Embers

a telepresence dance installation

December 2001-January 2002, Sullivant Stage, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

created by Johannes Birringer in collaboration with Environments VII Lab and guest artists Ivani Santana (Brazil), Mirjam Schouten (Holland), and Angeles Romero (AlienNation Co.

An expanded version of the new work was invited to the Dance-Technology Forum at the American College Dance Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It premiered at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on March 1, 2002.

Choreography by Johannes Birringer

performed by Teena Custer, Sylvana Christopher, Angeles Romero, Kelly Gottesman, and Ran Berdichesky

Telepresence and multimedia installation design by Johannes Birringer and the company

visit Ann Arbor performance

The work moves between real space (installation-spaces) and virtual spaces (projected telepresence) which immerse all actors/receivers in the narratorºs uncertain remembering of several phantasmatic incidents in the distant past (a drowning, a tower on fire, horses floating in a river, a puppet-airplane, a fluttering bird trapped in a room…). A captive Ñprisoneræ (in the remote site) is interrogated in a game-like interrogation which investigates the question of guilt or collusion in the traumatic event that is not remembered properly. Remembering and forgetting are continuously evoked by means of voice, body, and the small delays/interferences caused by telepresence (projected video streams transmitted through internet and modified closed circuit). The captive repondentºs behavior becomes incorporated into the image streams.

The performance involves audiences (in real locations and also on the internet) in the constant, evolving, subtle shifts of perception between present locations and images transmitted from the remote sites, as if they were witnesses in a staged trial of the ÑPrisoner.æ The accusation concerns treason.