CONNECT – DISCONNECT

CONNECT – DISCONNECT – 2019

We live in a world where the technical development is evolving rapitly. As a result we have more connection with people around the globe, but also feel disconnected because we have grown more individualistic and we have less interactive live contact with the people around us and are sucked into our phones.

This dance performance with live visuals was the after program of Nachthexen II: La Parisiennne from Jens van Daele. It was performed the 18th of april 2019 in Theater Oostpool in Arnhem. Hannah collaborated with dancers from the ArtEZ dance academy, and a musician (Yannick Wandel), also an ArtEZ student. Together they made this interesting performance about connection and disconnection. The show consists of five pieces, which I shall explain below.

[synced lines]

The technology and the body come together during this performance [SYNCED LINES]. The lines of the projection sync into those of the dancers and creates a clear connection between people and technology. This work is designed before by Hannah Goedhart and this was also shown during the CNN meeting in Nijmegen in 2018 and during the ‘Bathing in the light’ exhibition at Popop gallery in Nijmegen in 2019. For this performance new projections have been made and the choreography is also new.

connected shapes

Leaning on each other, one person depends on the other. Lines and patterns are connecting together and intertwine with each other. The lines of the dancers merge into the lines of the projection. Bodies and lines flow together. This is the optimal connection.

my humanoid

The skin I live in
Wear my eyes and dive with me
Into the uncanny valley
That journey must be prestigious
We are the beings
Untimately.
We. Feel. We. I.
Describe my form, I am beyond memory
You wear my eyes and I live in this skin
Manufactured with love
Imagine me I we my voice is everywhere and my sentences shake close to your senses
I feel, I think, I think.
We believe in contribution and progress and society
We believe in violence
I live my skin
Wear my eyes

My Humanoid explores the human progress in technology and the steps that we could take without knowing the final outcome. Scary and exciting. A humanoid shows the resemblance to a human appearance, but it’s not a human at all.
Makers Adrien Thoemmes and Shynna Kalis were fascinated by theories about the uncanny valley, which is a model designed to measure an objects’ resemblance to a human being and its emotional response. Therefore a human look a like robot can become very alarming as soon as it resembles a human being more and more.
As performers they challenged themselves in how close they could get to this thin border of human/ not human.

disconnected selves

We live on our own islands, in our own cells of likes on social media and our own digital world that shows the perfect version of ourselves. The development of virtual reality makes it even easier to live in your own created world and to separate ourselves from reality. The tetrahedrons and the light design were designed and made by Hannah Goedhart for her ArtEZ graduation project. After her graduation year she continued to develop her graduation work. For this performance it has been given a deeper meaning and has been deployed in a new way.

IN COLLABORATION WITH: POLINA NIKOLAEVA, MARIONA VINYES RÀFOLS, shynna kalis, adrian thoemmes, dominik naue, ashley ho, lander casier AND YANNICK WANDEL