Wu (Nothingness)

“Wu” creates a “quasi-theatre” production exploring the essential meaning of life
With new-media imagery designed by the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington, Seattle
Zen aesthetics meet interactive sound, light and shadow in a deep dialogue between Eastern and Western perspectives on contemporary art

“Wu” tells of how a person arises from “nothingness,” lives in “being,” and finally awakens to “nothingness” once more, unfolding a series of dialogues that explore the essential meaning of life. The musical program follows a dramatic arc from the beginning to the end of a life, presenting the inner landscape of each of life’s stages. To depict the three stages of “child,” “youth” and “adult,” the production specially commissioned new works from Ching Wen Chao, a Taiwanese composer active on the international scene in recent years; rising Taiwanese composer Shih Wei Lo; and multiple international award-winning American contemporary composer Huck Hodge, continuing to spark new artistic energy in the Music Unlimited commissioning project.

For the stage of “the sage,” “Wu” presents several transcendent contemporary vocal works by leading British composer Jonathan Harvey. Through the interplay of voice and image, it conveys the outlook on life that Harvey, long inspired by Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, poured into the music. Through “Wu,” we also hope to pay tribute to Harvey, who passed away at the end of 2012. Though life, like sound, light and shadow, slips away with time, and all the senses at last return to silence and emptiness, the traces of life that Harvey left through music remain the finest guide for every listener seeking to understand life.