opus cope: an algorithmic opera
73 minutes
HD video, stereo, color
2022
(o·pe·ra)
noun
a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists
David Cope was commissioned to write an opera in the 80's when he suffered a major composer's block sparking interest in an algorithmic partner named EMI, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, that could generate compelling works in the style of western classical music composers. Widely recognized as a pioneer of artificial creativity, David wields a body of work that spans art, astronomy, and literature, in addition to music. Featuring excerpts from the completed opera, the algorithmic composer imagines creativity through human and machine perspectives.
Featuring: David Cope, Keith Muscutt, Mary Jane Cope, Bernard Greenberg, Chris Garcia, V.J. Manzo
Distributed by Indie Rights.
www.opcopefilm.com
l'amour ou la mort
2 minutes
Super 8, stereo, color
2024
L'AMOUR OU LA MORT ('LOVE OR DEATH') is a Super 8 x music film that reveals the contradictory yet intertwined realities of love and death.
The theme originates from an interview with French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the documentary Derrida (2002). Director Amy Kofman asks him his thoughts on love, “l’amour,” and because of her accent he asks her to clarify if she’s referring to love or death, "l'amour ou la mort?" She repeats that it is love to which he asserts he has no thoughts on the matter: "rien."
Mariana: The facetious word play around deep existential concepts fascinated me, so I reached out to filmmaker Jae Shim who used Super8 film to place us in a nostalgic analog world. Together, we wove visual motifs of love (the rose garden) and death (the desert garden). To me, loving someone means embracing the reality that one day they will die or the relationship will end. Just as a rose blooms only to wither, choosing love is choosing to love in spite of death. Maybe love is deeper because it inherently includes the bittersweet pain of loss.
Jae: We often view love as this endless, immaculate state of bliss when in reality you put yourself at risk of great pain and suffering by opening yourself up to love. Mari and I thought of different ways in which we could convey this duality explicitly through images, and we were immediately drawn to flowers as a universal symbol of love. Being as we were in LA, we decided the rose garden at the Huntington Library would be the perfect backdrop with its obscene, almost suffocating level of beauty. And by chance, not too far from this artificial paradise was a lush desert garden with enough menacing cacti and succulents to represent the vile nature of “la mort” or “death.”
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