rivers, combined with field recordings, voices and electronic sounds composed by Adam Vidiksis, activate the unique reverberation of the massive Icebox space. Nick Montfort draws from Coover’s logs to create a continually evolving, poetic text. The remarkable spectacle reveals forces of flow, floods and chemical contamination. Visitors plunge into the imaginaries of times present and future in a work that attempts to put into words the unspeakable threats posed to existence, time and belonging.
Suitable for all ages, THE FLOODS stimulates the imagination to find ways to make sense of the environment and climate change. Average viewing time for the ever-changing experience is 25-50 minutes. Viewers can move about the space or make use of optional seating, and Crane Arts is a accessible building.
The installation runs Sept. 8-12 with extended hours on Sept. 9 during 2nd Thursday arts openings at the Crane. The exhibition is free. On Friday and Saturday evenings, there will also be two special, ticketed events with live orchestration to the cinematic experience (The Floods Live Performance)
Showtimes
Thursday, Sep 9, 2021 – 12:00pm – 6:00pm Gallery Hours
Friday, Sep 10, 2021 – 12:00pm – 6:00pm Gallery Hours
Saturday, Sep 11, 2021 – 12:00pm – 6:00pm Gallery Hours
Sunday, Sep 12, 2021 – 12:00pm – 6:00pm Gallery Hours
Credits
Artist/Filmmaker, Director: Roderick Coover
Composer: Adam Vidiksis
Computational Poetry: Nick Montfort
Technical Assistant: Jonah Pfluger
Intern: Alex Glass
Production House: Chouette Collective LLC Made possible with support from the Temple University Presidential Humanities and Arts Award Program, The Temple University Center For Performing And Cinematic Arts Vice Provost In The Arts Award Program, Temple University Grant-In-Aid, and Chouette Collective LLC
Content Considerations
Appropriate for All Ages
Audience Instructions
THE FLOODS is an experience that is suitable for all ages. Average viewing time for the ever-changing experience is 25-50 minutes. Viewers can move about the space or make use of optional seating. Crane Arts is an accessible building with facilities, and the Icebox is an accessible space.
About the Artists
Roderick Coover is a Philadelphia-based media artist. His work is internationally exhibited in venues such as the Venice Biennale Hyperpavillion, The Nobel Peace Prize Forum and Documenta Madrid and recipient Fulbright, LEF and Adam Mickiewicz awards among others.
Adam Vidiksis is a Philadelphia-based musician who has received awards from the American Composers Forum, National Endowment for the Arts and ASCAP among others; his works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records.
Nick Montfort is a New York-based writer whose computer-generated books of poetry include #!, Autopia, The Truelist, and Hard West Turn. The work is produced by Chouette Collective with support from the Temple University Center For The Performing And Cinematic Arts.
