DATA OCEAN THEATRE (OUT OF THE BLUE); A Discipline-Fluid Postdoctoral Artistic Research Project Exposition

vincent roumagnac

Data Ocean Theatre (D.O.T.) is a four-year artistic research project that explores the intersection of myths, Western theatre memory, new media, digital animism, climate emergency, sea and ocean transformations, queer subcultures, and technological mutations in relation to aspects of “submersion” as a contemporary living condition. Expanding on the claimed unsustainability of Western theatre’s anthropocentric foundations, D.O.T. examines how the notion and practice of the stage transform amidst climate urgency, technological hypergrowth, and discipline-fluid hybridization. It seeks to generate experiments on a new temporal ecology of the stage, examining how theatre-making infrastructures might transition within a multi-agential dynamic of emergence. D.O.T. appears, disappears, and reappears through a series of polymorphic artworks and research affordances based on the ecodramaturgical consideration of the simultaneous phenomenon of 1. the rising sea and ocean levels, 2. the exponential growth of big data in our informational age, and 3. the emotional overload caused by the latter two happening, projection, and prophecy. D.O.T. explores inherited sea-and-ocean-oriented myths and revisits theatre plays with a marine backdrop, looking simultaneously into contemporary nautical vocabulary and sea imagery used as metaphors for computational realities. D.O.T. proposes to re-mythologise Western theatre foundations by forming an alternative pantheon for a queer, hydrofeminist, and technoanimist reset of the “tragic,” at the interplay between a syncretic marine mythology and the ambiguities of “technology-as-monster” narratives. In D.O.T. project, the forces and fragilities of transforming marine ecosystems intersect with algorithmic-conditioned life and crossbreeding of diverse art disciplines and research fields based on collaborations, generating imaginary prototypes for future societal constructions in the floods. D.O.T. is structured around several key components: the prologue Simultaneous Environments, featuring a series of experimental works; the central project Tragedy and the Goddexxes, which culminates in three public exhibitions; and a series of workshops, residencies, and a final publication in the form of an exposition on the Research Catalogue. This final publication of the DATA OCEAN THEATRE postdoctoral artistic research project (2021–2024) titled 'DATA OCEAN THEATRE (OUT OF THE BLUE); A Discipline-Fluid Postdoctoral Artistic Research Project Exposition' performs on the Research Catalogue as both an aesthetico-epistemic object in its own right and as an a posteriori account, or catalogue raisonné, of the project. It also acts as a supplement to the author's doctoral publication, Reacclimating the Stage (Skenomorphoses), completing the latter to form a diptych on the Research Catalogue. Similar to the doctoral publication, the non-linear, non-hierarchical, and non-chronological reading, or hyper-reading, of Data Ocean Theatre (Out of the Blue) invites its visitors to navigate freely and compose their own fluid, archipelagic, and tidal experience to make sense of the project as a whole.

Diptych and invitation

DATA OCEAN THEATRE (OUT OF THE BLUE) acts as a companion piece to the author's doctoral publication, Reacclimating the Stage (Skenomorphoses), completing the latter to form a diptych on the Research Catalogue. Visitors are warmly encouraged to open the doctoral publication in another window while hyper-reading this second opus, allowing for simultaneous exploration.

REACCLIMATING THE STAGE (SKENOMORPHOSES)

Like the doctoral publication, the hyper-reading experience of Data Ocean Theatre (Out of the Blue) is non-linear, non-hierarchical, and non-chronological. Visitors are invited to navigate freely, composing their own fluid, archipelagic, and tidal experience to uncover the meaning of the project as a whole. The author encourages them to take their time, to linger, depart, and return, to ebb and flow. Just as successive low tides reshape a sandy shoreline, the landscape of the meaning may shift with each random encounter. Hyper-readers might find themselves momentarily lost in opaque waters, grappling with confusion or even a sense of apnea during moments of submersion at high tides. This is not a fixed voyage offering the certainty of a guided cruise. Instead, it is an invitation to adopt a playful attitude, to embrace exploration with patience, trust, curiosity, and openness. By drifting on the shifting currents of Data Ocean Theatre (Out of the Blue), hyper-readers may, in the middle of things and waves, discover insights, connections, and, hopefully, joy when the meaning swell begins to grow.

A few navigational tech-notes before re-entering

Due to variations in screens and operating systems, you may need to recalibrate your display. To adjust it, use your keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + or Ctrl -) to zoom in or out and resize the content as needed.

Many pages contain videos or soundtracks that are intended to play as soon as the page is opened. Some browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, prevent the autoplay of these videos and require a prior agreement from the user (black square popping repeatedly on the top left of the screen). In order to avoid the inconvenience of this systematic blocking, it is recommended to hyper-read this exposition on Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

Start exploring the exposition by selecting one of the 35 parts of the Atlantis menu. Once experienced, each entry offers then four navigation options to continue: return to the main menu (blue Atlantis thumbnail) or dive deeper through one of three whirlpools, each leading to a new entry.

The timing and the pace of the hyper-reading of this exposition depend on the strength of the internet connection. A connection that is not sufficiently powerful might manifest through delays and glitches. These technical alterations may generate interesting experiential serendipity that might directly refer to the poetics of the research itself on backstage agency; they also might alter the fluidity of the experience. Aware of the phenomenon, the author of this exhibition is interested in offering hospitality to these infrastructural interferences as non-controllable agents of alteration of his authorship, and encourages users to experience this online object under conditions of variable internet speed.

The duration of the (close) hyper-reading of this exposition might vary between 4-5 hours (with an optimal speed of the internet connection) and n hours (depending on the n-variations of the speed).

Sound output is recommended.

The Research Catalogue is supported by the following web browsers:

MOZILLA version 7 and above

GOOGLE CHROME version 14 and above

SAFARI version 5 and above

EXPLORER version 8 and above

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