UNDERWATER brings environmentalism, trance music, and mysticism together. In a 7-channel video installation that’s also an operatic disco, Tauber sings about pollution and global warming like a Jewish canter on the Day of Atonement. So, there is a prayer-like, collective atonement element to this underwater rave.Electronic dance music arises from depth readings taken from 40 of his scuba dives. 5 videos focus on what Tauber finds underwater: pollution, death, nausea, a beautiful sea turtle, and swaying kelp… A 6th video shows the artist disappearing into a cloud of air bubbles; and the 7th video is a visual map of his dives.8 drawings of the musical notes and lyrics in the composition will surround the videos, and overhead neon blue lights illuminate the space. The composition arises from the depth readings from every second from each of my dives. I assigned each dive an instrument and a beat and translated the movements of each dive in real time into music: the deeper the depth reading, the deeper the note. Sometimes, all 40 dives play together. Other times, a “band” of dives are heard. And, then there are moments when individual dives have “solos”. KOENIG2 by_robbygreif
