OPERA OF/FOR KNOWN & UNKNOWABLE UN-I-VERSES

DISCRETE ELEMENTS: objects in the expanded field, each demonstrating idiosyncratic characteristics of sound, movement, interaction, etc.

• THE TABLE: must be assembled, materializing out of nothing to become the most basic (elemental) of forms. On stage, its represented by a silhouetted negative space, that place where a table would be place if one could imagine it becoming physical, defined by its absence. Then a 2D "image" of the table is placed, low fidelity representation, a flat rendering of an otherwise complex form. This 2D gestalt is used as a screen upon which is projected a 4D/animated/morphing cinema of "table-ness" transmogrifying continually through various stages of creation, development, dynamic states, momentum without matter. The table communicates its shifting of values through sound, amplifying the transitions between states with blocky rhythmic organic & mechanical pulses (gamelan) and calling awareness to condensed static states through chords, at first dissonant and then increasingly harmonic/pythagorian as the shape of the table become more harmonious/elegant/idealized. The table itself serves as a kind of control panel, game board, communal territory, collective body, and collaborative instrument, each being explored at various points of the opera. In the beginning the musical abilities/sensibilities will be most obvious as the characters struggle to describe the shadow-form emerging out of the fog of imagination. As the sounds become more clear/recognizable the variations of forms (both visual and musical) can become consistent/predictable leading to continuous semi-improvised transitions to other states. The music draws awareness to the subtle changes in form of the territory as the descriptions of that territory fluctuate.

• THE COSMOCOCCIC DRUM-SET / CONDUCTIVE GAMELAN: "the first instrument," that which seems to have come before anything else. We hear the sound of its whirling pulsations before seeing anything emerge on screen, implying that the creation of all that exists emerges from these primordial rhythms. The instrument serves as a metaphor for non-verbal communication through the sounds it produces, as a schematic for semiotic machinery through how it is constructed/technically functions, serves as [a metaphorical "tool" for both physics and pataphysics like a sonic mortar and pestle or resonate alchemical pelican in its ability to distill affect and transmogrify material through cymatic effect or a computer modulating the algorithms of physics. At various moments it represents the voice of nature, the hand of god/s, and the creative-destructive potentials of the human will. On a technical level, drawings/schematics of the CCDS/CG is a way of spatializing the musicians of an ensemble, dividing their attention through adjusting their proximity to particular rhythms and allowing the conductor or lead percussionist to become de-centered. Such displacement allows for the reopening of the central void, which can then become filled yet again with the audience, actors, or other subjects/objects of consideration.

• PROBABILITY CLOUD OF ATTENTION: a spatialized representation of attention, associated to every "being-becoming" currently within view, visualized as a colored gradient of diffuse light field. Color is associated to qualities of awareness, size of the field expands/contracts/locates according to the b-b's acute/remote sense, texture defines the fidelity/resolution/depth. On stage this could take the form of a roaming spotlight of simple shapes and unified colors, physical scrim or inflatable form or metaphyical object, or more allegorical symbolism like a character color-coded dress or LED light path, as well as larger video projection mapping of the entire stage or territorial sections within. On screen the attention-field may be any of the above, or occupy the 'negative space' of chroma-keyed backdrops or foreground objects, taking on more complex textures and movements.

Examples: roaming spotlight with different colored gels, digital projects of scintillation patterns or other forms of textural interference of the architecture, objects being present in the space which glow internally or reflect aspects of the environment around them (mirror acetate rocks, focal point diffusion windows/frames fabricated from concentric magnification lens of an old overhead projector, etc), LED garmets/suits/objects which throb and pulsate various colors in sequenced rhythms, sound controlled lighting effects in the physical stage environment or through various objects (plexiglass panels with color-shifting LEDs embedded behind, slowly modulating overhead theater lights, afterglow effects from various actual or simulated environmental or personal hand-held screens [like phones glowing on faces, through thin fabric of pants, or onto nearby walls/surfaces when they are placed around the set]).

• PLANTS/ANIMALS/CHILDREN=KIN COMPANIONS: unpack one at a time.

  • PLANTS: a simulation of a natural ecosystem, representation of life as an alien intelligence, an algorithmic composition of static living beings facilitating a collapse of spatial parameters (foreground/background). Evoke feng shui aesthetic philosophy instilling balance/harmonics to the architectural interiors/exteriors, serving as both object, subjects, and ground simultaneously, alternating roles according to various attentions of the primary-speaking-characters (PSCs). Some plants can be moved by PSCs, others move autonomously through the space on their own (flying overhead suspended by motorized pulley system or slowly crawling along the ground on radio-controlled platforms operated by stage hands), some always remain constant. Each plant carries particular symbolic/poetic/allegorical meanings, like ingredients to an alchemical recipe or "potion" being mixed in the stage-pelican/room-mortar. Plants have names and properties that some characters are sensitive to and all audience members may potentially become aware of if they decide to study and decode their particulars. On stage, the specimens may be real plants, hybridized graphs of real plants, crafted models in various materials (ranging in realism from botanical acurate to absurdly alien abstraction), or mere flickering images of real/imaginary beings.

