I was commissioned by Japan Society to create an experience in response to a pandemic-postponed concert of new music by Yu Kuwabara. Working from a binaural recording of a performance in Japan, I remastered and spatialized the music to create a simulation of the concert experience using just pieces of the original audio and video. The audience was seated in the dark on the stage of the Japan Society's theater. I mean the DARK. The monks walked in from the side of the space, settling about 45' ahead of the audience. As the concert progressed, they approached the audience. After 6 minutes of chanting, a single christmas tree light began to glow, flickering with the sound of one soloist. As the piece progressed, the monks began a circular walking pattern which in turn circled the seated audience. After 16 minutes of this little light, the second passage played. A very thin layer of mist began to fall 16' from the audience, and behind the christmas tree light, an iris opened to reveal a projector lens. The mist became a screen, and over the next 20 minutes, the room began to fill with fog, turning the projection from a 2D plane to a 3-Dimensional sculpture.
This technology will be used to make the immersive space in Fellow Traveler, commissioned by NYU/Skirball for 2023/2024

Fellow Traveler - Spiral Mandala from Tei Blow on Vimeo.

Blurb:
Believed to have originated in India, shomyo is a ritual form of Buddhist chant that traveled along the Silk Road to China, eventually reaching Japan in the sixth century. For this one-of-a-kind in-person performance, Brooklyn-based media designer Tei Blow will transform Japan Society’s stage into an immersive soundscape featuring the ethereal voices of Shomyo no Kai—Voices of a Thousand Years, a group of two dozen priests from the esoteric Shingon and Tendai Buddhist sects. Incorporating the lyrics and graphic score of the Japanese female composer Yu Kuwabara’s shomyo piece Spiral Mandala Ceremony and the ancient mandalas that inspired her work, Blow's visuals, in tandem with Shomyo No Kai's vocals, create an ever-shifting environment with dreamlike power.