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In "Über
das Marionetten Theater" (On the Puppet Theater, 1810) Heinrich
von Kleist, through his protagonist Herr C., discourses on the infinite
grace of inanimate objects. The Puppet Theater was not written for
marionettes to play, but as a description of their function and
value. He compares the capacities of live performers and marionettes
according to romantic aesthetics.
Kleist explains that objects, unlike people, need not behave affectedly.
He says the marionette, unfettered by the need to touch the ground
(since it's strumming to the tune of strings pulled from the top),
is far more graceful than the human dancer. Only a god or possibly
an animal such as a bear, Herr C. proclaims, could equal the grace
of inanimate matter, whereas humans are clumsy, weighed down by
consciousness. In his argumentation for the superiority of the marionette
Kleist shows a belief in the cognitive and creative superiority
of the unconscious over the conscious, of spontaneity and intuition
over reason.
Kleist’s enthusiasm for the marionette theatre was shared
by many yet the weight of his words and the endless possibilities
he saw in the puppet world were not be recognized until long after
his death, adding justification to the notion that Kleist was a
man born before his time.
"Das
Marionettentheater" provided the story and inspired the scenario
for the project Marionette: a multimedia concert for two musicians
(blockflutes, no-input mixer and electronics) where the field of
tension between acoustic sounds and multimedia creates a story about
the relationship mechanics and life. The performers are (un)consciously
represented by a machine (their instruments), sound and image.
The performance displays a multimedia environment as representative
of pure sound, an environment that embodies the question of sound
imperfection, contradiction and ambiguity of the communication between
acoustic sources and multimedia.
Three
composers received the commission to write a new work having as
leitmotiv the correlation between mechanics and life: the composers
Roderik de Man (Netherlands), Jos Zwaanenburg (Netherlands) and
Marko Ciciliani (Croatia). This multimedia concert is performed
by two musicians: Jorge Isaac (blockflutes & live electronics)
and Marko Ciciliani (no-input mixer & live electronics). The
total length of the program is ca. 65 min. (without brake).
Marionette brings together Musictheatre and Live Electronics. The
accent relays on the music. A virtuosic blockflute performance,
unheard electronic improvisations with the no-input mixer (a mixing
board which does not use any external inputs, but where all sounds
are created through internal feedbacks) and a rich musical background
make up the musical layer. Video images are used as dynamic stage
décor and as the medium of abstract materialization of mechanic
processes.
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