Nominert til Årets verk: "Afterlife" av Only Slime
5. desember 2024
© ONLY SLIME (Tobi Pfeil & Claudia Cox)
AFTERLIFE er en dataspillopera utviklet av kunst- og musikkduoen ONLY SLIME, bestående av Tobi Pfeil og Claudia Cox.
© ONLY SLIME (Tobi Pfeil & Claudia Cox)
Begrunnelse
Dette sceniske verket skaper et eksepsjonelt slående og helhetlig univers. Det er svært originalt i form, innhold og utførelse. Verket kommenterer en digital kultur og telefonkultur, der alt fra googling til det å ta bilder av alt blir stilt i et nytt lys. Publikum opplever verket i en levende og projisert film gjennom avatarene til hovedkarakterene til Cox og Pfeil. Gjennom disse fantasifigurene konfronteres vi med meningen med livet.
Store spørsmål tas opp i et enkelt samtaleformat, og publikum får empati med de digitale, skrøpelige skapningene. I kontrasten åpner det seg en forståelse av noe menneskelig. Musikken er nedstrippet og fin i sin enkelhet, med noen veldig fine melodilinjer, og holder seg konsekvent til den alternative verdenen som forestillingen skaper. Det er lekent, magisk, godt gjennomført og tankevekkende. Komponistene skaper en verden vi har lyst til å være i, og som gir et slags håp. Fra Musikkfaglig Utvalgs begrunnelse
Mer om verket
Dokumentert på Forum, HFMT 10.02.2023 og premiere på Black Box teater i 2024.
Duration 105 minutter
Tekst, musikk, programmering, 3D animasjon, performance Tobi Pfeil, Claudia Cox
Outside eye, light Diego Muhr
Med støtte fra Dramatikkens hus, Furestiftelsen, Arts Council Norway, Den kulturelle skolesekken, Fond for lyd og bilde, Komponistenes vederlagsfond, Norsk Komponistforening
Forestillinger og presentasjoner:
- Forum HFMT, Hamburg, work-in progress showing (2023)
- International Game Audio Convention Oslo, presentation (2023)
- Norway Now, New York, presentation (2024)
- Black Box Teater Oslo, premiere (2024)
- Vårscenefest Tromsø International Performing Arts Festival, performance (2024)
- Nordic Music Days Glasgow, performance (2024)
- Leipzig DOK Exchange XR programme, presentation (2024)
- Det Norske Teatret (The Norwegian Theatre), performance (2025)
- Sibiu international theater festival, Romania, performance (2025)
Backgroud:
Developed and performed by the interdisciplinary duo ONLY SLIME (Tobi Pfeil and Claudia Cox), AFTERLIFE follows two 3D-characters through an operatic fantasy computer game underworld on their desperate quest for existential meaning. Using real-time motion tracking, and hyperpop-inspired autotune vocals with electronics, the two performers on stage control two avatars in a game engine, traversing both Dantean and Final Fantasy-inspired landscapes on their existential search for purpose and understanding of their world.
The Computer-Game-Opera is based on a real near death/out-of-body experience that Claudia Cox had during an acrobatics accident in 2021, and has transformed this experience into a unique piece of staged, existential performance science fiction that has been performed to raving reviews in Norway.
The piece combines elements from Greek mythology, contemporary internet-culture, simulation theory, AI-generated material and computer-game storytelling techniques, and playfully questions life after death and the meaning of life in an operatic form that is absurd, hilarious, thought-provoking and transgressive in its combination of music, technology and live performance.
Its use of a game engine in a staged performance is unique - and explores an innovative mode of interaction with technology, mirroring the increasing integration of game mechanics in the storytelling and media of today.
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Transgressive and interdisciplinary by nature, ONLY SLIME evades labels and genres in their search for new forms of expression and storytelling in the contemporary music, performance and arts scene. Combining their background in punk, classical music, computer games, free jazz, acrobatics, hyperpop, experimental theater, electronic music production and film, the duo seeks a playful limitlessness through vastly different mediums and artistic modes of expressions.
ONLY SLIME consists of Claudia Cox, also known under her hyperpop moniker Peri Winkle, who, in addition to her work as an artist and vocalist, opened Wiener Festwochen as a violinist and acrobat. The other member is Tobi Pfeil, who has worked on everything from immersive VR-experiences at the Venice Biennale, to creating award-winning sound installations in abandoned factory halls.
The duo is currently working on their debut album release, a VR installation, and further international collaborations with other ensembles and artist collectives around the world.
Komponistene om verket
"AFTERLIFE" is not just an artistic exploration of what lies beyond life and how we make meaning of it all, it is also an attempt to communicate and convey the sense of bodily disconnection and bliss experienced in the midst of the accident, or at a person's time of death. Some things are simply too weird to be explained in words. So we did our best to create a stage piece, or a “computer game opera” that invites you into the surreal and magical world of that very moment. Relying on our references from gaming and growing up with everything from Wagner to Enya, the piece uses real-time motion capture technology, simulation spaces (the whole visual aspect of the piece runs in a computer game we coded ourselves in Unreal Engine) and heavy alienation of the body and voice through electronics, sensors and auto-tune to musically explore a sense of universal identification with passion and love for life, as well as a total disconnect to this world and our bodies. In terms of composition, nothing is left to chance and the entire piece is composed from A to Z on a fixed timeline. ONLY SLIME (Tobi Pfeil & Claudia Cox), composers
© Helge Brekke
ONLY SLIME (Tobi Pfeil & Claudia Cox)
Årets verk
Norsk Komponistforening deler hvert år ut tre likeverdige priser for verk som fortjener å løftes frem for sine særskilte kvaliteter, signert komponister som arbeider med lyd og musikk som kunstform. Hver prismottaker få en plakett og et stipend på 50 000 kroner.
Komponistforeningens musikkfaglige utvalg (MU) nominerer fra de foreslåtte verkene. En internasjonal jury, oppnevnt av styret, velger deretter prismottakere og utformer en skriftlig begrunnelse for valg av vinnerverk.
Det er åpent for hvem som helst å nominere. Hver forslagsstiller kan foreslå inntil fem verk. Kun ett av verkene kan være komponert av forslagsstilleren selv. Vi ønsker at det nomineres gjennom hele året, derfor vil nominasjonsskjemaet alltid stå åpent. Se kriteriene for Årets verk og tidligere vinnere her.