Avatars, play and performance

Tag: performance

Someone You Trust at Skogen


In November, Nyxxx project Someone You Trust premieres in a first version at Skogen in Gothenburg.

Someone You Trust uses the practice of rope bondage to explore trust.

For us who made Someone You Trust, trust is based on listening, consent and clear frames for participating or opting out. Someone You Trust is an attempt to establish conditions for that, both in the encounter between two people, and in the encounter between audience and artists.

The performance is divided into two acts. You can choose to come to both of the acts or just one of them (whichever you prefer). In connections to the rehearsals, there will also be a theoretical outlook on Japanese rope bondage.

SOMEONE YOU TRUST – THE PARTICIPATORY ACT
You and someone you trust book a common ticket, and you come to the performance together. Together, you will follow instructions for how to use a number of ropes. The instructions are calm and invite you to listen to each other and yourselves in a meditative way.

Though in different places, you share room with the others who participate in the first act. Just like you, they follow instructions for tying and being tied.

The instructions are in English.

You need no previous experience of bondage to participate.
Don’t decide on forehand who will tie and who will be tied.

The participatory act will play
– 23–24 of November 18.00–19.00
– 25 of November 16.00–17.00.

SOMEONE YOU TRUST – THE WATCHING ACT
You book a ticket and come to the performance alone or in company, whatever you prefer.
You and the rest of the audience sit down and watch what happens on stage.
On stage, Tova Gerge and Britta Kiessling follow instructions that are both similar to and very different from the instructions in the first act. It becomes a dance with ropes, trust, risk and listening.

The performance is in English.

The watching act will play
– 23–24th of November 19.30–20.30
– 25th of November 17.30–18.30.

SOMEONE YOU TRUST – THEORETICAL OUTLOOK
18th of November. More information soon.

WITH AND BY
TEXT: Tova Gerge and Britta Kiessling

PERFORMERS: Tova Gerge and Britta Kiessling
TEXT EYE AND ROPE RESEARCH: Christian Nilsson
SOUND: Elize Arvefjord
LIGHT: Josefina Björk
ROOM: Josefina Björk, Tova Gerge and Britta Kiessling
ARTISTIC SUPPORT: Gabriel Widing och Ebba Petrén

Foto: Ekaterina Lukoshkova

Thanks to
Everyone in the performing arts collective Nyxxx.
Everyone who helped us to develop the participatory act.

With the support of: Japanstiftelsen, Längmanska kulturfonden, The Swedish Art’s Grant Committee, Cirkör LAB, c.off, The Swedish Author’s fund and Stockholm County Council

Tactical Meditations in Vienna – August 9-12th

Swarms, droning and collective contemplation by and for cyborgs in crisis.

abstract-doll-object

You turn your back to the world and step into a sounding space. You look around. Someone comes up to you with a proposal. You accept. The withdrawal accelerates. You connect to different games, systems and bodies. You explore and produce new tactics. You are droning. You join the swarm. You disconnect. You rest your way into an action. You install a political paradigm. There is a shift of paradigm. You identify, reinforce and modify your strategies for survival. They are now no longer about survival, but about surpassing what you are trying to cope with. You look back at the world from the other side of the black mirror. You touch the screen.

Nyxxx is invited by the street festival Calle Libre to do Tactical meditations in Vienna. The Swedish performing arts collective Nyxxx makes works that the audience experience by participating. In Vienna we host Tactical Meditations in partnership with the artist Vitória Monteiro. The work has previously been shown in Stockholm, Malmö and Copenhagen.

The performance is free and no pre-booking is neccesary. It opens at 4 pm, but you come and go when you want to.

  • August 9th. Running at 4-7 pm. outdoors in MuseumsQuartier, Hof 8.
  • August 10-11th  4-7 pm. outdoors in Emil Maurer park. Westbahnhof.
  • August 12th 4-7 pm. 4-7 pm. indoors at Aber Ja, Gumpendorfer Straße 65.

