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The myth.Sisyphus was an ancient Greek king who angered the gods by cheating death. His punishment was to push a giant boulder up a mountain in Hades, only to watch it roll back down every time it neared the summit.
The game.Sisyphus 2.0 concentrates that struggle into a playful yet challenging interactive game. The six-foot steel sphere twinkles in the darkness. Two tones follow two rhythms. By turning the sphere, participants control the sounds and bring the tones into synch.
Roll the ball. Unlock the puzzle. Dance to the music. Repeat. Startling in its simplicity, the work speaks directly to our very human experience of trial and error and measured success, achieved by deep listening and coordinating efforts among a group of players. |
The artists.
Melanie Armer
Lead Artist & Steel Sculptor
Melanie lives with her partner and their 60 pound pet mutt Kasper on eight acres about an hour north of New York City. She has made large scale public interactive theater work featuring sculptural elements including a steel sphere on Grace Plaza and a plexiglass cube in the Winter Garden. This piece, entitled The Attendants, and an interview with its creators was featured in American Theater magazine. After learning to weld in 2012 she apprenticed under Mike Roig, in Carborro NC, and began taking classes in NY and LA. She now utilizes MIG and Oxy-acetylene in her work. Sisyphus 2.0 can currently be seen at TRANSFIX, the world's largest immersive art experience currently in Las Vegas at Resorts World on The Strip.
www.melaniearmer.com @shaperofstageandsteel
Patreon Artist's support page
Lead Artist & Steel Sculptor
Melanie lives with her partner and their 60 pound pet mutt Kasper on eight acres about an hour north of New York City. She has made large scale public interactive theater work featuring sculptural elements including a steel sphere on Grace Plaza and a plexiglass cube in the Winter Garden. This piece, entitled The Attendants, and an interview with its creators was featured in American Theater magazine. After learning to weld in 2012 she apprenticed under Mike Roig, in Carborro NC, and began taking classes in NY and LA. She now utilizes MIG and Oxy-acetylene in her work. Sisyphus 2.0 can currently be seen at TRANSFIX, the world's largest immersive art experience currently in Las Vegas at Resorts World on The Strip.
www.melaniearmer.com @shaperofstageandsteel
Patreon Artist's support page
Stephan Moore
Audio and Game designer
Stephan Moore is a sound artist, designer, composer, improviser, programmer, engineer, teacher, and curator based in Chicago. His creative work manifests as electronic studio compositions, improvisational outbursts, sound installations, scores for collaborative performances, algorithmic compositions, interactive art, and sound designs for unusual circumstances. Much of his work has been realized in collaborative projects, most notably with sound artist Scott Smallwood in their duo Evidence and with choreographer Yanira Castro in the collective a canary torsi. He is the curator of sound art for the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, organizing annual exhibitions since 2014. He is also the president of Isobel Audio LLC, which builds and sells his Hemisphere loudspeakers. He was the music coordinator and touring sound engineer of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (2004-10), and has worked with Pauline Oliveros, Anthony McCall, and Animal Collective, among many others. In 2019, he co-founded the Chicago Laboratory for Electro-Acoustic Theater to promote and encourage the creation of multichannel audio works. He is a Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction in the Sound Arts and Industries program at Northwestern University.
Audio and Game designer
Stephan Moore is a sound artist, designer, composer, improviser, programmer, engineer, teacher, and curator based in Chicago. His creative work manifests as electronic studio compositions, improvisational outbursts, sound installations, scores for collaborative performances, algorithmic compositions, interactive art, and sound designs for unusual circumstances. Much of his work has been realized in collaborative projects, most notably with sound artist Scott Smallwood in their duo Evidence and with choreographer Yanira Castro in the collective a canary torsi. He is the curator of sound art for the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, organizing annual exhibitions since 2014. He is also the president of Isobel Audio LLC, which builds and sells his Hemisphere loudspeakers. He was the music coordinator and touring sound engineer of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (2004-10), and has worked with Pauline Oliveros, Anthony McCall, and Animal Collective, among many others. In 2019, he co-founded the Chicago Laboratory for Electro-Acoustic Theater to promote and encourage the creation of multichannel audio works. He is a Distinguished Associate Professor of Instruction in the Sound Arts and Industries program at Northwestern University.
Christine Shallenberg
Lighting designer
Christine is a multi dimensional artist whose expression finds itself in song, dance, theater, lighting, technology and social practice. She is a Professor of Art and Technology Studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she previously studied. She also studied Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University. She is the former Lighting Director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and hails from from Batavia IL
Lighting designer
Christine is a multi dimensional artist whose expression finds itself in song, dance, theater, lighting, technology and social practice. She is a Professor of Art and Technology Studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she previously studied. She also studied Theatre Arts at Illinois Wesleyan University. She is the former Lighting Director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and hails from from Batavia IL
A prototype of the sphere was shown at The Garden of Sonic Delights, at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, in 2014.