A Multi-media Korean Lunar Ritual

(awarded The Wolff Ebermann Prize from the International Theatre Institute, Germany)

by

Jin Hi Kim

in collaboration with
Tennessee Rice Dixon, computer animation
Alex Noyes, interactive design
Tony Giovannetti, lighting


A Cast of Leading Asian Traditional Artists with State-of-the-Art Digital Technology • Artists from Korea, India, China and the USA • A contextual pre-performance video/lecture demonstration is included with each performance • Extensive Funding and Subsidy is Available • Available Fall, 2003 & other selected dates • Prior Performances at: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Kitchen, MassMoca and others

DONG DONG
TOUCHING THE MOONS

Dong Dong Touching the Moons, is a multimedia live interactive performance created by Jin Hi Kim in collaboration with Korean, Indian, Chinese and U. S. artists. Touching the Moons weaves and juxtaposes traditional Asian dance and music forms with cutting-edge technology to create a cross cultural work both in form and subject. Conceived as a celebration of the moon as a female force counterbalancing the male energy of the sun, the piece combines Asian cosmic mythology with Western Science's exploration of space as the "last great frontier."

Touching the Moons deals with the various representations of the moon in various cultures, especially the 15th-century Korean poetic homage of the moon entitled Dong Dong and the 10th-century worship yantra of the moon. By juxtaposing ancient Asian lunar celebrations with scientific surveys of the solar system, the piece delves into the various characteristics, colors, cycles, and formations of the moon, while showing the duality of its identity in the human imagination.

Touching the Moons is scored for Indian tabla drum, Korea court-style kagok lyric singer, Korean changgo (hour-glass) drum and Jin Hi Kim's newly developed electric komungo (Korean 4th-century fretted-board zither), mixing live performance with live digital processing. Movement includes Indian kathak dance, with contemporary Chinese choreography. The dancers and the musicians utilize various sensors to interact with each other, the images and the lighting. The visual design features animation and digital imagery of outer space, planetary movement, and solar systems, all enhanced, expanded and deepened by the interactive lighting design.

Dong Dong Touching the Moons was commissioned by The Kitchen with major support from the National Endowment for the Arts in a consortium with MassMoca with funding from Inroads Program of Arts International, Ford Foundation, and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.

Click here for more information about DONG DONG TOUCHING THE MOONS.