Josh Nelson And The Discovery Project at Blue Whale

The Discovery Project is an ongoing multi-disciplinary artistic collaboration and presentation, with a strong storytelling component as its backdrop. The goal for each unique presentation is to create an immersive experience for the audience, utilizing original music compositions and a variety of concrete and abstract moving images projected onto sculptural forms, and subsequently transforming a space entirely. The musical ensemble sizes typically range from one to ten musicians. The original concept behind The Discovery Project was conceived alongside pianist/composers Josh Nelson's album release Discoveries (2011). Classic early and historical sci-fi and fantasy film video footage paired with new original jazz compositions resulted in the projects first curated performance event in Los Angeles, California. In 2015 Exploring Mars debuted, transporting audiences and listeners to themes written and selected about the Red Planet. The third iteration of the project found Josh examining his hometown of Los Angeles California with The Sky Remains (2017), covering themes ranging from droughts and floods, amusement park culture, architecture, and more. This was the first show to introduce a historian/narrator. All three shows are offered to venues for presentation, however new spontaneous versions of a themed show will be considered, such as in an educational setting, with individual students contributing to the performance and sceneography....

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The Discovery Project is an ongoing multi-disciplinary artistic collaboration and presentation, with a strong storytelling component as its backdrop. The goal for each unique presentation is to create an immersive experience for the audience, utilizing original music compositions and a variety of concrete and abstract moving images projected onto sculptural forms, and subsequently transforming a space entirely. The musical ensemble sizes typically range from one to ten musicians. The original concept behind The Discovery Project was conceived alongside pianist/composers Josh Nelson's album release Discoveries (2011). Classic early and historical sci-fi and fantasy film video footage paired with new original jazz compositions resulted in the projects first curated performance event in Los Angeles, California. In 2015 Exploring Mars debuted, transporting audiences and listeners to themes written and selected about the Red Planet. The third iteration of the project found Josh examining his hometown of Los Angeles California with The Sky Remains (2017), covering themes ranging from droughts and floods, amusement park culture, architecture, and more. This was the first show to introduce a historian/narrator. All three shows are offered to venues for presentation, however new spontaneous versions of a themed show will be considered, such as in an educational setting, with individual students contributing to the performance and sceneography.

The strength of The Discovery Project lies in the combination of different artistic mediums that aren't normally intertwined. From every direction, it presents a familiar art form in a fresh and vital way, introducing the unknown to an audience member who may be initially attracted to only one facet of the presentation. To the jazz enthusiast, this means encountering iconic visual imagery and taking a musical voyage of interconnected meaning. To those uninitiated into the world of jazz music, the project is an invitation into the music and story content, with visual imagery as an abstract (and sometimes concrete) guide. The Discovery Project attempts a fresh conversation between musical improvisation, changing visual elements, and space/series curating. The aim is to broaden horizons of how students and audiences experience and appreciate live creative music and how it can be further enhanced by other vibrant artistic disciplines.

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