Examples: "fake" silk/polyester plants painted various colors, mirror acetate or color foil crafted plants, abstract textiles made from natural plant-dyes, brutish carved wood relics, intricately cast metal forms, specimens larger/smaller than actual scale.

• ANIMALS: a simulation of pack-play dynamics, a continuous presence of symbiotic companion/kin whether characters or audience recognize them or not, and also various allegorical components of the primal human psyche = the anthropocentric embodiment of ancestral voices, the unified ego of the blood-biome, violence of programmed cell death becoming aware of itself. If plants represent the world-as-alien, a deterritorialization of the world we are immersed in, then animals serve as an extension of the interior, the alien ecosystem emanating from within our own muscular substrates, lymphatic winds carrying the voices of infinitesimal microorganism screaming out in unison. Each animal presence alludes to a facet of the internal world, either of the physical substrate (organs, elemental effluvials, the digestive soup balloon maintaining our probiotic ocean) or psychological protuberances (facets of the self: shadow self, etheric self, various "true" selves, subconscious, "big" and "small" Other, Void, perhaps various states of animalistic anxiety or auto-reflex actions, etc). As with the plant taxonomy, each animal will serve a specific poetic/symbolic/allegorical function, although unlike plants these roles will be inconsistent as they continuously shift from both internal "uncontrollably" forces of the animal will beyond the grasp of human sentience as well as via the human tendency to project their psychological/psychic states upon others. Some PSCs will be more aware of these transferrals than others, some PSCs will call audience attention to the movements, some PSCs will fall victim to confusion of animal roles and contribute to the general confusion of other characters and the audience.

Animal presence will be made visible through a variety of means: actual living animals on stage or roaming through the audience, stuffed animals in the form of taxidermy and child toys, crafted totems reminiscent of various world cultures combined/hybridized with strange new exaggerations, and through the allegorical use of PSC costumes to present the skins, colors, and textures of various animals upon the human body. Masks may also be used, although carefully avoiding literal evocations of specific animals, rather staying within ambiguous zones of "cat-ness" or "dogged" features, etc.

• CHILDREN: young anthropomorphic beings (not completely human though not definitively non-human) are presented as quasi-states, more becoming than being, not wholly characters nor utterly objects, yet embodying qualities of both. The child's attention is the inverse of the plant's: rather than the smooth steady botanical pulsations of empathic resonance, the child's attention is scattered, tattered, fragmented, dispersed, chaotic, agonistic, and flickering. The child's temperament is the inverse of the animal's: rather than the wise, calm, articulate, patient, sympathetic voice of the animal kingdom, the child is anarchistic, antagonistic, laying tricks and traps to attention and trust, always testing and probing the parameters of the interaction in search of points of weakness, fundamentally narcissistic and nepotistic in serving their own material interests, easily distracted by the allure of commodities, absorbed in the minutae of human culture and negligent to the subtle unspoken complexities of the natural world. As parallax of these other beings the child maintains a unique position in relation to them, more sensitive to the influence of plants and easily seduced by the vexations of animals than other PSCs, and in turn these beings exercise a unique consideration towards the child. The child behaves as caretaker of plants while easily succumbing to their intoxication, treats the animals as equals and can fluidly communicate with them directly but cannot translate these conversations to PSCs. On stage, children may be acted by actual child actors or adult actors cynically performing with diminished empathy. Each child character speaks in riddles, often fails/neglects to complete sentences, often rambles on about selfish materialistic desires or personal fetishes, and is prone to frequent schizophrenic emotional/psychic outbursts seemingly without relation to the actions of others.

• THE SCRIM-ROOM/DREAM-THEATER/SHIMMER-SCREEN: a metaphor-made-physical of the physical stage, staged upon itself, a regression of the place-as-thing, a reflection of the surroundings projected upon their own substrate, an allegory for character formation itself. It will be constructed of (essentially) walls which fold, stack, change is size and position, and serve as backdrop for a series of events. The materials and designs of these modular walls will change according to need, ranging from opaque to transparent, matte to reflective, human-scale to larger than the field of vision, moveable object within a voidinal space or immersed in the field of another scrim to semi-visible "shimmering frames" of overlaid patterns, textures, interference, materializations of sounds, modulations of light, or adjustments of an expressionistic/illusionistic space (ala expressionist film sets or a magicians trapdoor stage). At its most basic the "room" will consist of a single wall, akin to those used for photo backdrops, or even a single piece of paper pulled down from the ceiling reminiscent of long Chinese scroll paintings for kabuki theater. A slightly more complicated version may consists of a basic room divider stretched with one or more layers of fabrics or other materials which can have auxiliary sections added or removed, layers peeled back or applied, and can serve as allegorical architectural divisions for different PSC actions to take place.