Performative Symposium for Ecological Spectatorship

Juriaan Achthoven

This page consists of the program of the Performative Symposium for Ecological Spectatorship, that took place on the 16th of October in Het Huis Utrecht. *** The symposium is organised by Gaia’s Machine: an upcoming artistic research collective exploring the intersection between art, technology and nature. Aims for the symposium are: - Exchange knowledge between arts and sciences leading to a cross-fertilization of ideas and practices related to ecological spectatorship - Reflect on our positioning as young artists & scientists at a time of ecological crisis - Open a space for a young generation to question our responsibility and to explore potential methods of moving forward The term ecological spectatorship draws awareness towards humanity’s entanglement within an ecological web. We approach ‘ecology’ from an ethical perspective, addressing the responsibility we have as a human species in relation to the earth (our oikos). Furthermore, we focus on ‘spectatorship’ – a branch within theatre studies that is concerned with the relation between makers and performers and the audience. We emphatically include the spectator in the performative space. Ecological spectatorship expresses a concern that in our view is not only relevant for theatre makers but also for politically engaged scientists. In the symposium we will not only take the placement of the spectator into account but we will allow the spectator to become actively engaged in making sense of ecological spectatorship. We are keen to create ample space for the audience to reflect on their experience and to open an exchange of knowledge between both objective and embodied knowledge, and between the collaborators as well as the audience. We will be researching the proposition of ecological spectatorship through the form of a performative symposium – a play on the traditional form of the symposium by making it both artistic and participatory.

Open Dialogue

For this method of open dialogue we will be experimenting with ecological spectatorship to position ourselves within a collective organism. This method is about putting our individual identity to the side, and coming in to a collective space where we can openly listen and value each other’s voice as if it were our own.

by Rhian Morris (scenographer) and Juriaan Achthoven (dramaturg)

How to belong to the world again?

Submerged into videos of traditional Bolivian rituals and its loud sound, the visitor is invited to participate to a strange ceremony mixing Bolivian and Dutch elements to create a basic dance around a huge totem. Through moving permanently back and forth between a modern and a traditional culture, this work interrogates the possibility for our technological society to relearn how to belong to the world again.

by Pierre Arnau (visual artist) and Claire Second (documentary maker)

Outside Within

A journey taken outside of yourself in order to go deeper within yourself. The boundaries of the human are not set in stone, we merge with the spaces we pass through, they infiltrate into us just as we infiltrate into them. In this sensory immersive experience the participant is encouraged to surrender their senses, to give over their humanness to the space in order to join with it in its becoming.

by Rhian Morris (scenographer)

Performative Symposium for Ecological Specatorship

A polyphonic artistic research project by Gaia's Machine

Curated and organised by Juriaan Achthoven and Rhian Morris

Partners

The performative symposium is supported by HKU Professorship for Performative Processes; HKU Master of Scenography; Het Huis Utrecht; UU Master of Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy;UU Humanities Honours Program; UU Geoscience Honours Program.

Moving Matter

Moving Matter is an audio piece where three audience members experience their inner and outer world being stretched, manipulated and transformed through texts that trigger the imagination. Three audience members are positioned in the garden and are invited to perceive themselves, the objects surrounding them and each other in a different way.

by Liza Rinkema (dramaturg)

Thinking water

WATER: a life-giving but also potentially destructive substance. It is interwoven in our societal, economic and political structures. You can also drink it. In this experiment, Joost will invite us to research a watery way of thinking reality. By imagining from, through and with water, by counting water, framing water and exposing water as water, he questions daily and scientific modes of perceiving and thinking.

by Joost Segers (dramaturg)

Melting ice and green cultures

Melting ice. Dripping water. A changing world. Bringing Greenland home. How do your choices affect the future? Do we present the future generations with impossible challenges with our current choices? How much impact do you have, if no one follows? Will we be able to collectively start making wise choices, and build a fair, liveable and sustainable society? With this icy-performance you’ll experience de temporality of things and the urgency and difficulty of cooperation.
For sustainability to take hold we need a culture change. Culture doesn’t change with paperwork, but with open, honest, brave and perhaps heated conversations. Conversations that take courage. Conversations that truly matter. Are you curious to your answers to these questions? Curious to your ability to collectively reach wise decisions? Ready to have an uneasy conversation with yourself?

by Walter Faaij (anthropologist)

Photo's

Taciser Sevinç

http://tacisersartanddesign.nl/

Living Bodies in front of Living Bodies

In the installation the spectator becomes part of an already existing network in space, that reveals itself under the notion of time. By positioning the spectator on a moving chair that is slowly being pulled backwards, the space as network of entities becomes visible. I provide a position for the spectator to view the environment as it is, without changing anything in space. This principle can be applied in every space, since networks exist everywhere.

by Anne Leijdekkers (scenographer)

The Geohistorical Court
The impact of humans on the ecology of the earth has grown to a significantly extent. The concept of the Anthropocene has been introduced to name this epoch where the Homo Sapiens has this significant effect on earth's geology and ecosystems. However, over the geohistorical time, multiple ecosystems have been changed and impacted due to other species and specific climatic systems configurations. What makes the human impact different than all other events? Where is justice to be found? And what does this say about our ecological role as humans in the future? Seven scientists will unravel the lively and imagining information, making the spectator the judge of the past, present and future.

by Daniil Scheifes (environmental scientist), Jasper Hupkes (earth scientist) and Gijs van Dijk (earth scientist)

Daily Ecology

Objects are often seen and judged by their physical appearance. However, science created the knowledge to see beyond the mere object and identify the effects and impacts the object has on its environment. With a practical example, that point of view will be demonstrated, in an attempt to better understand our surroundings and the impact we have on the environment.

by Chistoph Krüger, Virginia Bergamasco, Gregorio Clavarino (global sustainability scientists)

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