The performance is supported by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

Taktiska meditationer på Turteatern & Inkonst & Charlottenborg

Svärmar, drönande och kollektiv kontemplation av och för cyborger i kris

abstract-doll-object

Du vänder dig bort från världen och kliver in en ljudande och lysande zon. Du ser dig omkring. Någon kommer fram till dig. Du får ett erbjudande. Du tackar ja. Undandragandet accelerar. Du kopplas samman med olika spel, system och kroppar. Du utforskar och tar fram nya taktiker. Du drönar. Du ansluter dig till svärmen. Du kopplar av. Du vilar dig fram till en handling. Du upprättar ett politiskt paradigm. Det blir paradigmskifte. Du identifierar, förstärker och förändrar dina överlevnadsstrategier. De handlar inte längre om överlevnad, utan om att överskrida det du försöker leva med. Du ser på världen från andra sidan den svarta spegeln. Du swipar vidare.

Rummet öppnas kl 18 men du kommer när det passar och lämnar när du känner dig klar.

Stockholm

Premiär 11 februari 2016 på Turteatern, T-Kärrtorp, Stockholm.

Spelar även 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 februari kl 18-21 på Turteatern.

Malmö

6, 7, 8, 9 april kl 18-21 på Inkonst.

Köpenhamn

15, 16, 17 april  18.00-21.00 at School of walls and space. Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen. (Facebook event)

Nyxxx består av Elize Arvefjord, Tova Gerge, Ebba Petrén, Kerstin Weimers, Albin Werle, Gabriel Widing. Verket genomförs med stöd av Konstnärsnämnden, Kulturrådet och Turteatern.


Tactical Meditations

Swarms, droning and collective contemplation by and for cyborgs in crisis.

You turn your back to the world and step into a sounding space. You look around. Someone comes up to you with a proposal. You accept. The withdrawal accelerates. You connect to different games, systems and bodies. You explore and produce new tactics. You are droning. You join the swarm. You disconnect. You rest your way into an action. You install a political paradigm. There is a shift of paradigm. You identify, reinforce and modify your strategies for survival. They are now no longer about survival, but about surpassing what you are trying to cope with. You look back at the world from the other side of the black mirror. You touch the screen.

The room opens at 18.00, but you come when you want to  and leave when you’re ready.

The performing arts collective Nyxxx makes works that the audience experience by participating. The collective has previously visited Turteatern & Inkonst with Avatarvaro (2012) and Human Agency (2014).

Stockholm

Premiere 11 February 2016 18.00 at Turteatern, Kärrtorp, Stockholm.

Plays 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 February 18.00-21.00 at Turteatern.

Malmö

6, 7, 8, 9 April 18.00-21.00 at Inkonst.

Copenhagen

15, 16, 17 APRIL  18.00-21.00 at School of walls and space. Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Copenhagen. (Facebook event)

Nyxxx is Elize Arvefjord, Tova Gerge, Ebba Petrén, Kerstin Weimers, Albin Werle, Gabriel Widing.

TM was produced with support from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Swedish Arts Council and Turteatern.

Human Agency på Turteatern

Ett kontemplativt spel för avatarer och människor.

IMG_9706Välkommen till Human Agency, en organisation som har 12 röster men inga kroppar. Human Agency uppstår mellan det organiska, tekniska och virtuella. När du lyssnar till oss kan organisationen verka i världen genom din kropp och du blir en avatar som ser livet på ett nytt sätt genom dina egna sinnen.

Som medlemskropp i Human Agency får du tillgång till en ny teknosocial livshållning. Med hjälp av förprogrammerade instruktioner, objekt, ljus och andra besökare navigerar du genom rummet – handlar, rör dig, betraktar.

Ålder: alla åldrar, du behöver inga förkunskaper för att delta

Spelas:

  • 11 sept kl 19
  • 12 sept kl 19
  • 13 sept kl 19

Pris: 150 kr ordinarie, 100 kr student/pensionär

Turteatern ligger på Lågskärsvägen 13 i Stockholm och närmsta tunnelbanestation är Kärrtorp.

Manus och regi: Ebba Petrén och Gabriel Widing
Ljud: Elize Arvefjord
Objekt: Albin Werle
Ljus: Kerstin Weimers

Producerad av NYXXX i samarbete med Teaterhögskolan i Malmö, med stöd av Kulturrådet och Stockholms stad.

