Three tabs are currently displayed side by side on my Google Chrome browser: the official website of the emotional enhancement tool “Weaver Girl”, an online invitation to the launch party of the “Weaver Girl” series products, and the video documentation of the performance, curated and performed by _ao_ao_jing ensemble (which means “old witches” in Chinese): WeaverGirl: Special Design for Consul General’s Wives (CGW001). No matter which website I choose to look at first, or if I decide to ignore some of the information from the websites shown instead, I have been involuntarily part of a role-playing discourse from the moment I clicked on the link of the webpage. I act as one of the model audiences, , and a floating soul, caught between the development of technology and power structures.

People living on planet Earth used to believe that information technology, especially the internet, could spawn unlimited hyperlinks, spread across countless interfaces, foster cross-border cooperation, and eventually strengthen global interconnectedness. In fact, at the beginning of the millennium, people believed that the realization of globalisation would be completed in the next twenty years. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, no one now thinks that information technology can function without the boundaries of race, gender, culture, nationality, etc. I, for example, realised my extreme limitations as an individual; I identify myself as female, as an Asian immigrant with a Chinese background in Germany, and also as an international playwright and theatre practitioner. All these identities secure my existence. My other identities in the virtual world or within the sphere of information technology can be the extension of my identities in physical reality to a certain degree, but are never able reach beyond this limited radius by using digital tools.

During the residency at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality, Stage No More’s research was divided into three sections: the history of human exploration of the Moon, the political metaphor of the social custom of Gānbēi in various cultures, and the study of the social behaviours through screens in the information age. They therefore asked the following questions: How can human beings stay in touch without physical contact? How do their gazes travel through cameras, chips, and networks? What changes do our bodies undergo to adapt to this contactless communication?

Gānbēi took place in a darkened performance space. The deep blue, non-natural light illuminated a performer, dressed in a white jumpsuit with no exposure of his physical features. He/She interacted with a display screen, which simultaneously displayed the image of his/her own body, being captured by a real-time camera positioned on a Wall-E shaped robot. At the same time, special video effects created countless reflections of the body on the screen and the performer raised his cup and toasted to the countless replicas of himself. Sometimes the robot roamed outside the main performance area, probing the audience with its camera. As a result, the audience’s physical features were identified and projected on the screen in real-time. In this case, the presence turned into the present through the interactivity between the camera, the performer and the audience.

Ever since I started watching the video, my body became more sensitive: As my fingers touched the keyboard, I felt the bumps and recesses; I kept pressing the same key harder and harder every time. I then noticed the dust glowing on my screen, my eyes lingered on the camera and I stared at it. I felt the heat of the computer... On April 25^th, 2023, sitting at home in front of my computer, the liberation of my body has been firmly confirmed through the connection to and coordination with my computer.

References:

„Ganbei“ von Stage No More
http://stagenomore.com/works/ganbei

„Weaver Girl Projekt“ von_ao_ao_jing
https://aoaoing.com/WeaverGirl-Project

„JEPG“ von Sleep-less Theatre
https://www.sohu.com/a/337842422_827253

1. Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, page 143-144, London: Routledge, 2006.

2. Paul B Preciado, “Notes from a Talk at Glad Day Bookshop”, Toronto, January 22, 2020, https://mikehoolboom.com/?p=20883

3. Translated from 《月下独酌》,original text in Chinese by Li Bai, translated by Xu Xuanchong,Three Hundred Tang Proms, page 171, China Translation &Publishung House. 2021