The Azathoth Catalogue
Beckoning the Void
(phase 1)
Omer Keinan with Máté Asbót, Raz Mantell, Susanna Ylikoski, and Roi Becker
Introduction
Welcome to this research catalogue, detailing the process of Azathoth: a practice/performance meditating on the elation and horror of the unknowable, contemplating creation through chaos. The catalogue includes videos from rehearsals and performances; and various texts detailing the concepts explored and practices utilized, and their development throughout each beat of the process. This project is intended to foreground the complex knowledge found in all acts of practice and artmaking - aiming to engender and encourage a community of research and exchange.
Click Me: User Manual and Provisions for the Journey
Origins, the Story of Azathoth
Overview, Concept and Methodology
Beat 1
Rehearsals 1-7, 16-31.01.2022
The first beat establishes the process, and as such it is rife with turmoil and change. Laying the groundwork for the process, we focused on developing a collective understanding of the concept, its “mythology”, by engaging with a matrix of references. Playing with various practices, we attempt to embody this matrix, inviting it to unfold through each practitioner’s embodied-knowledge and starting to find ways of performing it.
Establishing a Mythology and Methodology (Rehearsals 1-4, 16-22.01.2022)
A Shift: Checking In
Recalibration and Specification (Rehearsals 5-7, 24-31.01.2022)
Beat 2
Rehearsals 8-13, 10-19.02.2022
Returning to rehearsing after a brief, needed break – where we continue accumulating reference material as mythology – we start thinking more specifically about Azathoth as a performance. This beat distills the experiments of the previous and angles them towards a performative setting. And, as a function of the distillery, a retuning of Azathoth as a concept and practice.
From Embodiment to Performativity, Softly (Rehearsals 8-11, 10-15.02.2022)
A Shift: Feedback as Reality-Check
From Practice to Performance, Rigorously: Solo Series (Rehearsals 12-13, 18-19.02.2022)
Beat 3
Rehearsals 14-20, 21-27.02.2022
The festival is coming up, and things are getting very much real. We set off on a final, week-long intensive with the full cast, Roi joining as a musician. This beat is a process of adapting to the presence of the soundscape, prioritizing the opportunities and challenges it poses. And with that, a constant recalibration of the concept, aesthetics, and mechanisms of Azathoth.
A Final Intensive with the Full Cast (Rehearsals 14-17, 21-24.02.2022)
A Shift: Retuning the Retuning
Open Runs (Rehearsals 18-20, 25-27.02.2022)
Beat 4
Rehearsals 21-22 and Performances, 03-12.03.2022
The rehearsals leading up to a performance and the performances themselves are inherently charged. Marking the end of this phase, this beat reflects on that charge – excitement and stress – as a performance is, in some ways, just another rehearsal, just another experiment. And, fortunately, this beat also marks the thread towards Phase 2.
The Final Stretch (Rehearsals 21-22, 03-05.03.2022)
Performance Week (Rehearsals 23-25, 07-12.03.2022)
Things Unresolved, the Future Holds