Gaia is an artistic look at climate change which causes environmental and geopolitical challenges and which in turn cause unrest and population displacement. It is a work-in-progress and because of this it is not possible to talk specifically about the larger work while it is constantly evolving with movements added or interpolated, invariably changing the overall structure.
My approach to the climate change theme has been to musically explore two specific regions of our world which are being most heavily impacted by the phenomenon of climate change: the Fertile Crescent and the Arctic. Two singers representing the cultures of these two regions, Maryem Hassan Tollar, a Sufi singer, and Tiffany Ayalik, an Inuit throat singer, epitomize the cultural dialectic between the migrant and nativist viewpoints with the orchestra and the SurroundSound electronics mediating the two viewpoints. While this is a global theme of great urgency, it is also a question that Canada, a vast land mass sparsely populated, needs to address in earnest. In its early stages, climate change will turn our country into a land of geopolitical opportunity but also danger. It is up to us to imagine its future as an inclusive land of opportunity for the rest of the world or an exclusive fortress nearly impossible to defend against rising geopolitical tensions and desires. I believe in art that actively contributes to national and larger discussions so I hope that Gaia may be able to bring some of these emotionally charged questions to greater public awareness, conversation and action. Some questions tackled in this work cannot be immediately related to climate change. They are deeper questions about who we are, collectively and individually, but at this present moment they are brought to the fore by the population displacement which is caused by climate change, so they are not unrelated to the subject either. It is dangerous to not attempt to answer them and, conversely, this is an opportune moment to do so.
This work was previously titled Syn-Phonia (Migration Patterns)
