Ping: Migration

In 1968, Roger Reynolds collaborated with numerous important figures around the art world including Samuel Beckett, Sekiji Maro (butoh dancer), Kazuro Kato (cinematography), and Karen Reynolds (flute and typographical drawing and design) to create a new intermedia work called PING. It was premiered in Tokyo at Toru Takemitsu's Festival "Orchestral Space '68", and repeated in a Japanese-English version for a crowd of 3500 at the CROSS TALK INTERMEDIA Festival in Japan in 1969 alongside works by Robert Ashley, Salvatore Martirano, Gordon Mumma, Takemitsu, Joji Yuasa (now an emeritus UCSD Professor), and many others. After this, the piece was performed (while Reynolds was a Regent's Lecturer) at UCSD (as a part of a nation-wide tour) alongside works by then UC faculty Pauline Oliveros.

Forty three years since the piece's creation, technology, performance practice, intermedia collaboration methods, and Reynolds' own aesthetic foundation have changed in fascinating ways. Some changes were so profound (such as the decay of the original 16mm film print) that they had prohibited the piece from performance. Now, the process of migrating the piece to open source digital platforms has not only given the piece a new life for the 21st century but has also opened doors to new additions which were previously planned but not realized. PING Migration reveals the binary of time's generative and degenerative effects. It is a technical process filled with complex logistical solutions but also a creative process which enables extemporaneous, collaborative artistry. 

• 2011

• Reynolds, Roger, 1934-

• Karre, Ross,

Text by Samuel Beckett (with permission from the author)
Music by Roger Reynolds
Original 16mm film directed by Roger Reynolds
Original 35mm text slides drawn and designed by Karen Reynolds
Migration of analog media to digital formats by Ross Karre, Josef Kucera, Paul Hembree, Roger Reynolds, the UCSD Arts Library, and the Integra Project
Performers: Rachel Beetz (flute), Paul Hembree (live electronics), Ross Karre (percussion and video), and Roger Reynolds (piano) 
Cinematography: Ross Karre and Monica Duncan
Recording Engineer: Josef Kucera

• Experimental films
• Motion pictures
• Multimedia works

• video

• English

Online finding aid

• Roger Reynolds Collection at the Library of Congress

• Ross, Karre

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2023-01-07