Nikola Tesla, 'unsung hero' of 20th century, is star of multimedia show

By Brett Campbell | For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Before Tesla was a car, he was a genius.

By the end of the 19^th century, the Serbian-American engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla had conceived some of the underlying technology behind alternating current, the induction motor, remote control, X-ray imaging and a host of other crucial Industrial Age technologies, including nearly 300 patents. He's partly responsible for the fact that most of us have instant access to light, heat, TV, radio and the internet.

"He's an unsung hero," says University of Oregon professor Brad Garner. "We wouldn't have cell phones and power in our homes without his work."

Tesla's vision was even more towering than his many achievements. If he'd had his way, everyone in the world would have access to clean, abundant, nearly free energy, transmitted wirelessly across vast distances, and wireless communication. Some of his ambitious ideas eventually became part of everyday American life, some are within sight now, others were sheer crackpottery, still more were undermined by various combinations of bad luck and timing, dirty dealing, capitalist chicanery, economic turmoil and his own social ineptitude. Once a wealthy, famous figure, the one-time employee then rival of Thomas Edison and partner of George Westinghouse lost the fortune he'd made from his inventions. When he died penniless in the last of many New York hotels he called home in 1943, his closest friends were the pigeons he'd adopted.

Though Tesla's turbulent story has been told in books and documentaries (including one now running on the Discovery Channel called "Tesla's Death Ray"), a life so colorful and complex invites a similarly multidimensional representation. That's what Garner and the other members of a Eugene artists consortium are bringing to three Oregon cities this month, including Saturday's performance at Newmark Theatre.

"Tesla: Light, Sound, Color" uses original choreography, digital animation, a new score performed live by a string octet and electronic musicians, and even live physics demonstrations to illuminate the legendary figure who's been called the man who invented the 20^th century.

Garner, a dance prof who directs the show, is one of four University of Oregon faculty members who make up Harmonic Laboratory, a nonprofit interdisciplinary collective unaffiliated with the university founded in 2010. In more than a dozen projects in Eugene and beyond, including productions as far away as James Madison University in Virginia, they've created multimedia art performances, installations and more that defy conventional categories.

Their subjects range from volcanoes to Faust to Mozart to the relationship between body and space. Many involve emerging, underrepresented or marginalized voices and interactions among art, humanities and science. And all involve substantial collaboration with academic, civic, artistic, community and other groups.

One of the group's most ambitious collaborative creations, "Tesla" represents its subject's simultaneous reach into the past and the future by juxtaposing traditional and contemporary artistic styles.

Garner's choreography for dancers from Eugene Ballet and the University of Oregon includes both ballet-influenced and modern movement. Jeremy Schropp's classical-form acoustic chamber music (performed by Eugene's superb Delgani String Quartet and members of Orchestra Next) contrasts with Jon Bellona's electronic sounds. John Park pits straightforward representational imagery against abstract animations (to illustrate electromagnetic energy fields, for example).

To hold the story together, the production uses explanatory slides, a silent role for a performer who represents Tesla, and a physicist (Stanley Micklavzina, a senior physics instructor at the University of Oregon) who will demonstrate several brief experiments. The show's two-year creative development was supported by a Creative Heights Award from the Oregon Community Foundation with the University of Oregon Department of Dance and Art & Technology program.

It's both ironic and appropriate that Tesla, whose achievements were long suppressed in academic circles, is celebrated by a quartet of academic artists. "As contemporary artists we feel a bit misunderstood, not nearly to the extent he did," Garner explains. Tesla provides a model of how "to stay creative when no one understands your vision."

He remains relevant for other reasons, too. Some of Tesla's most far-reaching visions, like clean energy and widespread wireless charging, are now on the cusp of realization. In a time when some politicians strive to erect barriers to global collaboration, "he was an immigrant with an American dream who changed the world," Garner notes. And then, of course, there are those cars.

***

Harmonic Laboratory presents "Tesla: Light, Sound, Color"

When/where: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, Jan. 10-11, Soreng Theater, Hult Center, Eugene

8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, Newmark Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway, Portland

8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, Tower Theatre, 835 N.W. Wall St., Bend

Tickets: $27-$50, college, youth and senior discounts available at Eugene shows

Eugene: hultcenter.org or 541-682-5000

Portland: portland5.com or 800-273-1530

Bend: towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700

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