Meditation on CP-1 with Triptych for E.F. HD

NOTES ON THE PERFORMANCE: "Meditation on CP-1" emerges from a series of workshops led by dance artist Emily Coates and particle physicist Young-Kee Kim for students and staff from the University of Chicago. Sponsored by the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry and the Division of Physical Sciences, we devoted six meetings this fall to exploring the materials, means, and critical questions of creating performance in relation to science, using as our focal point the nuclear physics and history of Chicago Pile-1 and its aftereffects. Drawn from the sciences, humanities, performing arts and visual arts, workshop participants actively engaged inthe creative process by generating material through guided choreographic prompts and group discussion. Young-Kee Kim led the inquiry into physics. Guest speakers Robert Rosner and Norma Field contributed additional scientific and cultural history. Emily Coates led the movement work and directed the final performance. Andrew Bearnot served as teaching assistant and assistant director. Sam Pluta’s original music, composed for this workshop, coexists alongside the choreographic score. However, in keeping with one vein of post-World War II avant-garde aesthetics, any connections between movement and music are forged in the minds of the spectators. Many experimental artists responded to the rise of the Nuclear Age by refusing to dictate any one single meaning or linear narrative, preferring instead ambiguity, surrealism, and fragmentation. The right of performers and witnesses to form their own interpretations became paramount. This same sensibility ran through our group discussions about the groundbreaking physics experiment that occurred seventy- five years ago today. NOTES ON THE MUSIC: The musical element in our work is a three section composition, titled "Triptych for E.F.", depicting events surrounding the first sustained nuclear reaction. The first section of the music uses the voice of Enrico Fermi, reflecting on the reaction eight years after the event, but representing the anticipation of scientific breakthrough. The second section of the music is about the reaction itself. Inspired by my students in Composing with Sound, it uses a kind of breakbeat to depict the collision of nuclei in a nuclear reaction. The final section of music is a meditation on the post-nuclear world we have created with this incredible scientific achievement.