Currents Performances

Eugene Lew

For Whom the Bells Ring?
(a collective meditation for an emergent occasion, in which attendees will be invited to join in celebration, remembrance, and/or opprobrium)

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate 

CENTAUR CLAUSE
Aaron Igler - bells, electronics
Eugene Lew - bells, electronics
+ guests

Taji Ra’oof Nahl

Calculating Banneker: The Work of Water
An Installation Activation in Four Movements

The Experience: A four-movement journey where the players seek the source. From the hive, discover how every drop sustains the collective. Two sonic performances utilize frequency and sound to bridge the dimensions between Benjamin Banneker’s calculations and the river’s current flow.

Calculating Banneker: The Work of Water is a structured improvisational production that breathes life into the legacy of Benjamin Banneker through a site-specific "Installation Activation," creating a transformative fusion of history, ecology, and sound at the historic Philadelphia Water Works.

In this specialized staging, the players embody the collective intelligence of the hive. As bees, the ensemble navigates a landscape of three distinct vignettes, highlighting the vital, delicate intersection between environmental stewardship and survival. One pivotal movement focuses on the fundamental necessity of clean water for the colony—a resource as essential to the bee as it is to the human spirit of innovation.

Guided by the vision of TR7 and the Sonic Sculpture Ensemble, this performance transcends traditional boundaries. By merging the precision of Banneker’s calculations with the rhythmic life cycle of the apiary, the production invites the audience to witness The Work of Water as a communal pulse of continuity and care. 

Martha McDonald

River Ode: The Schuylkill Freed is a site-specific performance by Martha McDonald that explored the history of the Fairmount Water Works and the life of the Schuylkill River as a sentient being. Sited in the abandoned John B. Kelly Pool on the ground floor of the historic building, the performance activated the space through McDonald’s original music reflecting on the engineering feats that harnessed the power of the river to bring clean water to the city; tales of the Schuylkill Rangers, 19th century Irish river pirates from nearby Grays Ferry; and the rebirth of the river after decades of pollution and neglect.

Anchoring the piece in the 250th anniversary year, McDonald played the glass armonica—an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin that uses water to make music. A series of spinning glass bowls that create ethereal tones when touched with wet fingers, the glass armonica evokes the water wheels that once hummed in this building. The performance also featured glass gongs that refracteed the light bouncing off the river just outside the windows. Once a majestic engineering marvel, the Water Works is now a forlorn ruin, haunted by its past glory. River Ode seeks to conjure a mournful resonance within its crumbling walls.