In English language (German description here >>> )

DAYS WITHOUT NAMES

by Maija Hirvanen (Project-Presentation)

Maija Hirvanen's upcoming performance DAYS WITHOUT NAMES consists of contemporary rain dances. The stage rituals of the work deal with dance and performance themselves as a medium and as practices for affecting one's environment. The performance tries to dance the rain to come. The performance tries to re-new identity by dancing. The performance tries to dance the war away.

During this project-presentation at FESTIVAALI! Maija Hirvanen will give insight into the material relevant to her creative process and her ideas about the work: DAYS WITHOUT NAMES is a piece about doubt, the erosion of believing, the meaning of intentions and the everyday potential of performance. It is the third part of Hirvanen's trilogy OPERATION WE (2011-2014). Each of the parts asks, from a different point of view, what combines us, the contemporary people? What makes the "we" a we?
Info www.hirvanen.net

LOVE.ABZ

by Otso Huopaniemi (Lecture)

What began as an experiment in machine translation has evolved into a compelling performance that explores the fragility of language, understanding and our ongoing relationship with machines. A seemingly endless chain of translations and rewrites, both human and machine-made, began in 2010 when Otso Huopaniemi had Google Translate first translate his play AN ABZ OF LOVE from Finnish to English and back several times. Since then, the piece has been performed in various versions with different performers internationally in New York, Helsinki and Berlin, among other places.

In his lecture, Huopaniemi will present a video excerpt from a performance of LOVE.ABZ at Theaterdiscounter this past December. He will discuss core concepts of the work: misrecognitions or errors in translation which Huopaniemi describes as “turning points.” In these crucial moments, the performers have to make a choice between incorporating the “mistake” and accepting it as part of the authorship of the machine or resisting it in an attempt to retain authorial control. The lecture analyses examples of the exchange between humans and computer and points out instances of accompaniment that evolve when the computer as an independent writer gains agency in the writing process.
Info www.vimeo.com/huopaniemiotso