2021 Short Film Showcase
Duo Pandemic
Time: 10:31
Artist: Rebecca Nie
QUANTUM ELDERS CONSCIOUSNESS VACCINE by Karlton E. Hester
QUANTUM ELDERS CONSCIOUSNESS VACCINE
Episode #14 - "Duo Pandemic (COVID-19 & Racism)"
Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is a musical series that brings the audience on a journey to search for remedies for the COVID-19 and racism dual pandemic that currently plagues humanity. Through dream-work and deep contemplation, our Black and Asian protagonists come under the guidance of sagacious beings known as Quantum Elders and voyage in multiverses that are vibrational allegories to our existence. This interdisciplinary creative and intellectual contemplation is concerned with how the intersection of art practice, playful design, and digital storytelling is interrelated with the multiverse's abstract design. We hope that our series fosters new considerations of social activism, aesthetics, global interconnection, and public pedagogy through a process of thoughtfully structured and innovative, creative collaboration between complementary aural, visual, and kinetic ritual components. Thus, Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is collaborative, interdisciplinary, eclectic, and incorporates hybrid forms of interwoven creative arts, abstract storytelling, fine arts therapy, and creative practice. Traversing the transcultural intersections between arts, science, dream state, and metaphysical contemplation, we explore the power and the binding force of abstract unity, using Nature and spiritual worlds as models and for motivation, while improvisation drives its fluid process.
Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is Karlton Hester’s abstract stories emerged from ideas gathered from studies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Ages ago, in a primordial galaxy, a watery planet initially produced only microscopic particles. As consciousness gradually evolved and prospered in a fluid and balanced flow the most innovative particles confer and decide to explore the practice of frequency teleportation into inner-space (“afterlife”) – The Netherworld. The group called themselves Quantum Elders and eventually became successful in achieving their goals of transcendence. These ancient ancestors of humanity began millions of years ago to form a new migratory “Quantum World” centered voyages directed towards maintaining a fluid balance of universal forces. In their travel throughout quantum worlds they sought to restore balance, peace, beauty and harmony to Earth and other worlds. Thus, their mission strived towards oneness with all elements of the interconnected ecosystems that sustain life.
Divine Quantum Elders’ Consciousness Vaccine is presented as a series of 13 Episodes (Total Time = 1 hour 40 minutes):
The online world premiere is on April 30, 2021
1. Ogunsiris - 4:33
2. King Createllon- 8:46
3. Princess Destrutina - 4:23
4. Prince Matthrawi - 13:04
5. Angel Antimatilda - 5:06
6. Jester Bondahu – 4:44
7. Generals Divisina - 3:42
8. Imp Parasitica - 13:40
9. Counselor Retardora - 3:52
0. Director Principalia - 7:14
11. Pawn Adherella - 7:36
12. Queen Catalyna - 10:50
13. Bishop Acceleratora - 2:08
14. Duo Pandemic (CODA) – 10:30 (Cecilia, KEH, Yunxiang) Hesterian Musicism (artists involved in the performance) Karlton Hester – founding director, story, narration, composer, saxophones Patricia Saucedo – videographer (Episode #14, Duo Pandemic) Cecilia Wu – co-composer, vocals (Episode #14, Duo Pandemic) Yunxiang Gao – pipa
Episode #14 - "Duo Pandemic (COVID-19 & Racism)"
Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is a musical series that brings the audience on a journey to search for remedies for the COVID-19 and racism dual pandemic that currently plagues humanity. Through dream-work and deep contemplation, our Black and Asian protagonists come under the guidance of sagacious beings known as Quantum Elders and voyage in multiverses that are vibrational allegories to our existence. This interdisciplinary creative and intellectual contemplation is concerned with how the intersection of art practice, playful design, and digital storytelling is interrelated with the multiverse's abstract design. We hope that our series fosters new considerations of social activism, aesthetics, global interconnection, and public pedagogy through a process of thoughtfully structured and innovative, creative collaboration between complementary aural, visual, and kinetic ritual components. Thus, Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is collaborative, interdisciplinary, eclectic, and incorporates hybrid forms of interwoven creative arts, abstract storytelling, fine arts therapy, and creative practice. Traversing the transcultural intersections between arts, science, dream state, and metaphysical contemplation, we explore the power and the binding force of abstract unity, using Nature and spiritual worlds as models and for motivation, while improvisation drives its fluid process.
Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine is Karlton Hester’s abstract stories emerged from ideas gathered from studies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Ages ago, in a primordial galaxy, a watery planet initially produced only microscopic particles. As consciousness gradually evolved and prospered in a fluid and balanced flow the most innovative particles confer and decide to explore the practice of frequency teleportation into inner-space (“afterlife”) – The Netherworld. The group called themselves Quantum Elders and eventually became successful in achieving their goals of transcendence. These ancient ancestors of humanity began millions of years ago to form a new migratory “Quantum World” centered voyages directed towards maintaining a fluid balance of universal forces. In their travel throughout quantum worlds they sought to restore balance, peace, beauty and harmony to Earth and other worlds. Thus, their mission strived towards oneness with all elements of the interconnected ecosystems that sustain life.
Divine Quantum Elders’ Consciousness Vaccine is presented as a series of 13 Episodes (Total Time = 1 hour 40 minutes):
The online world premiere is on April 30, 2021
1. Ogunsiris - 4:33
2. King Createllon- 8:46
3. Princess Destrutina - 4:23
4. Prince Matthrawi - 13:04
5. Angel Antimatilda - 5:06
6. Jester Bondahu – 4:44
7. Generals Divisina - 3:42
8. Imp Parasitica - 13:40
9. Counselor Retardora - 3:52
0. Director Principalia - 7:14
11. Pawn Adherella - 7:36
12. Queen Catalyna - 10:50
13. Bishop Acceleratora - 2:08
14. Duo Pandemic (CODA) – 10:30 (Cecilia, KEH, Yunxiang) Hesterian Musicism (artists involved in the performance) Karlton Hester – founding director, story, narration, composer, saxophones Patricia Saucedo – videographer (Episode #14, Duo Pandemic) Cecilia Wu – co-composer, vocals (Episode #14, Duo Pandemic) Yunxiang Gao – pipa
Karlton Hester, received his Ph.D. in composition from CUNY Graduate Center, has performed worldwide, published music textbooks, recorded dozens of audio and video publications as a composer, video artist, scholar, and performer (flute, saxophone, synthesizer). Hester created the Quantum Elder series of digital images in 2006 and subsequently their corresponding mythology that is central to the virtual comic ritual’s theme. As a performer, Dr. Hester has performed worldwide. As a scholar, he studied Egyptian mysteries and has traveled to West Africa, South Korea, Bolivia, and Peru to examine their mystical histories, shamans, griots, and interrelated ritual practices. Hester has been the recipient of composer fellowships, grants, and commissions from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Council of the Arts, ASCAP, and the William Grant Still Foundation.
Dr. Jiayue Cecilia Wu Originally from Beijing, Jiayue Cecilia Wu is a scholar, composer, performer, multimedia technology designer, and audio engineer whose diversified vocabularies have been exhibited at museums, international arts-science societies and with media arts and high-profile technology companies. Master of Arts degree in Music, Science, and Technology from Stanford University; Ph.D. from University of California Santa Barbara (computer music); 2-year audio engineer grant - Audio Engineering Society; award from California State Assembly as a positive role model in sharing Chinese culture. Dr. Wu pushes back against the notion of Asians as “the model minority” and realizes that Asian-Americans are complaining evermore vigorously about discrimination in general.
Patricia Saucedo, Patricia Saucedo is a visual artist and a graduate of Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes del Perú in Lima (degree in Fine Arts 1999) and self-taught in sound. In 2004 she obtained a scholarship to
participate in the Electroacoustic and Computer Composition workshop held at the LIEM-CDMC (Spain). Currently she uses different analog synthesizers, flutes, pre-Columbian-inspired sound instruments, a DIY
rhythm generator, guitar pedals as a basis for sound and video performances. Conceptually she is interested in the manifestations of ancestral music, rituality, spirituality, the fractal, madness, error, social conflicts,
the feminine, just to mention a few. Saucedo has participated in various events performing as a soloist and in collaboration with visual and performance artists. She has worked with Dr. Hester on several performance
and video projects since they met in Peru for a performance at MATEO SALADO ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX. The place was selected for an eclecticism for the Karlton Hester-Marlene Quesada binomial
where Saucedo assisted in presenting a staging of the harmonious correspondence of two disciplines, painting (visual projection from pictorial works belonging to Quesada ), music (electronic music composed,
prerecorded by Hester and live performance) and dance (presentation by Ana Lucia Saavedra).
