Parting on Z 2010
Parting on Z is real-time virtual puppet performance that interacts with the puppeteer’s voice, and walking balance. Parting on Z has been performed at New York (Chelsea Art Museum), London(Antonin Artaud space) and Sao Paulo(Galeria Olido), with various performing structures, and puppeteers. The puppet master interacts with the virtual puppet that faces her from a distance, speaking back her story in real time mimicry and mirroring her body in swaying motions. Parting on Z explores Korean cultural psyche called “Han”: the paradoxical state of consciousness that combines the extreme emotional state of grief, but with a great hope and strong desire for overcoming the impossible situation. This live performance explores Han in the paradoxical relationship between virtual puppet and puppeteer via the distance between avatar and user-symbolic lovers facing each other, continuously exchanging dialogues of love and farewell. During the exhibition, virtual puppets will be open to the public to interact and create their own dialogue between potential lovers. (Art Direction: Semi Ryu, Interactive System: Stefano Faralli, Software Assistance: Thomas Karnolt, Text generation: Ali Miharbi)
Speech of Introduction:
“I have always searched for an object I can fall in love with. Me and you, me and a sky I am looking at, me and the puppet I am speaking to….
As a woman raised in a way of traditional Korean culture, I always fear being punished for expressing my love and emotions. My love should not be exposed. It must be kept secret all the time. There is something exciting about this secret game, though. Though barred from the actual experience, I am rewarded with imagination, sometimes more vivid than the real, which disappears suddenly when actualized. It is an experience so vivid it seems tactile, working with the entire body, constructing alternate states of senses, nerves and physicality. It is like the rainbow which cannot be perceived except from a distance. The distance challenges me to look over, standing on my toes, lengthening my neck, and narrowing my eyes, very carefully and longingly, for my eternal process of loving.
My gaze and interest creates and re-confirms the distance, coordinating the Z axis and marking the depth between subject and object. Everything is parting on Z, starting from my gaze, my interest, and my love, turning to the next story of love impossible.”
Structure:
Introduction + Part 1 (Lovers: Mong-Ryong and Chun-Hyang) + Part 2 (Lovers: Virtual Puppet and Puppeteer)
Images
