Andromeda's Howl: Relayed History and a Song Cycle as Method for Collective Imagination
Twelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Corfu, Greece
20-24 May 2024
Writing
Andromeda
Conference
Performance
Twelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Corfu, Greece
20-24 May 2024
Writing
Andromeda
Conference
Performance
Kaasa, Adam, 2024, Conference or Workshop, ‘Andromeda's Howl: Relayed History and a Song Cycle as Method for Collective Imagination’ at Twelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Corfu, Greece, 20-24 May 2024.
Andromeda’s Howl is a piece of research that explore new methods in historical research as a creative practice. It traces and follows 'Andromeda' as a word, name, myth, constellation, galaxy, as frescoes, paintings, sculptures, as archetype. The project acts as a relay, connecting moments in time otherwise unrelated. Think the classical myth, along with a 19th Century sculpture at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, a medieval mystic and translator of Arabic texts into Latin, glass plate photography at the Carnegie Archive in Pasadena of Edward Hubble's 'discovery' of the Andromeda galaxy, an iron forgery in Shropshire, and on and on.
Beyond stories captured in text, Andromeda’s Howl is also an 8-part song cycle, whose performance, over time, connects with, records and captures the voices of audience members, public participants, workshop attendees and more into a collective composition, a love letter to Andromeda.
Andromeda is a myth that has been a relay of oral histories, material sources, images, representations and morality. Andromeda has been papyrus paper at one point in time and an iron sculpture at another, cast by John Bell and bought by Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The language, the word, the semantics and the etymology of Andromeda is like an anniversary. Each time it is repeated, it reinforces some origin.
Conference website.
Andromeda’s Howl is a piece of research that explore new methods in historical research as a creative practice. It traces and follows 'Andromeda' as a word, name, myth, constellation, galaxy, as frescoes, paintings, sculptures, as archetype. The project acts as a relay, connecting moments in time otherwise unrelated. Think the classical myth, along with a 19th Century sculpture at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, a medieval mystic and translator of Arabic texts into Latin, glass plate photography at the Carnegie Archive in Pasadena of Edward Hubble's 'discovery' of the Andromeda galaxy, an iron forgery in Shropshire, and on and on.
Beyond stories captured in text, Andromeda’s Howl is also an 8-part song cycle, whose performance, over time, connects with, records and captures the voices of audience members, public participants, workshop attendees and more into a collective composition, a love letter to Andromeda.
Andromeda is a myth that has been a relay of oral histories, material sources, images, representations and morality. Andromeda has been papyrus paper at one point in time and an iron sculpture at another, cast by John Bell and bought by Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The language, the word, the semantics and the etymology of Andromeda is like an anniversary. Each time it is repeated, it reinforces some origin.
Conference website.
Andromeda through the Sky Guide App, on a cloudy night, in Portugal, 2023.