Embodiment and Social Distancing: Projects

• Main Authors: Annie Abrahams, Daniel Pinheiro, Mauricio Carrasco, Daniel Zea, Tina La Porta, Alicia de Manuel, David Casacuberta, Pep Gatell, Melissandre Varin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2020-10-01
• Series: Journal of Embodied Research
• Subjects: videoconferencing; video chat; perception; delay; plague; narrative; concert; music ensemble; internet art; web art; web cam; voyeur; liveness; creativity; performance; autoethnography; assemblage
• Online Access: https://jer.openlibhums.org/articles/67

A collection of five video essays on embodiment and social distancing, with a focus on projects. ANNIE ABRAHAMS AND DANIEL PINHEIRO, “Why is the use of videoconferencing so exhausting? An analysis on the demands” (00:10): Video footage from Distant Feeling(s) project run by Annie Abrahams & Daniel Pinheiro, a yearly reconnection, eyes closed, no talking. MAURICIO CARRASCO AND DANIEL ZEA, “Vortex Decameron: Building narratologies in pandemic times” (05:22): Emerging from another plague, the fourteenth century Black Death, Boccaccio’s Decameron presents the reader with examples of pre, mid and post-plague societal perceptions and norms. This correspondence inspired Ensemble Vortex to propose a newly commissioned series of contemporary narrative works. TINA LA PORTA, “Internet Art At The Turn Of The Millennium” (11:32): This body of work spans from 1994 to 2005, during this time I made over twenty web-based works that explored the idea of “live-ness” on the internet. ALICIA DE MANUEL, DAVID CASACUBERTA, AND PEP GATELL, “La Maldición de la Corona: Revisiting videoconference as a system to foster group creativity” (16:50): A collective and remote experiment based on William Shakespeare’s classic 'Macbeth', carried out by Fundación Épica La Fura dels Baus during the lockdown. The experiment has involved around thirty creatives and resulted in a pioneering work that transcends technological barriers and investigates the future of theater. MELISSANDRE VARIN, “Freezing Elements of Research” (21:54): the visual is the abstract of the audio/the audio is the abstract of the visual – altogether – with you – it forms an assemblage into braids.