The After Days: A Somnium Event

How would we experience life if society had collapsed and the world had fallen into disaster? How would we look upon the world before and after the fall? The musical group Somnium, along with a supporting collection of collaborating visual artists, seeks to answer these questions by presenting The After Days: A Somnium Event. This event is an uncommon collaborative effort that brings together music, visual art and multimedia from both local and out-of-the-area artists and musicians. All of these elements will combine to create a unique, socially relevant concert and art experience that will explore, through the eyes and ears of artists and musicians, a fictional near future where society has collapsed.

Created by Aaron Radzwilowicz, Karl Larson, Richard Chiochios and Tony Pinar, Somnium is an independent band based in Hancock Michigan. In its sound, Somnium’s music recalls the ambition of progressive rock acts like Pink Floyd from decades past and aims to be socially and culturally relevant in its subject matters. “We are really trying to be ambitious,” says project creator Aaron Radzwilowicz. “Both in the music and in the art, we are trying to do something with substance. We’re also trying to make a local music/art event that’s uncommon in its scope and subject matter. We want to be unique and provocative.” The show is in support of their latest album The After Days, an album that explores the ideas of a modern society and empire that has collapsed. The album was released on February 12^th, the day of the concert and exhibit opening at the Rozsa Center art gallery in Houghton Michigan.

Along with an ambitious musical concert, the event showcases the varied visual artistry of local and out-of-the-area artists. The artists are working in a variety of forms including painting, sculpture, electronic multimedia, and photography. Their art will explore themes of war, modern technology, faith, culture, environment and the human experience – all through the lens of a post-apocalyptic society.

Somnium The After Days - Video Preview

Somnium The After Days - Live in Concert (Full Video)

The Emergence - The first performance of "The After Days" at the Rozsa Center for the Performing arts

In 2010, Somnium was in search of the proper venue to bring their music to life after having completed their latest album “The After Days,” a rumination on living within a great modern empire that has collapsed in a not-so-distant future. They wanted to create an experience - not just a concert. They wanted to engage an audience on more than just the level of sound.

An opportunity arose to use the art gallery in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Tech University. From that opportunity a new type of collaborative show came into being.

For their first show at the Rozsa Art Gallery in Houghton Michigan in February of 2011, Somnium collaborated with seven visual artists to create a space that refected the themes of Somnium’s latest album and, along with a live performance by Somnium, engaged the audience on three levels - audio, visual, and conceptual. The event was an uncommon collaborative effort that brought together music, visual art and multimedia from both local and out-of-the-area artists and musicians. All of these elements combined to create a unique, thought-provoking concert and art exhibition experience that explored, through the eyes and ears of the collaborating artists and musicians, a fictional near future where society has collapsed.

The show was a success and since then Somnium has sought to bring this collaborative model to forward-thinking venues looking to bring unique art and entertinment to their area and also to create an opportunity for local artists to showcase their talent and collaborate to create a one-of-a-kind event with Somnium.

Artist bios from the Rozsa performance:

Melissa Hronkin - Melissa is a teacher, artist and beekeeper living in Ontonagon County in the Western UP of Michigan. She received a BFA from UAA in Alaska, MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and an MA from the Ohio State University. Melissa teaches Art at Houghton Elementary and is an adjunct instructor at Finlandia University.

Melissa's passion for beekeeping has influenced her recent encaustic and installation artworks. Interspecies communication and fragility of natural systems have been themes behind her latest experiments.

Jordan Seigler – Jordan L. Siegler earned his BFA degree in Sustainable Design from Finlandia University in 2009. His creative process, and completed works ranging from photographs to large-scale installations, are inspired by his observations, research and interest in contemporary culture and what makes things so. He places considerable significance in his conceptual process and material choices, which are often salvaged.  Jordan is devoted to his work being the first steps on the endless staircase of healthy, creative, and challenging thought.

Jonathan Soper – Jonathan Soper is a freelance graphic, web and multimedia designer from Upper Michigan's Keweenaw.  He has worked in the design field for 10 years and only recently entered the world of art installation. Jonathan's concentration is in developing experiential integrated multimedia displays, drawing the viewer into an engaging interaction with the media. Jonathan tries to communicate through art by tapping an inherent appreciation of the movement of life in an artificial environment.

Denise VanDeville – Michigan artist Denise Vandeville produces art at her studio, Seven Cranes Pottery, located on an 80-acre Finnish homestead near Lake Superior. Vandeville’s recent work examines the intersection between art and fractal geometry, as well as the contemporary individual’s relationship to objects. Her regional public art commissions include ceramic tile installations in Calumet High School, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, and the Baraga City Hall. Vandeville received her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan. She was invited to Oxford University, England, in July 2008, to present her research on fractal geometry and aesthetic preference. Vandeville taught ceramics at Bay de Noc College for many years, and is currently the Dean of Finlandia University’s International School of Art & Design.

D.C. Wilson – D.C. Wilson is an artist currently based in Ypsilanti Michigan. She received a BFA in Fine Arts and Illustration from Finlandia University in Hancock, MI. Her artistry manifests across the spectrum of media from traditional painting and illustration to digital art and writing. She is currently the manager of That Ann Arbor Gallery in Ann Arbor, MI and runs a mini-studio small business Ouros Studio.

Adam Johnson – Adam Johnson is unique in his photography as he combines a fine art background with a formal education in engineering and science. The result is distinctive, emotional photographs captured using high technology tools with an artistic eye.

Since forming Brockit Inc. in 2001 and launching brockit.com, his commercial, fine art and portrait work has been visible on the covers and in the pages of magazines, travel guides, books, on websites, billboards, and microbrewery walls.

Self taught, a diverse client list keeps Adam and his Northern Michigan studio and staff busy from coast to coast, and focused on Lake Superior, providing digital captures, free of manipulation, to the photography agencies and marketing companies he freelances for. The diversity has taught him to capture images regardless of environment or constraint.

Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Adam and his wife, Robyn have been using the Keweenaw Peninsula as their home base since 1993. 7-year old daughter Kora Melia is a favorite photographic subject for the freelance photographer.

Jason Burgess – Rochester, New York artist Jason Burgess has an extensive artistic portfolio that includes numerous exhibitions, commissions, and awards for his sculptural work across the East Coast of the U.S. and abroad. He attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, The Akademija Likovnih Umjetnosti Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA with a BFA in Sculpture and a minor in painting.

He is a sculptor that is extremely concerned with materials, and their transformations into work that defines the 21st century experience.