Philogenesis presents famous philosophic concepts as short dramas, visual poems and experimental set pieces. Conceived by Ali Hossaini, several productions were developed as theater & film workshops at the Watermill Center for the Arts in August of 2008.

Several projects are available for performance venues. Please contact Ali Hossaini and Jorn Weisbrodt at the Water Mill Center for more information.

workshop video

Noumena aka The Betrayal

Time is the Moving Image of Eternity

description

For 3,000 years philosophy has been practiced as an esoteric dialog. Entry into the world of philosophy required years of training, a barrier overcome by only a few lonely soul. Now science has won much of philosophy's ground, pushing the discipline even further to the margins.

Could philosophy be fading into irrelevence? Or can we open new territories for its expression? Philosophy has long been aligned with science, but with science as the dominant paradigm of rationality, much of the philosopher's work seems misplaced. Irrelevant. It is time for philosophy to form new alliances.

The goal of this project is to express philosophy as art. Philosophic concepts possess inherent drama, and I'm seeking situations where ideas become plastic - where they can evolve to live in new mediums.

By adapting to expressive forms, philosophy can draw on its long history, its vast learning, and its enduring passions to reflect the human condition.

approach

Each piece expresses a single concept Some concepts are dramatized through action, others through narration over a flow of images. Scripts range from ordinary language to roccoco poetry, as does the visual style. Pieces are titled according to the concept they present.

As a rule I find myself gravitating towards non/sense, towards sub- and superliminal experiences that evade language and meaning. It's not that there's no easy interpretation - I tend to think there's no intepretation at all. I want to confront people with the raw elements of experience.

development process

Creating these works will be an open-ended collaboration that calls on writers, musicians, actors, visual artists, set designers, choreographers, lighting designers and directors. Rather than start with assigned tasks, the development process reflects the nature of philosophic inquiry, with the scripts representing a starting point.

Philogeneis is an ongoing project and it is open to anyone who is interesting in developing new avenues for this ancient discipline.

titles

The following films have been scripted.

• It Thinks: Nietzsche's proposal that the mind is largely independent of the self.
• Ice Red Love: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis which states that we only perceive those things for which we have a word.
• Excluded Middle: The logical law which states that things either "are" or "are not" because something can't be both.
• Noumena: Kant's assertion that we only know our experiences of things, not the essence of a thing in itself.
• Plato's Chair: The assertion that we know things through experience of an ideal essence that subsists in a world of its own.
• The Greater Good: An ethical dilemma that happens when one must choose between saving one's family and saving a city.
• The Same River: Heraclitus said you can't step in the same river twice, pointing to the shifting flux of reality.
• Time is the Moving Image: Plotinus explained time as "the moving image of eternity," which makes the cosmos a kind of clockwork.
• Zeno's Arrow: Zeno's Paradox which proves with die-hard logic that a moving arrow can never hit its target because motion is an illusion.

about the water mill center

Robert Wilson founded the Watermill Center in 1992 on Long Island, NY. Since its Grand Opening in the summer of 2006 the Watermill Center has greatly expanded its artistic outreach. Its mission is to give young emerging artists time and space to create new original works in a collaborative setting. We endevour to find new approaches to the arts and offer them a network and community of associated institutions, artists and alumni to bring their work to a next level. It is an inspirational haven and a platform for artistic growth.

In the first fall and spring seasons the Watermill Center has hosted over 14 artist residencies varying from visual arts, performance, theater and dance to literature and photography. The London based artist Daria Martin said about her two week residency at the Watermill Center: "We are encouraged to use the space as we see fit, whenever suits us...We also enjoyed the freedom of wandering through the Watermill Center collection of artworks, which added a provocative texture to thoughts and to worksÉThe peace and tranquility here is gold dust. You can watch your own thoughts drift past like in a meditation..."

Artists who have worked at the Center in the past include Ciao Fei, Cory Arcangel, Matt Leines, Tania Bruguera, Os Gemeos, William Pope L., Andrey Bartenev, Jessye Norman, Susan Sontag, Isabella Rossellini, Phil Glass, Salman Rushdie and many others.

Each summer Wilson hosts his international summer program inviting over 80 young artists and scholars from all over the world to join him on his workshop sessions developing new projects in the performing and visual arts.