Black Inscription

A free diver descends into the depths of the ocean, never to resurface. As her terrestrial ties dissolve, she embarks upon an Odyssean journey. Transported by the sea’s currents, she encounters a mystifying underworld with billions of bioluminescent creatures, endlessly inventive structures of coral, gyres of human detritus, and abandoned nets still fishing for no one – sights both awe-inspiring and devastating. Black Inscription is a multimedia contemporary song cycle written by a team of veteran creators, drawing on the most powerful aspects of rock, classical, and pop music. Through music, sound and imagery, Black Inscription plunges us into our oceans and fills us with wonder, outrage, and hope.

Black Inscription is dedicated to the memory of Arnold Bossi, ever devoted to the ocean. He liked it clear, murky, wavy, flat, smelly, brinny and cold. He was not a seaman, a fisherman, nor an oceanographer, but as long as the ocean was close, he felt at home.

Black Inscription is a theatrical expansion of Lost City: Songs from a Changing Sea, which was funded by Visions and Voices at the University of Southern California.

The spoken text by Hannah Silva is adapted from Jump Blue – an Afonica production for BBC Radio 3.

Additional underwater footage courtesy of William Lange, Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory, WHOI.

Black Inscription is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Photos by Maria Baranova.