Avsnitt #4 – Fangirls & organisering

nyxxx-avsnitt4

Ebba träffar de som ligger bakom konstprojektet XO Jackie Rose, dramatikern Alexandra Loonin och internetkonstnären Rebecka Askaner. Samtalet kretsar bl.a. kring att skapa konst utifrån behov av politiskt organisering, nya samlingspunkter och trygga rum.

För mer av Alex och Rebecka, kolla in Alexs instagram, Rebeckas instagram, XO Jackie Roses instagramRebeckas visuella tumblr, Rebeckas teoretiska tumblr samt projektets Facebookssida.

Ljud i podden av Elize Arvefjord från Nyxxx föreställning Human Agency.

Human Agency – Trailer

Premiär på Inkonst i Malmö 23 april 2014. Spelar även 24 och 25 april.

Beställ biljetter på Kulturcentralen.

Human Agency – a new avatar performance at Inkonst & Turteatern

human-agency-web

 

A participatory avatar piece about different bodies and possibilities to act in a world where new technologies enables and disables human fellowships. 

Welcome to Human Agency, an organization with twelve voices but no bodies. When you join us you will be able to listen to one of these voices and become the body which enables the organization to operate in the world. Human Agency emerges between the organic, technical and the virtual elements. You become an avatar, confronting life in a new way through your own senses. Becoming a ”member body” in Human Agency you will get access to a new techno-social approach to life. 

We live in an era where the approach to life changes and shifts in relation to different machines and medias. Technologies and human beings melt together and forms new symbiotic bodies. Human Agency examines these new bodies through a meeting between free human beings and voice-navigated avatars.

Human Agency invites you to be navigated. Different voices will lead you through the piece. Through head phones you will get instructions on how to move, talk and act and you can also influence how.

Nyxxx is a performing arts collective with members from Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm. Their aim is to create performances with the audience in the centre. The form for the audience participation differs in their work but often they use head phones with instructions that stimulate action.

Text and direction: Ebba Petrén and Gabriel Widing | Sound design: Elize Arvefjord | Objects: Albin Werle | Light design: Kerstin Weimers | Production: NYXXX | Co-production: the Theater Academy in Malmö | With the support of: the Swedish Arts Council and the City of Stockholm.

Premiere at Inkonst, Malmö, April 23!

Date and time: April 23–25 , 7 pm | Space: Inkonst | Length: 60 min | Language: Swedish | Entrance: 150:- U26/stud 90:- | Tickets: Kulturcentralen

The performance will also be played at Turteatern, Stockholm, 11-13 of September.

The Hospitality

A game in the space around gifts, loss and collective action.

These days, we are preparing for The Hospitality, a game for Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival. We’ll be performing 15-17th of May. The festival just released their whole program, so lots of interesting things to check out.

So far we have done two game tests, at the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm. This is what it looked like the 30th of January:

space3

Ok, the floor was not like that for real. But as you can see, we are laborating with different notions of space.

This is what it looked like the 20th of February:
bild

This was Gabriel photographing me and Ebba through the door while we were busy preparing a spaceship made of cloth – our first test with scenography, that turned out very well. Then the game testers came, and off we went on a two hour trip in – yeah, you guessed it, space!

We will also game test evenings here in Stockholm the following dates:

  • April 17th
  • April 23rd
  • May 7th
  • May 8th

Keep your eyes open for that! But also, don’t miss the full scale game if you’re in Gothenburg mid-May! Here is some more info about the scenario in it’s present state:

In order for another world to be possible, we have to be prepared to lose the world we are already familiar with.

Welcome on board The Hospitality – a space scenario where you together with a maximum of thirty other players will enter in a sort of role-play, a game or a participatory performance where we try out different conditions or situations that are completely different than those of everyday life.

Three game masters will guide you through a number of scenes where you will make decisions, move and imagine that you are traveling off in space in the company of the other players.

This is not a role-play where you are expected to improvise, perform, play theatre or immerse in a character. The role you will receive is just some simple approaches, tasks and thoughts that you can use in the game – it is made in order for the players themselves to choose how much they wish to pretend to be someone else.

The hosts and game designers are Tova Gerge, Ebba Petrén and Gabriel Widing from NYXXX, a performing arts collective with a strong connection to both the role-playing game culture and the dance world. Among their earlier cooperations are Avatarvaro (Turteatern/Inkonst) and Drömdykarna (Unga Dramaten). NYXXX are looking for new game formats where participants do not have to struggle to find their place, but can lean back and follow a plan, while still sharing a mental and physical experience together with other participants.

