
Premiere: April 3rd 2006, Akademie der Künste Berlin
I, Myself And Me Again
Multimedia performance installation
Idea/Concept laborgras
Real-time Composition/Performers Renate Graziadei, David Hernandez & Romeo Runa
Visual Operator Arthur Stäldi
Music Ralf Krause
Technical Director Götz Dihlmann
Technician on Tour Joachim Hupfer
Program Design/Computer Art Frieder Weiss
Computer/Program set up on Tour Martin Bellardi
Costumes Margaretha Heller
Production Administration Gabi Beier
Management laborgras Inge Zysk
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In the age of technical reproducibility, not only images, but life also is endlessly reproducible and shapeable, a consequence of the "essential uncertainty and ductile softness of the world". (Kunstforum, 2001; Zitat Baumann 1999)
The concept of the performance I, myself and me again is a blending of real and virtual meeting rooms in a performance/installation context. The dancer, closed off from the virtual realm, encounters himself through the duplication of his own image from different perspectives and must continually contend with his virtual self and his own thereby constantly changing realities. The dancer composes his personal experience throughout the performance, which will continue to update itself like a living diary. Everything that happens is documented and leaves traces. I dance and see, continue to reflect and dance at the same time; a continuous process of reaction and rearranging. I let myself and my constantly changing environment surprise me. The unexpected is awaiting me. For the dancer as well as the audience, a smooth transition emerges between the existing real and virtual realities.
I, Myself and Me Again is a LaborGras production in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e.V. Sponsored with funds from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin.
Premiered in the framework of the “Choreography and film” projects in collaboration with the Akademie der Künste and the Freien Universität Berlin in April 2006.
I, Myself And Me Again...
...is a playing field in which the
dancer, through his living presence and the element of video and
electronic media, will be present in real-time concurrently in both
worlds and in multiple modified forms.
During the performance,
this playing field will become an interactive communications space, from
which the dancer will simultaneously meet and engage with his multiple
selves.
Through his living presence, the dancer creates his
personal environment in real as well as in virtual space. Thus the
time-warp experience of past, present and future will differ from that
of a conventional dance performance by progressing not linearly, but
laterally, colliding erratically with one another.
The
conjunction of the two spheres produces a shift in the perception of the
individual person in the virtual space and therefore affects in turn
the decision of the dancer in reality.
Each decision that the
dancer makes can then be manipulated or changed in turn through
collectively developed parameters from the rehearsal process activated
either manually from a computer, through light changes, music, or
through certain movements of the dancer.
Therefore all of the
project’s participating artists create a sensible communication with one
another and continuously layer “meetings” in real-time of the dancer
with himself and with multiple personalities of himself.
That is, during the performance, constantly new situations and images will be created in real-time.
The
meeting rooms manifest themselves through the dialogue between the real
dancer and the virtually reproduced images of himself. The composition
of its entirely specific experience begins.
The audience may
move freely through the performance installation. They do not observe
the performance as usual, separated from one another and seated in chair
in an auditorium. Rather, they are constantly experiencing the dancer’s
world and thereby receive their own entirely personal understanding of
its world of feelings and perceptions.
The audience will
therefore be asked to step out of the traditional role of passive
observer. By their proximity to the event, they become a part of the
performance space and therefore a part of the performance. The goal is
to create sensuous, tangible meeting rooms which envelope the audience
so that their body and spirit become integrated elements of the
performance.
Because each performance installation is open to
the public from around four to six hours, there will be three dancers
who will alternately participate in the interactive playing field in
approx. 40 minute sections. The audience will therefore experience three
different aesthetic interpretations and perceptions.