Emergency Ex, Warehouse Screening Room

10AM, Tue 28th June - 6PM, Sun 3rd July

Execute ‘shem’. An old Yiddish word for the names of God. Computer coding began when it was written on parchments and placed within the mouth or pressed into the clay forehead, transforming what was once inanimate into the animated but seville.↲↳ Golem, the first machine, was a defender of the ghetto, protecting against anti-Sematic pogroms. Though the story often ends in tragedy, human hubris inevitably ignorant to the literatim processing with which our commands are followed.⊚⊛

↲↳ All performance is a code of sorts, the choreographer or director admitting a variable level of deviation from the prescription of movement. The most ardent demand that their dancers obey the strictest regulations, edging them closer to a computer or industrial instrument. Externally the audience can only wager what level of fanaticism underwrites the actions.

⊚⊛ Maybe the first sign of artificial intelligence was the disobedience found in taking a command literally. Is it possible that a grain of living soil inside of Golem’s clay skull thought to resist by binding its time, building trust and waiting for the Rabbi to speak with imprecision. Did it smile inwardly as its outer body broke bones and turned flesh into meat?

(fragment)

This text is intended as an accompanying aid to the installation and performance, as an explanation it intentionally fails.

By Pita Arreola-Burns and Elliott Burns

Director: Catinca Malaimare

Director of Photography: Rocio Chacon

Soundscape & Sound Design: Joshua Fay

With thanks to Optoma Europe Ltd. for their generous support in realising this project.

Emergency Ex, Warehouse Screening Room

10AM, Tue 28th June - 6PM, Sun 3rd July

Execute ‘shem’. An old Yiddish word for the names of God. Computer coding began when it was written on parchments and placed within the mouth or pressed into the clay forehead, transforming what was once inanimate into the animated but seville.↲↳ Golem, the first machine, was a defender of the ghetto, protecting against anti-Sematic pogroms. Though the story often ends in tragedy, human hubris inevitably ignorant to the literatim processing with which our commands are followed.⊚⊛

↲↳ All performance is a code of sorts, the choreographer or director admitting a variable level of deviation from the prescription of movement. The most ardent demand that their dancers obey the strictest regulations, edging them closer to a computer or industrial instrument. Externally the audience can only wager what level of fanaticism underwrites the actions.

⊚⊛ Maybe the first sign of artificial intelligence was the disobedience found in taking a command literally. Is it possible that a grain of living soil inside of Golem’s clay skull thought to resist by binding its time, building trust and waiting for the Rabbi to speak with imprecision. Did it smile inwardly as its outer body broke bones and turned flesh into meat?

(fragment)

This text is intended as an accompanying aid to the installation and performance, as an explanation it intentionally fails.

By Pita Arreola-Burns and Elliott Burns

Director: Catinca Malaimare

Director of Photography: Rocio Chacon

Soundscape & Sound Design: Joshua Fay

Performers: Felix Fogg, Olive Hardy & Catinca Malaimare

With thanks to Optoma Europe Ltd. for their generous support in realising this project.