The Hospitality is a philosophically stimulating scenario with a nerve of sci-fi. Softness and reflection in an uncomplicated, physical and playful community are some key-words. The scenario happens in a choreocracy – a society where decisions are made through collective movement in space. The choreocratic society decides to initiate a cosmic movement, a travel in space that might never end. During the course of the travel, a lot will get lost – but maybe the loss is important for the community in space?

Welcome!

If you want to check out The Hospitality at the festival, we are here:

In English

In Swedish

Working with avatars at PAF

Summer is slowly fading away and I haven’t written here since May, which is a shame because plenty of interesting things has been going on.

This week me and Ebba Petrén has had the fantastic opportunity to go to Performing Arts Forum. We have a generous grant from The Swedish Arts Grant Committee to be able to do research on the avatar formats. The last week we’ve been thinking about what we have done so far and explored new ideas on what is possible to do within the avatar frame – humans being directed by a voice, turning them into something else, hybrids between man and machine.

First of all I want to say that this place is amazing. I was here last year to attend the Agora Seminars and I have had the intention to come back ever since. Just have a look of the village S:t Erme as it emerge from my bedroom window tonight:

Here are a couple of the ideas that we’ve been working with, I’ll probably get back with more later …

Switching positions

The idea is to explore what happens when you change into an avatar and the intention to do so. In the most simple iteration one person (human) has a conversation with anouther one who wear headphones and reciev instructions (avatar). When the avatar stretch its hand up (following an instruction, of course) the human can chose to take its position. The avatar can never chose to be a human, but the human can chose to turn herself into an avatar.

We did a recording where the avatar is asking questions and then making interruptions. Encouraging the human to talk, but not really responding in a proper way.

We also tried out a “Round Robin” structure with 4 avatar tracks and a group of audience members, who could chose to take the headphones during certain circumstances. The curiosity on behalf of the audience was high and everyone wanted to become avatars at some point.

We have a lot more ideas on how avatar-human interaction could work out that we didn’t have the possibility to try out in practise yet. It could be an avatar hosting seance, initiating a game or introducing conversational topics in a social situation.

Here is the studio we’ve been working in with the simple set up for the 4-avatar switching test.

Phone call piece

Here is a new idea of a piece where the audience give their phone numbers to us when they enter the performance. We have a dramaturgy, a railroaded set of actions that the audience members execute/perform by getting phone call instructions, wishes, begs from the operators, a kind of call center. This would not really be avatarisation, there would freedom to say no to negotiate or say no to an instruction. The operators/game masters are seated in a call center, a room near by, above them or in the same room but behind a window.

“Excuse me, could you help us by…”
“There is a camera, can you make the documentation of this piece?”
“Can you take responsibility for …”

This way we could produce an aesthetizised social dynamic in the room.

Over and out / Gabriel Widing

Avatarvaro (The Avatar Condition) – Brief

An UngaTur performance piece in collaboration with Interacting Arts

There is no audience.
There are no actors.
The Avatar Condition is something else.
Discover who you become when someone else makes your decisions.

The Avatar Condition is an invitation to being controlled. To act without having to make decisions. Through headphones, you are instructed to move, speak and act – collectively and individually. You don’t need any prior knowledge to participate. A voice will guide you through the piece, which takes place as much in your own head as it does in the space.

The Avatar Condition has been developed in Stockholm, Malmö, Västerås and Copenhagen during the last year. The Avatar Condition was played in Stockholm theatre Turteatern December 8-11 of 2011, and in Malmö at Inkonst in May 2012.

Where will it go next? Maybe to a black box, dance studio, abandoned industrial building or inhabited villa close to you…

Take a decision to give up your freedom of choice! Bring us over and try out The Avatar Condition.

By: Albin Werle, Ebba Petrén, Elize Arvefjord, Gabriel Widing, Kerstin Weimers, Klara Backman, Moa Backman and Tova Gerge.

  • Duration: 90 min
  • Capacity: 18 guests/show
  • Contact and tech rider: ebba.petren@gmail.com

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