Working with a group of invited participants, untrained in dance, the piece uses gestures and body movement as an interface to examine our multi-faceted relationship to design syntaxes, as an instance of technology and flesh. ‘Prosopopeia’ approached the body as an adaptable tool rather than the symbol of a physical fit trained form, working with the performers to act out the precarious line between a functional and dysfunctional body.

 

The piece scales the choreography to the specific proportions implicit in domestic space. The performer acts as mediator, reiterating, real-time, through headphones a series of personal accounts which explore the subject of intentional and unintentional bodily disassociation. These range from out of body experiences (OBE), temporary blindness and schizophrenic laps. These very personal confessions are combined with instructional speeches design for self-improvement and mindfulness such as ASMR, meditation and dexterity training. All the material is sourced from a variety of online communities, resulting in a cacophony of over-lapping experiences of the body and our increasingly complex and technologically infused relationship to it.

 

Working with a group of untrained participants, the live work pushes the performer to their limits, using a durational verbatim technique. The resulting broken conversation between participating speakers is as much about the stutters and mistakes of the voice as it is the delivered text.

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Performed by:

Josephine Berry, Annabel Green, Isobel Daws, Florence Hapgood, Augustina Amoa, Lola May, Jenny Norris-Hopps, Lucy Dobson

 

Surported By:

 

 

 

Commisioned By: