Nykelle DeVivo

Arkestra Landing 

(2024)

  I created Arkestra Landing as a direct homage to the visionary jazz composer Sun Ra to ask, “What would his ship look like if it were to land today?”

 I grew my relationship with spirituality by embodying the heartbeat of the 808 as I’d nod to beats that sampled a history of Black experience. In them, we hear the whispers of the past, the voices of the present, and the echoes of the future, all converging in a symphony of the now. I understand my spiritual practice as honoring the space in between the modes of being, in the same way Sun Ra embodies that of the astral traveler, a being that harmoniously connects us to our divine potential through a process he referred to as transmolecularization.

  The drum is the most ancient of technologies made to facilitate divination. In Arkestra Landing, I produce rings of light that envelop the room, pulsing in and out to the rhythm of an 808, which reverberates through the room, rattling the walls. The strobing effect is most prevalent in the disco ball hung at heart height, which is meant to act as an anchor as we journey further into our astral travels. The gold and red take on a multitude of meanings, from the literal reference to Ra’s ship which manifested in his 1974 film Space Is The Place, to the red of one's heart and the life-giving gold of the sun, which represents our synchronic micro/macro relationship to the cosmos.

  Turning counterclockwise, just as the Bakongo Kosmogram (the African equivalent to Samsara), the illuminated ball becomes an entity in itself as the vibrations of its’ heart harmoniously guide the viewers through the darkness of the room surrounding them. The slow-moving, rhythmic pace of the lights is meant to inspire a sense of calm and meditation as viewers begin their journeys among the stars on their passageway home. Through this minimalist and modern adaptation of Sun Ra’s ship, Arkestra Landing acts as a reminder that even as we venture into the unknown, we are guided by the rhythms that have sustained us through the ages.

170” x 108” x 70”

Arkestra Landing was first physicalized as a multi-room installation at the University of California, San Diego. Before entering the light installment, viewers would pass through an empty room where concealed speakers would play the 13-minute audio piece in the previous slide on a loop. The audio is procured through a conversation I had with a “deepfake” I trained on Sun Ra’s ideologies, where I ask him (or it) a series of questions about how they perceive modern technologies in music production relate to their spiritual practice of transmolecularization. The transcript that follows and the audio that is spoken are 100% created through artificial intelligence.

acknowledgments

Sculptural Fabrication

Mary Wickizer

Sound Production

Myles Ortiz-Green

Lighting Design / Programming

Taylor Olson

Padra Crisafulli