A LIVE PERFORMANCE WORK FOR DISTRIBUTED VOICE AND BODY

★★★★ ‘captivating and utterly original’ ARTS HUB

My Self in That Moment is a new hybrid performance work for an ensemble of 49 tablets and a solo vocalist, exploring the fragmented and distributed self in the digital age.

The swiftly evolving ability to replicate, deconstruct and distribute a person’s image and voice presents a swathe of possibilities and conundrums. The edges of self are increasingly frayed as our relationship with devices and systems becomes ever more entangled, fragmenting notions of ‘me’ and ‘mine’.

Interrogating questions around identity, agency, ownership and the myriad systems that lay beneath the distribution of data, My Self in That Moment is a reflection on the voice and body and what it means to be digitally captured and archived.

Led by Chamber Made Artistic Director, Tamara Saulwick, with composition by Peter Knight, My Self in That Moment continues the company’s record of engaging with new forms and technologies in live performance and music. For My Self in That Moment Steve Berrick has developed a system where personal devices in the form of tablets are networked to function as a visual and sonic ensemble, opening up exciting possibilities for the spatialization of image and sound.

Featuring the recorded voices and images of three astonishing vocalist/collaborators, Jessica Aszodi, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang and Tina Stefanou, My Self in That Moment also incorporates a rich visual language developed for the piece by photographer Sarah Walkerand designers Amelia Lever-Davidson and Geoffrey Watson.

‘My Self at That Moment opens up crucial areas for reflection, especially at a time when the digital self has become a proxy for the real … Voice and image become increasingly distorted through replication, imitation, pixelation, multiplication, looping and fragmentation. The voice is layered and transformed in impossible ways. Images of her physical body are eventually eroded, until all that remains are fragments of a former self.’ THE CONVERSATION

PREMIERE SEASON - The Substation July 27 - 30 2022

ARTISTS

Concept & direction Tamara Saulwick

Composition & sound design Peter Knight

Performer & collaborators Tina Stefanou, Jessica Aszodi & Alice Hui-Sheng Chang

Creative Coder & programmer Steve Berrick

Dramaturg Martyn Coutts

Photography Sarah Walker

Lighting designer Amelia Lever-Davidson

Costume Geoffrey Watson

Technical operator Giovanna Yate Gonzalez

Production Manager Matt Gingold

This work was developed in partnership with The Substation and Experimenta, with support from The Besen Foundation, Playking Foundation, and The Australia Council for the Arts.