Prometheus-2000: International Conference on the Destiny of Light-Music at the Threshold of the New Century (review)

The ancient myth of Prometheus was supplemented in the early twentieth century with one more myth—that of the composer A.N. Scriabin's work, Prometheus. His work marked the first time in the history of world music that the score of a symphonic poem included a "light line" (the "Luce" line). What is the meaning of the notational symbols in this line? How is this light part to be performed? Is an authentic performance of "Luce" possible (and necessary)? These questions still remain relevant today.

The international conference "Prometheus-2000," held in Kazan in October 2000, was devoted mainly to appraisal of Scriabin's ideas at the threshold of the twenty-first century. The conference was organized by the Experimental Aesthetics Institute (which also bears the name Prometheus). A number of the lectures concerned Scriabin's thematics and were accompanied with video demonstrations of well-known Prometheus performances of recent years in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Milan, Geneva, Brussels and other cities. Organizers also presented a live audio-visual performance entitled "Prometheus: Scriabin and Kandinsky."

The scope of the 5-day conference was naturally broader than just the subject of Prometheus; in fact, Scriabin's ideas of "Gesamtkunstwerk" went far beyond that. The areas of interest of the Prometheus Institute also extend to new realms, where more exotic genres of experimental art—spatial music, abstract cinema, holography, multimedia, laseriums, computer animation and interactive art—exist side-by-side with light music and electronic music. Numerous examples of this wide variety of new art forms were presented at the conference, in keeping with Scriabin's aesthetic program. One day was fully devoted to a discussion on "color hearing" and synesthesia. Overall, more than 60 papers were presented by participants from Kazan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Saratov, as well as from Germany, the United States, France and Hungary. Theoretical lectures were supplemented with performances such as "Classics of Light-Music," "Light-Music Performances in the Open Air" and "Computer Light-Music." Other concerts included a light-music performance, Alleluia, by S. Gubaidullina, electronic and concrete music events and original audio-visual computer performances in the category of "stage multimedia."

The conference proceedings book includes a complete bibliography of Russian light-music works since the year 1742 and an index of all the lectures presented at more than 10 previous Russian and international symposia on light-music held in Kazan over the last 35 years. Some of the conference materials are available at the web site of the Prometheus Institute: <http://prometheus.kai.ru>.