BLOG: Information age
Australische SPRING-blogger Diana Story beschrijft haar verwachtingen van SPRING en van welke voorstellingen zij enthousiast wordt!
As a first-time visitor to SPRING, learning of the diverse programme, intemerging startlingly real facets of human experiences and thought-processes, deciphering my own thoughts on what performances attracted me most was not an easy task. I began to contemplate the programme, how it came to be that the performances were to exist and what influences from our contemporary wonderings, individual ideas and experiences were dissected and reimagined into performance pieces.What elements of the current global experiences and shifting moods regarding political, sociological and environmental circumstances influenced them? What moments in each individual creators living memory inspired and provoked them to create such works?
On reading the concepts behind each performance, thoughts arose regarding the term 'information age’ and whether or not this indeed equates to being 'truly informed’ and even what the definitions of these terminologies really mean. And if I really was to be 'informed' than surely the outcome of this information I'd read would equate to a knowledge somewhere within myself to assist in making a decision about what performances sparked my interest. But somehow that information didn’t quite arrive. Living in the 'information age' can sometimes mean (in my personal experience) that there is so much information, possibility and variation that I become unsure about what my own preferences are and if they exist, how to feel about them. Maybe communication in the form of performance could be the answer to these blurred lines, specifically around defining our own personal thoughts and perspectives, rather than relying upon the absorbtion of information interpreted by the media and others around us. Viewing performance pieces could act as a catalyst in determining the creation of our own individual perspectives informed by purely by observation, unaccompanied by any commentary (other than that within own minds).
And on a small but meaningful search within myself for the performances that excite me most, here is my list:
1. Unsolved - Fang Yun Lo | Polymer DMT
Concepts behind this piece question the viewer with the humanity-wide questions many of us will ask ourselves in moments of change, accumulation and ownership of possessions and during our eventual creation of 'home'. Lived experiences, recollection of aethetics of past-eras and of our first experiences of 'home' linger within our conciousness and assist us to connect and relate with others and to comprehend new environments and life phases. But what fascinates me about this performance is the potential unpicking the equation of the feeling of 'home', stitch by stitch, whether it be smell, sounds or objects or maybe sights upon our home commute.
What elements create the experience of 'home' differ so greatly but it is interesting to think that perhaps a list of common 'ingredients' could exist.
2. SOMETHING (out of nothing) - Kris Verdonck & ICK
A desire for development of technologies to bring comfort and ease to our existence is a long-held obsession of mankind but at what point do these technological advances impact our understanding of our own physicalities? Is it possible that the driving desire for new updates and technologies to assist our every wish could hinder our knowledge of simple pleasures? In the flaring advent of new inventions, has such a mass global change occured that we are unknowingly limited by our own creations? This performance investigates the shifting roles our bodies play in a society where technology is number one and the potential ramifications of unwitting involvement in a constant chase to the next update with the envisionment of unattainable idealisations of problem-free life.
3. Ephemeral Data - Jeroen van Loon
Internet and social media dominate the majority of the 21st century life and with so much of our lives now digital and with the communication of life events being announced with social media posts, it is interesting to consider the effects of this communication shift. What interests me about this performance is utilization of the intangible nature of our online activities being represented visually, using the base material used for the creation of fibre optics, sand. Idealogically, Ephemeral Data inverts our usual online lifestyles and brings them into live sphere, where we can witness something real. In this case, live collaborative performance work, a contrasting experience created from the same original material. Interestingly, as our online interactions and search histories are essentially ephemeral, so the mandala created in this performance also will be, being returned into the form it originated as before the performance began.
© SOMETHING (out of nothing) - Bas de Brouwer