DARV_Steps Untold 1.0
Treasures(Not) Here (Not) There Mixed Reality performative interventions in public space and documentary film shooting
05.06.2021 | 17:00 - 19:00h
Maindeck, Ars Electronica Center, Linz
Guest project in FMR 21- Art in digital contexts and public space
DARV_Steps Untold is a series of Mixed Reality performative interventions on steps and stairways in the public space of Linz. The project addresses the social pressure for optimisation and constant (self-) improvement, the continuous (re-) positioning and integration in new contexts.
The DARV core team creates a conceptual and media framework in which choreographers and sound artists work together with non-professional performers from different cultural and social backgrounds. They present two site-specific performative interventions accompanied by soundscapes, involving real and digital performers.
All the elements interact through an Augmented Reality application.
In the two projects, Treasures and (Not) Here (Not) There, different levels of reality are intertwined with the use of AR technology, exposing also personal, intimate realities of the participants. These performances reveal their way of living and working, their perspectives on language and culture, the awareness of their own diversity.
DARV_Steps Untold 1.0 | Participating artists
Treasures
Dolma Jover, ES | choreographer
Edgar Friedl, AT | sound artist
Luis Gonzaga Hoyos, CO | performer
Arno Plass, AT | performer
A manifesto, a series of bodily transformations and Queer Tango are just a few of the treasures which one can find on a well-known public stairway in Linz, where this site-specific performance takes place. The live performing characters get intertwined with their digital doubles in the space of augmented reality, telling deeply personal stories to the viewer. Different forms of communication are explored in Treasures by blurring or even ignoring social and gender roles. The aim is to encourage people to share their treasures, as well as to take a step further towards a less hierarchical and harmful society, to appreciate the Otherness and the treasures it holds.
(Not) Here (Not) There
Constantin Georgescu, RO | choreographer
Sabina Hyoju Ahn, KR | sound artist
Maia Benashvili, GE | performer
Ayan Rezaei, IR | performer
This project revolves around the concept of visibility and invisibility, in a bid to create a mixed environment which uses digital elements and live presence to reflect on social and existential topics. While on its surface it proposes a playful digital alteration of perception which filters the space and the inter-corporeal organisation of the two performers, this project attempts to draw the attention to social circumstances which are “blind” to integration efforts of marginalised categories, being that due to migrant backgrounds or gender inequality. It is therefore an invitation to (re)consider the structures of perception according to which we construct socially relevant scales and contexts.
Stairs, as an architectural solution to access and connectivity, but also in their metaphoric understanding as the means to rate or compare, are being used here as a place of engaging with challenges, goals, and transformations.
The performing space of the Ars Electronica Stairs, becomes a choreographic platform where spatial dynamics between the performers and their degrees of visibility are being explored with the help of AR (augmented reality).
DARV core team
Mihaela Kavdanska | Media and Interactive Art
Violeta Ivanova | Conceptual Art
Florian Weinrich | Interaction Design and AR Development
LM.Media & Pusch.TV | filming and video post production
Funding institutions:
Linz ImPULS 2020, Linz Kultur Jahresprogramm 2021, OÖ Kultur.
Project partners: LM.Media, Pusch.TV, KOTKI visuals.