PERFORMANCE: symbiomechanics prototype #1

symbiosis /ˌsimbēˈōsis/
interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
biomechanics/ˌbīōməˈkaniks/
the study of the mechanical laws relating to the movement or structure of living organisms.

“As both a person and a performer, and having grown up in the digital age, I have always been profoundly interested in the affect of technology upon the human experience. Relating this to objects – I have recently become intrigued by the anthropocentric way in which we use objects, both natural and crafted, with regards to their particular utility to us as a species.

The photograph above demonstrates a very early prototype for a performance I have titled Symbiomechanics. Technology, to me, represents the symbiosis of animate and inanimate, human and object. What I am particularly interested in discovering through performance is raising the stakes of that symbiosis to absolute dependence.

In the image above (and in the gallery below) you can see a scratch test for a helmet-piece worn by the performer in which both visual and audio sensory inputs are mediated by technological devices. Through further tests, I am keen to add additional devices to replace the other sensory inputs that the human body has (touch, taste, smell) as well as mediating other basic functions (movement, communication etc.), blurring the lines between animate and inanimate and questioning whether the balance of our human-object relationship is symbiotic or parasitic?”

Conor Baum

Photography Credit: Laura Smith

 

Conor Baum is a performer and theatre director and a recent graduate of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. Throughout his training, his work frequently addressed deconstructive philosophy and contemporary politics in relation to performance. His major investigative pieces were Staging Écriture Féminine, an experimental work that attempted to examine the work of Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida in a performative model; The Greek Plays, a selection of performance materials from ancient tragic sources in relation to contemporary socio-political events; and Foul Fucking Necessity, an investigation into the queer performance work of Andy Warhol’s Factory and The Play-House of the Ridiculous in the late 1960s. In December 2011, Conor received Best Director at the Columbia College Awards in Chicago for his immersive installation version of Sophocles’ Oedipus The King.