Western Door/Power Trail is a collaborative performance piece by maker/performer Karen Schupp and interactive media composer Todd Ingalls. The work traces issues of sustainability and water rights in relationship to ideas about power and relocation. Through exploring and embodying these ideas, evocative sound and visual environments emerge a new in each improvised and interactive performance.

    Western Door/Power Trail is a duet between Karen and Todd, and a trio between Karen, Todd, and the media that they generate in performance. Instead of hiding the technology and source of the media, we reveal the interactivity and foreground the live interplay of decision-making by both. Throughout the piece, Karen “activates” the sound and video through her movement, while also reacting to the resulting music and visual images. Real-time generation of sound and video are integral to the piece and provide an improvisatory dynamic.

    The development of this work was made possible through an Artist Project Grant awarded by the Arizona Commission on the Arts with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the state of Arizona. It has an estimated duration of 40 minutes.

Photo Credit: Ken Howie

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