Worldwide, 2016
Cicadas Rhyme
Virtual performance
The work is the result of a virtual conference where participants gather and communicate exclusively with the help of materials and objects around them.
A skype call is fixed within a group of people invited to a session, or “rhyme”. Each rhyme consists of a consecutive improvised dialogue characterized by the use of objects and gestures, which are employed in the construction of a formal composition.
Since any kind of verbal communication is not allowed, the entire call is structured around the creation of a series of images, filmed by the computers webcams, and constantly changing according to the dialogue developments. The aim is to create a chain in which each participant reacts to the composition of the preceding peer with its own one, trying to “answer” to what she/he sees, creating rhymes and visual refrains.
The project is composed of two main elements, a performative part on the one side, and the production of a video on the other. First, each participant acts in real time by improvising in the place she/he is in.
She/he moves trough the physical space, selecting and positioning objects to be placed in the visual composition. e entire communication is therefore carried on by using found materials that belong to the speci c location chosen by each member. e actions are not prepared in advance since at the core of the visual “discourse” there is the ability to react promptly to the gesture and shapes of the other interlocutors.
Second, the meeting is recorded and can be seen in streaming by the public. This gives the possibility to observe the developing of the rhyme by following the moves of all the participants in real time. Afterwards, the record is used as an independent video, which can be watched on the project page and beamed in each space once the performance is over.
Cicadas Rhyme is an attempt to create a shared time/space frame for a group of people located in several parts of the world, in peculiar spaces and different times of the day. Within the virtual context of the Skype call a collective action is developed, mainly based on improvisation and the performative – visual sensibility of each participant. By synchronizing their actions, the members of the group try to find a common rhythm to be seen in the visual result of their meeting, as in a constantly changing still life.
The principle is not far from that of an online jam session, where rhythm, refrains, and synchronisation are based on shapes, colours and position in the space.
