related works
ASMR : for ensemble and electronics / Andrius Arutiunian
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
sax-a g-e perc vn pf tape
Holland : for voice, piano and string quartet with tape / Pavel Karmanov
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
zang pf 2vn vla vc tape
Dreams of the Blind : for ensemble, electronics and video text / Yannis Kyriakides
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
voice rec cl trb vibr pf g-e vn db tape video
Disturbing Light : for piano, violin, tape and art-video / Rieteke Hölscher
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
pf vn tape
composition
Atomic B : for small ensemble, electronics and video / Andrius Arutiunian
Other authors:
Arutiunian, Andrius
(Composer)
Description:
Atomic B for ensemble, electronics and two video screens, is connected to nuclear power issues and various histories that nuclear energy has accumulated since its beginning. The work takes its starting point at Visaginas – an “atomic” town built in 1975 as part of a newly constructed power plant in the Lithuanian territory of the former USSR. The town was designed to host the engineers, scientists and military personnel working in the power plant, and therefore it was considered a strategic and high-security zone. Taking post-soviet urbanistics and ecology as its starting point, the multimedia piece Atomic B explores the topics of both nuclear power and unstable utopian ideas.
The piece is based on two closely intertwined narratives. The work uses excerpts from a 1984 documentary film by G. Skvarnačius about the construction of the town of Visaginas and its nuclear power plant. This footage, using a typical soviet documentary style, documents the construction and the daily life of the town and its new inhabitants. While the film has a strong political agenda to present the effects of urbanisation and nuclear power in positive light, a certain uneasiness emerges from the cinematic aesthetics and various unnerving camera angles used.
In Atomic B this footage is reconstructed and recomposed, exposing its visual qualities and focusing on the camera movement as well as peripheral details and shots. The recomposed footage is juxtaposed with the text material constructed from various found texts, such as retold memories of various "atomic cities" inhabitants, shuffled with excerpts from texts on utopian cities and their architecture.