Digital Commune VII in the competition programe of Gibanica/Moving Cake festival

Sunday, February 22 at 6 pm, Kosovelova hall (Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana) - the intermedia performance Digital Commune VII. The performance was a part of competition program of the 4th Gibanica/Moving Cake biennal festival of contemporary dance.

It is noticeable in Slovenian environment that art media and genres are segmented into particular »guild« currents, finding it difficult to achieve mutual consensus in art as they struggle to oust or submit one another. Dance is dance, video is video, sound is sound, light is light... and what happens when it all happens simultaneously?

The Digital commune VII group of creators originates from various fields of art: the key concept based on audio-visual integrations is advocated by Aleksandra Kostič, dance and choreography is provided by Mojca Kasjak, sound, voice and responsive levers by Cameron Bobro, video and cameras
are created live by Luka Dekleva and Dino Schreilechner. Light is designed by David Orešič and the technical coordinator is Jure Vekjet.

Digital Commune VII is a dance-audio-visual lab, where based on intermedia approach the performer/dancer follows the mutual responsiveness of various digital technology levers, thus sometimes activating audio, video or light systems by herself or entering in movement into the already triggered digital processes.

This way the scenography and costumography are translated into digital images –video, light and sound. The dancer does not focus on her own move only, on the move in stage real time and place, but also has to think, follow, build and conceptualise digital images, be it sound, her own image or light. She has to be aware of the digital, two- and three-dimensional space, of body echo in endless digital loop and of the play between real and digital shadows that intertwine.

Video cameras follow the body and its details at several spots, zoom them i to extremes, zoom out, compose ornaments, shadows... Images of the dancer change speed, moving back and forth, to the point where the real body is not able to follow them.

Theremin, the electronic instrument responding to the movement of the human body is a great indicator of mutual dependence and the only stage prop, save for the video camera. The sound image constructed from originally created sounds and sound effects in various combinations is triggered by the dancer or the image.

The seventh Digital Commune produced by ACE KIBLA partly played on the poetics of the first and the fourth edition, yet surely an unpredictable variatio of Digital Commune was created.

With subtle and fortified interventions we expand the perception of space and time dimensions. Creators experience simultaneously virtual and real situations. Video, sound, noise and light are co-dancers of the one real dancer, the one moving. There is no hierarchy among them. Technology an human perception: the boundaries of each of them define stochastic or blurred movement and interactions – there is neither possible nor wanted to construct a strictly synchronized show. We research the technology and the edges of its appearance. Mistakes are not excluded. We experiment, overturn, move. Knowledge, experience, findings and feelings circulate freely.
- Cameron Bobro

This is an excellent arrangement... good interaction, so this interface on stage – the dancer's body has understood the technology-administered circle well. And that is the core of this performance. That the established system interferes with the human body and the human body produces this audio environment that is beautiful. And if it is beautiful, it is also deliberate, and if it is deliberate, this means it is excellent.
- Dragan Živadinov

Digital commune, spanning over several years, is an artistic conceptual project and experimental process of mastering responsive digital systems using various substituting media and players, resulting in individual experimental projects:

2006: Digital commune I
DIG IT!, interactive live audio-visual-dance performance with a preliminary workshop, Kibla, Maribor

2006: Digital commune II
BBM: TROIA ArmPod, mobile audio and video streaming system. Infrared sensors locate the movement of the dancer in the room, who then activates video and sound based on position, Kibla, Maribor

2006: Digital commune III
Anne Roquiny: WJ-s, online performance in real space, Kibla, Maribor

2007: Digital commune IV
Intermedia performance with Mojca Kasjak, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana

2007: Digital commune V
Intermedia performance with Mojca Kasjak, SKC, Belgrade

2009: Digital commune VI
Catch the move, CIANT and Snježana Premuš, Kibla, Maribor

2009: Digital commune VII
Intermedia performance with Mojca Kasjak at Gibanica festival, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana

Digital Commune VII is part of the gRIG project (Guild for Reality integrators and generators), supported by the EU education and culture programme.