How Homer's Odyssey Continues to Inspire

Christopher Nolan’s movie adaptation of The Odyssey has smashed the box-office records this past month having grossed $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of Nolan’s career. I still haven’t been able to see it as the earliest tickets we could get at London’s IMAX were late August, but I’ve heard very good things…

I’m a big fan of Nolan’s work. Not only do his films tell epic stories, he is also constantly evolving cinematic form. In this instance, he chose to shoot the entire movie on IMAX film. This meant they could only film sequences of 2 and a half minutes in one go and every single cut was physically done by hand. This was a process of inefficiency; time, care and craft have been poured into the telling of an ancient saga, resulting in visual cinematic precision the world has never seen before.

“In this age of digitalisation, AI, all the rest, this is a human process, an analogue process.” Christopher Nolan

In June, 15 artists gathered in a villa in Zakynthos, Greece. Celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, it felt fitting that we came back to the Ionian Waters that inspired our name. With Ithaka smiling at us from across the waters, we too collaborated on a very human, analogue process, grounded in radical empathy and created in community. Also hugely inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, we poured our hearts and souls into making a “beautiful inefficiency” for one carefully selected individual, 80 year old artist & writer Rosalyn (Roz) Driscoll.

Unlike Nolan’s film, however, Roz’s Odyssey - “Where Does the Sea End?” - didn’t include battles with the Cyclops Polyphemus or fights with the sea monster Scylla. Our piece had Roz and her curiosities centre stage, and unfolded as a series of experiences that asked her to dissolve the boundaries between herself and her work. During her interviews she, like Odysseus, had expressed a longing to “come home”, but unlike Odysseus, this sense of home wasn’t a place. It was a feeling. A sense of being at home in the world. A sense of wholeness.

In preparing for her Odyssey, Roz read not one but two translations of The Odyssey, and was particularly taken by Daniel Mendelssohn’s version. She was drawn to the notion of the hospitality of strangers, xenia, an apt theme given that soon she would receive the gift of an art work designed for her by 15 strangers. For the most part, we were a group of strangers to each other too, a group of creative souls from all over the world - Singapore, Germany, the US, Canada, the UK, Slovenia, and Lithuania. We cooked for each other, looked out for each other, and built upon each others’ ideas. We challenged each other, supported each other and - as the sun was setting over the Ionian Sea - in the final scene of Roz’s Odyssey, we danced with and for each other. No longer strangers, but trusted collaborators and friends.

Though we were designing an Odyssey for Roz, we all went on our own Odysseys during those 8 days in Zakynthos. It may not have been 10 years, but it felt significant, full of twists and turns (both literal and metaphorical), challenges and triumphs. I’m incredibly proud of the finished piece the team created, one brimming with beautiful imagery, well-considered choreography and profound ritual, but I’m equally proud of - and grateful for - the journey that got us there.

Upon her arrival back home, Roz sent us this recording of Laurie Anderson performing C.P. Cavafy’s poem ‘Ithaka’ (from 10:08).

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

[from Ithaka by C. P. Cavafy]

Every time we run a Master Class and make an Odyssey, it reminds me how powerful the collaborative journey can be. In watching Anderson perform in the wake of Roz’s, I am struck that the Odysseys themselves are our Ithakas.

And so, if you’re heading out to the movie theatre to watch the latest epic retelling of Homer’s famous saga, perhaps take a beat to notice and acknowledge who is around you, both loved ones and strangers. Perhaps the journey to the movie theatre and the communal experience of watching a film in company is as important as the story itself. Perhaps Nolan’s Odyssey is in itself an Ithaka…