In Central Park, a live broadcast performance of Puccini's Madam Butterfly is about to commence, but first we must deal with the radio DJ and his peculiar brand of sunstroke.
At some point, without warning, the tone becomes esoteric and lodged in occult knowledge. We hear of things that swarm, noisesome pestilence, the lovemad murmur of bees—Napoleon, information as warfare, Beelzebub…
Inspired by Caroll Reed’s postwar film classic, The Third Man— Third Girl is a stranger in strangeland under strange circumstances… A skewed, shadowy meditation on foreigness and the urban psyche. Written and performed by Onome Ekeh with Knut Asdam and Simple Text (background vocals) Originally presented at the UKS Fortum: Bricks & Kicks Festival, Vienna, Austria, 1997.
Excerpted from ‘Machine Fragments’ Featuring:Simone WhiteJay Ward Commissioned by New Radio and Performing Arts (aka Ether Ore) for their Turbulence.org website with funding from the Greenwall Foundation. Created while in residence at the Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck Austria.
The cultural schisms that generate this differentiation between “man” and “machine” are also responsible for spawning voids and displacements—and ghosts that inhabit them.