At a time of ecological crises caused by industrialization, humans still have technological desires and a wish to explore the stars.  It’s as if we want to escape from a dying planet and start over instead of repair and heal the earth. How do we reconcile these polarities?

 

Flying Mask is a performance in development designed to ground us to the earth while being pulled towards the sky.  Participants see a symbolic and aesthetic representation of our need to aspire skyward while caring for the earth.  

 

Live, tonal music performed by voices, stringed instruments, and software matches the frequency of the drone’s buzzing rotary blades. The feathers and bird images on the mask call upon the sky, and the roots reminds the sky that the earth is what grounds us. The drone becomes part of the body, and in choreographed movements animates the flying mask, taking on the appearance of a living thing. This performance becomes a ritual, reconciling an alienating technology with the dirt, bones, blood, and stones of the earth.