Aperghis V: Film & Talk

Four women, four voices, four manipulative beings facing the public. Above them, four video screens. The womens’ voices bring life to phonemes, ancestors to human speech, that slowly come together to become snippets of conversation. At the same time, they project images on the screens above them, images of objects that have always been a part of mankind.

A little further away, a man sits facing a computer. He watches the four women, traffics their voices, phrasing, and invades their screens with graphical elements from his computer program. The phonemes and sound objects change, creating a musical conversation.

“Machinations”, first performed in 2000, is one of Aperghis’ most powerful pieces, a captivating play between the archaic and hyper-modern, between human and machine, impressively captured on film by Anna-Celia Kendall.