The world premiere for the award-winning telematic opera Auksalaq has been announced for October 29th at 5 pm EST, to be performed simultaneously between The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, Lu Magnus Gallery in New York, Tavel Center at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, CIRMMT at McGill University in Montreal, Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen Norway, and the OpenGrounds Studio and Clemons Library at the University of Virginia.
Auksalaq, the Inupiat word for “melting snow/ice”, provides an in-depth journey into the vast and remote, yet rapidly changing arctic regions of Alaska and Canada. Created by composer Matthew Burtner and producer/media artist Scott Deal, the work integrates artistic expression, scientific information, and social/political commentary into an interactive, multi-dimensional collection of narratives that provide a stirring and sobering commentary on the transformation of the Far North as a result of global climate change.
Performance ensembles will include Bit20 (Norway), UT Knox Ensemble (USA), McGill Percussion and Chamber Ensemble (Canada), EcoSono Ensemble (USA), and Telematic Collective (USA). An interactive audience-participation software called NOMADS enables engagement with the performance in real-time across all the stages. Audience members are encouraged to attend the concert with their mobile devices in order to participate. In October 2011, Internet2, the nation’s most advanced networking consortium, presented the Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications (IDEA) Award to Scott Deal and Matthew Burtner for their creation of Auksalaq, which was described as “the single best and most important realization of meaningful opera for today’s world”.
October 29, 2012 at 1PM at the University of Alaska Museum of the North Auditorium.