FAUNA-X (in progress)
In MENAJIRI’S newest project, one metaphorically ventures deep into the woods, the landscape of the subconscious. Guided by a female creatura, Fauna-X, we encounter other-worldly flora and fauna that symbolically represent innermost fears, desires and memories; a forestial illusion of the human psyche. The setting draws attention to the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds and evokes the Jungian concept of a nekyia, a path of transformation. It is a work about the human condition, our struggle to find meaning and connection within a disrupted, foreboding environment. It also raises questions about co-inhabitance and creativity within a surrounding ecosystem, one that involves both physical and digital realms...coming soon!
Picture by Micah Noel Catranis, © TOADZONE
i sing the body electric
is a multi-media performance project that combines original works for piano, percussion, live-electronics, dance and AI-triggered visuals. With a core of acoustic sound augmented by manually activated electronics, audio frequencies get processed through a neural network to generate visual textures, morphing in time to the music. Berlin-based composer and pianist, Michaela Catranis, uses this unique tool (SHEEN) designed by AI-specialists Nikolay Jetchev and Duncan Blythe for the first time live. The idea stems from the theme “human_machine”. Combining acoustic writing and live performance with emerging AI, we create a space to explore the relationship between humankind and technology. How does the artist respond to the digital realities? How does technology help us transcend physical limitations of our instrument(s) and what kind of art would that look like, the human and machine, not as polarities but as a synergetic, co-evolving force?
LIQUID
RAINBOW
Interdisciplinary ensemble MENAJIRI together with dance fusion project ST VITO, present "liquid rainbow" - a program of original music interwoven with contemporary dance and interactive lighting technology. In this work, pianist and composer Michaela Catranis draws on the process of refraction: white light splits and bends at the interface between air and water, producing a variety of colors - the rainbow spectrum. It is a series of musical color phases that express aspects of water in different forms and degrees of movement, intermittently augmented by dance and interactive lighting architecture.