TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE

Omphalos

1990
Susan Stone
Her fear, his fantasy, his incisions, and her insanity collect and collide in the corners of a room in which both operate. This audio journey into a woman's heart of darkness takes place in a hospital operating room; there cardiac surgery charts the way through the surgeon's probing of her valley walls, intervening divides, and summits. The soundscape provides aural entry into his reconstruction of her heart, while he deconstructs her humanity. Illusion, delusion, and "instrumental" foreplay are derived from an interweaving of a male and female voice, medical actuality, and the manipulated musical phrasings of Hilding Rosenberg. Commissioned by New American Radio.