Sasha Amaya and Murillo Basso perform The Task of the Translator, a performance of book-object “The Nick of Time” by M.T.C. Shafer, after Anne Carson’s Antigonick, after Sophocles’s Antigone. 3AM event, Berlin, 2017.
The Annotated Book Project: A Re-Reading of Antigone
Take a book and write all over it—put things in the pages—fill it with fragments of your time spent reading—make it into a new object, no longer just another copy. A “prepared book.” Like John Cage’s “prepared pianos,” prepared books are unique instruments for creative practice; not simply works of sculpture or collage, they are starting points for experiments in performance.
One such preparation is M.T.C. Shafer's Nick of Time, a preparation of Anne Carson’s Antigonick, a translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. In our current moment of heightened moral contestation of political and legal structures, the story of Antigone has renewed relevance for considering the competing demands of state and self; Carson’s adaptation—which blurs history and myth, fact and fiction—even more so.
Our ongoing project is to create performances of the book’s preface, “The Task of the Translator of Antigone.” In these dense readings layered with notes, memories, and associations, the performers—channeling Shafer, Carson, Sophocles, and perhaps even Antigone—translate and recreate. Both reinforcing and inverting traditional hierarchies of interpretation and citation, we use this instrument to explore the role of subjectivity, memory, authorship, and performance.
The Annotated Book Project is a series of creations by Sasha Amaya + Naomi Woo
an iteration of MTC Shafer's annotated book as object The Nick of Time
an interpretation of Anne Carson's Antigonick
a translation of Sophocles's Antigone
Iterations
an/notation (solo) | naomi woo
an/notation treats the prepared book as both an instrument to be reckoned with and a found musical score to be interpreted, letting it set the constraints and possibilities for performance. The performance takes place at the piano, but incorporates elements of text, song, and technology.
performances:
7.2.2018 at Clare College Chapel, Cambridge
The Task of the Translator (duo) | sasha amaya
A performed reading of Anne Carson's introduction to her text, exploring annotation, materiality, double-voicing, and memory. Performed by Sasha Amaya and Murillo Basso.
performances:
12.3.2017 at 3AM, Berlin
The Task of The Translator (solo) | sasha amaya
first version
Stepping inside the book itself, Sasha Amaya explores the relationship between reading and the body, the manipulation of space, and memory in this danced reading of Anne Carson's introduction.
performances:
21.7.2017 at Lake Studios, Berlin
The Task of the Translator (solo) | sasha amaya
second version
This separately created version by Sasha Amaya is an investigation of text, sound, memory, character, movement, and image in highly abstracted form.
performances:
11.11.17 at ada studios, Berlin
12.11.17 at ada studios, Berlin
26.1.18 at Lake Studios, Berlin
7.2.18 at Clare College Chapel, Cambridge
A Re-Reading of Antigone (duo) | sasha amaya + naomi woo
In a performative presentation of Anne Carson's introduction to Antigonick, The Task of the Translator of Antigone, reading becomes a site for collision, conversation, and play.
performances:
25.4.18 at The Junction, Cambridge
16.3.18 at Das Kapital, Berlin
Antigone (duo) | sasha amaya + naomi woo
Antigone invites the audience to converse, observe, and participate as a Greek chorus in the story of Anne Carson's Antigonick (2012), her translation of the original Sophocles.
performances:
24.7.18 at Kunsthalle, Darmstadt
Created with the support of HelpMusiciansUK