HYLAS' SONG   (1995)

HET LIED VAN HYLAS (Hylas'Song), commisioned by the Small-Scale Commissions Group of the Amsterdam Art Fund Foundation, originated as a so-called Artist's Page for a television magazine which the Art Channel Foundation 'Kunstkanaal' wishes to start. The work is based on the installation Palinuro and the project Faro Anteo.

I have taken advantage of the commission for this small-scale video production to juxtapose a work from a few years ago and a work that is not yet completed. Palinuro was an analogue production on U-matic; Faro Anteo may use digital animation techniques.

HET LIED VAN HYLAS arose from the idea of the central position of Faro Anteo in relation to the other video installations. It should be thought of as being on the axis of the video lighthouse in the centre and the central monitor of Palinuro outside Faro Anteo's panorama circle.

The work is the same length, 4 min. 45 sec., as the Chanson d'Hylas in Hector Berlioz' opera Les Troyens. I used the song, from the opening of Act 5, in Palinuro to accentuate the beginning of the work, the transition from the first to the second part and the end, using alternate verses.

The work - an experiment and try out with video animation - has been broadcasted in 1996 on television (Kunstkanaal).

(ndk 1996)

computer animation Shaun O’Neil, digital compositing Ivo van Stiphout, sound Rob Glotzbach, music Hector Berlioz, sound mixing Studio Barradeel, Amsterdam, postproduction MonteVideo/TimeBasedArts, Amsterdam; 5’43” (inl.credits); colour, sound  (stereo)