Music, art and architecture unite to create “Transcending Time”

The FIU College of Architecture + The Arts has brought together the innovative and artistic minds of music, art and architecture to create a video opera entitled “Transcending Time,” premiering in the Music Biennale in Zagreb, Croatia, on April 22, 2009.

 “Transcending Time” is a non-narrative video opera with five vocalists, chamber orchestra, video and electronics. The basis for the work is the transformation of images, sounds and the perception of time. Created by FIU composer and professor of music Orlando Jacinto Garcia in collaboration with FIU colleagues including assistant professor of video and digital arts Jacek Kolasinski, professor of architecture John Stuart, and creative writing professor and poet Campbell McGrath, the 75-minute work evolves slowly and includes three segments that unfold seamlessly. The segments include Time in the Present, The Act of Becoming and A New Order and are based on concepts that are abstractly presented by the images, sounds and text found in each.

Considering the abstract nature of the work, “Transcending Time” is about the sensuality of sound and images and how the gradual transformation of these can alter the perception of time in those experiencing the work. “Transcending Time” was written for the 2009 Biennale in Zagreb, Croatia, with the support of FIU, the Biennale and its artistic director Berislav Sipus.

Artist Bios:

Campbell McGrath is the Philip and Patricia Frost Professor of Creative Writing.  McGrath’s poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic and on the op-ed page of the New York Times; they have been published in more than 40 anthologies and in nearly every significant literary journal in the country.

Jacek Jerzy Kolasinski, Assistant Professor of Video and Digital Arts at FIU, came to the United States from Poland.  He received his MFA and BFA from Florida International University. His multimedia works and installations have been featured in several shows and screenings in the United States and abroad.  Most recently, his works were included in Short Film Corner – Festival de Cannes, Cinema Politic in Barcelona and Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato.

John Stuart, Professor of Architecture at Florida International University, is an architect, video artist and historian exploring collaborative projects on complexity, community, technology and public space.  In 2008, he won the Van Alen Institute’s New York Prize Fellowship for “TimeZone,” a collaborative project that connected students at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with those in Lima, Peru, to study the social and economic potential of communications offered through open video conferencing technologies placed in public spaces. 

Orlando Garcia, Professor of Music, has composed more than 140 works for a wide range of performance genres.  He is the founder and director of several international festivals including the New Music Miami Festival and the Music of the Americas Festival, as well as being the founder and artistic director of the NODUS Ensemble and the FIU New Music Ensemble. 

For more information on “Transcending Time,” visit http://mbz.hr/eng/mbz_2009#2009-04-22.