Media Contact: Steven Ausbury (619) 238-2727,  or Jan Jennings (858) 822-1684 

ENVIRONMENTAL OPERA BIOSPHERIA TO PREMIERE MARCH 8 AT UCSD

Biospheria, a multi-site environmental opera, will be presented at 3 p.m. March 8-11 and 15-18 on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. The performances are free and open to the public.

Biospheria is based on Biosphere 2, the self-contained, artificial ecosystem located in Arizona in which eight people lived for two years in the early 1990’s.

Production creators/organizers are Steven Ausbury and Anthony Burr, both UCSD graduate students. "Biospheria will investigate the primary themes of Biosphere 2’s utopian pursuits," Ausbury says. "On a local level, the work will explore the blurring boundaries of art, science and everyday life and the dynamics of a closed community."

The UCSD campus will become an allegorical stand-in for Biosphere 2. Audiences, in costumes and wearing headphones, will move from site to site visiting a sequence of live tableaux and interacting with performers, sets and objects. The soundtrack, heard through headphones, will include verbal excerpts from imaginary Biospherian diary entries within computer generated simulations of natural environmental sounds (birds, frogs, water, etc.) Each site will represent a historic moment in the lives of Biospherians.

"We are taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on practices from experimental theater, sound art, installation art, masque and avant-garde opera forms," Ausbury says.

Biospheria is funded by grants from the University of California Institute for the Arts and the UCSD Graduate Student Association and is supported by UCSD’s Center for Research in Computing and the Arts. For information and reservations visit www.crca.ucsd.edu/biospheria or contact Ausbury at (619) 238-2727, Burr at (619) 291-1050