Paul Catanese, Hybrid Media Artist

Century of Progress / Sleep
2016 - Present | Cross-Disciplinary Opera



About:
Century of Progress / Sleep is a cross-disciplinary opera. This work imagines that inanimate objects, hyperobjects, and hypothetical entities, having recently acquired consciousness, immediately reject rational systems for conceptualizing 'the nature of things ' and instead adopt an intellectual posture of epistemological chaos emerging from mutative half-truths, mischaracterizations of science, and lawless theories of knowledge. This variable-duration work navigates a geometric libretto — a terrain of texts — via electronically processed vocals that energize a plurality of software instruments resulting in a hypnotic, mirage-like soundscape.

Visit Bandcamp to purchase Vinyl LP or Listen to free streaming version!:


Partners and Major Support
This multi-phase project has benefitted from the support of a number of partners for which I am extremely grateful. During the 2018/19 school year, I was named the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Artist-in-Residence at Colgate University involving a series of working visits that culminated in several performances on April 4, 5, and 6 staged in the Ho-Tung Visualization Lab / Planetarium Dome. This year-long engagement allowed me to work to transform what was a solo performance work into an ensemble piece featuring Matt Sargent, Julie Licata, Evan Runyon, Gemma Godfrey, and myself. In addition, Colgate worked to help me realize publishing an ensemble studio recording of ACT I of the opera that will be released as a Limited-Edition LP on October 22, 2019.

During the summer of 2019, I was the 73rd SWAP Artist in Residence at SPACES in Cleveland, where I was able to mount an installation version of this experimental opera that includes a 4-channel sound installation that responds to and expands on ACT 1 created at Colgate University; a showcase performance with an ensemble featuring Matt Sargent, Julie Licata, and Chris Auerbach-Brown was held in September 2019 at SPACES that further expands and responds to the response pieces.

Current Development
During the 2019/20 school year, I have been invited as a visiting artist to the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, where I will be working with research partners from across the university, including the Sleep and Circadian Research Laboratory in realizing a virtual reality version of Phase II of the opera.

Stills from Colgate Planetarium Dome Performances:





2019 Interview at SPACES Gallery:

2018 Ann Arbor Film Festival Performances: