Aria

description

For Aria Andreyev worked with canine collaborators, Sugi and Tom, to explore an archetypal Canadian landscape—Banff National Park. The narrative climaxes with Tom pictured singing a canine aria, a sonic expression of emotional connection to the environment.

Aria, an operatic form with origins in 18th century Italian music, is defined as a long accompanied song by a solo voice. The aria recalls historical romanticism in art that emphasized individual subjectivity. In Aria, this historically human cultural form is interrupted through a depiction of canine subjectivity. Aria uses the musical structure of call and response to depict the dogs’ curiosity, excitement and joy experienced in relation to the river, meadows, ponds, and forests of the park.

Interspecies collaborative methods were used in the project’s processes to determine the narrative structure. On site, the artist and cinematographer documented the dogs and their explorations of the features in each locale. These individual vignettes were then compiled, arranged and aggregated in the editing room into story-telling.

Shown at:

• 2013 “our animal others”, Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, Durham, Ontario
• 2012, “performance, platform. body affects”,  Sophiensaele, Berlin
• 2012 “Facing the Animal”, OR Gallery, Vancouver. Curated by Tarah Hogue.
• 2009 “Animal House: Works of Art Made by Animals”, Saw Gallery, Ottawa
• 2009 Computational Aesthetics Conference 2009, Victoria, Canada

Production Team:

Julie Andreyev: video editing, production, soundscape
Crew at TV Studio, Banff New Media Institute: cinematography, sound recording
Brian Charles: compositing
Tom and Sugi: concept, actors, vocals

Supported by: 

a coproduction residency at Banff New Media Institute, The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada;
Intersections Digital Studios, Emily Carr University of Art + Design