Cybeline

Abbie Conant: performance, text, and drawings
William Osborne: music and video
Cybeline was premiered in 2004 in Los Angeles in the REDCAT Theater of Disney Hall under the auspices of CalArts. It is a multimedia music theater film about a cyborg trying to be a talk show host so she can prove she is human. The work begins with Cybeline’s showbiz antics, but as her awareness grows she strives toward spirituality and transcendence which is given an ironic tone by her cyborgian nature.
Cybeline’s existence is divided between two worlds separated by a loud switch: 1) her online existence of cyborgian showbiz; and 2) her off-line biological world, which is dream-like, random, animistic, and surrounded by whispered thoughts she hears in her head. Part of her cyborg nature is a digital glove that controls a synthesizer. As the work progresses, she reports about a person named Maxine O’Donnell who was murdered and dismembered then put back together as a cyborg. As Cybeline gradually regains memories of when she was a human, there are increasing hints that she is actually Maxine.
The full program notes really help in understanding the work. For them and much more info about Cybeline see: www.osborne-conant.org/cybelin...