Rebecca Nie is a Zen Master of the Korean Jogye Order and 24th generation lineage holder of Zen Buddhism. From Guangdong, Chinese province where generations of the Zen ancestors were active throughout history, and shares home province with Wang Wei (692 to 761 C.E.), a seminal poet and founding artist of Zen landscape paintings. She holds a graduate degree in applied physics from Stanford University and graduated with distinction from the University of Toronto, specializing in pure mathematics and theoretical physics (thesis and publication in quantum optics).
Yunxiang Gao (pipa) is a composer, pianist, and pipa player from China. She graduated from Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Composition. During her undergraduate study at CCOM, her multimedia piece “Yin” won second prize in the MUSICACOUSTICA festival in 2005. Her pipa concerto “Qin Yong” was awarded third prize in Beijing International Music Festival and Academy in 2009. In 2011, she entered the University of California, Irvine to continue her graduate studies in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology. While at UC Irvine, she was invited to perform a pipa concerto with the Stanford Orchestra during the 2012 “Pan-Asia” Festival at Stanford University. Her symphonic works “Picture of Borderland” and “Beijing Opera – Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou” were performed by the UC Irvine orchestra and conducted by Professor Christopher Dobrian. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts with an emphasis in World Music Composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Dr. Jiayue Cecilia Wu Originally from Beijing, Jiayue Cecilia Wu is a scholar, composer, performer, multimedia technology designer, and audio engineer whose diversified vocabularies have been exhibited at museums, international arts-science societies and with media arts and high-profile technology companies. Master of Arts degree in Music, Science, and Technology from Stanford University; Ph.D. from University of California Santa Barbara (computer music); 2-year audio engineer grant - Audio Engineering Society; award from California State Assembly as a positive role model in sharing Chinese culture. Dr. Wu pushes back against the notion of Asians as “the model minority” and realizes that Asian-Americans are complaining evermore vigorously about discrimination in general.
Patricia Saucedo, Patricia Saucedo is a visual artist and a graduate of Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes del Perú in Lima (degree in Fine Arts 1999) and self-taught in sound. In 2004 she obtained a scholarship to
participate in the Electroacoustic and Computer Composition workshop held at the LIEM-CDMC (Spain). Currently she uses different analog synthesizers, flutes, pre-Columbian-inspired sound instruments, a DIY
rhythm generator, guitar pedals as a basis for sound and video performances. Conceptually she is interested in the manifestations of ancestral music, rituality, spirituality, the fractal, madness, error, social conflicts,
the feminine, just to mention a few. Saucedo has participated in various events performing as a soloist and in collaboration with visual and performance artists. She has worked with Dr. Hester on several performance
and video projects since they met in Peru for a performance at MATEO SALADO ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX. The place was selected for an eclecticism for the Karlton Hester-Marlene Quesada binomial
where Saucedo assisted in presenting a staging of the harmonious correspondence of two disciplines, painting (visual projection from pictorial works belonging to Quesada ), music (electronic music composed,
prerecorded by Hester and live performance) and dance (presentation by Ana Lucia Saavedra).
Rebecca Nie is a Zen Master of the Korean Jogye Order and 24th generation lineage holder of Zen Buddhism. From Guangdong, Chinese province where generations of the Zen ancestors were active throughout history, and shares home province with Wang Wei (692 to 761 C.E.), a seminal poet and founding artist of Zen landscape paintings. She holds a graduate degree in applied physics from Stanford University and graduated with distinction from the University of Toronto, specializing in pure mathematics and theoretical physics (thesis and publication in quantum optics).
Yunxiang Gao (pipa) is a composer, pianist, and pipa player from China. She graduated from Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Composition. During her undergraduate study at CCOM, her multimedia piece “Yin” won second prize in the MUSICACOUSTICA festival in 2005. Her pipa concerto “Qin Yong” was awarded third prize in Beijing International Music Festival and Academy in 2009. In 2011, she entered the University of California, Irvine to continue her graduate studies in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology. While at UC Irvine, she was invited to perform a pipa concerto with the Stanford Orchestra during the 2012 “Pan-Asia” Festival at Stanford University. Her symphonic works “Picture of Borderland” and “Beijing Opera – Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou” were performed by the UC Irvine orchestra and conducted by Professor Christopher Dobrian. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts with an emphasis in World Music Composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz.