Special performance by Marco Donnarumma presenting Corpus Nil

During Conflux festival media and performance artist Marco Donnarumma will present his awarded performance 'Corpus Nil'. Don't miss this unique closing performance of the festival on Sunday 5 June.

Human bodies and identities are continuously categorized, online and offline, by artificially intelligent algorithms and machines. But what if, by contrast, artificial intelligence could be used to contaminate human bodily experience? How does a body defiled by algorithms look and move like?

Corpus Nil is a performance for a human body and an artificially intelligent machine. A naked body, partly human and partly machine, lies on stage. It is an amorphous cluster of skin, muscles, hardware and software. Biophysical sensors attached to the performer’s limbs capture bodily electrical voltages and corporeal sounds and feed them to the machine.

Thanks to a sophisticated set of algorithms, each nuance of the body’s motion sets off a synaesthetic play of sound and light directed by the machine. The biological signals of the body influence the choices of the machine, but cannot control what it will do. In turn, the auditive and visual saturation produced by the machine influences the body’s movement, but disrupts its perception and motor skills at the same time. Despite being intimately linked to the human body, the machine is autonomous and chooses by itself how to respond to the performer`s movements.

In an unstable feedback loop, the body and the machine pollute each other. The amorphous being on stage slowly evolves into an unfamiliar creature. It reconfigures its parts through a sensuous choreography pushing the limits of muscular tension, limbs torsion, skin friction and equilibrium. The corporeal sound frequencies are spatialised using a multi-channel sound system surrounding the audience, while bioelectrical flashes of light rhythmically illuminate the space.

Through sound, light and optical illusions, the physical mutation of the body impacts and submerges the audience, inducing a trance-like experience. As the body and the machine form a partial, unknown and yet graceful being, spectators feel as if its heart was beating within their own bodies. It is unclear whether the new body is human enough, or perhaps, the common meaning of ‘human’ is not enough to describe it.

Corpus Nil is part of the 7 Configurations cycle (2014-2019), a series on the conflicts surrounding the human body in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Marco Donnarumma (DE) is an artist, performer, stage director and scholar weaving together contemporary performance, new media art and interactive computer music since the early 2000s. He manipulates bodies, creates choreographies, engineers machines and composes sounds, thus combining disciplines, media and emerging technologies into an oneiric, sensual, uncompromising aesthetics. He is internationally acknowledged for solo performances, stage productions and installations that defy genres, and where the body becomes a morphing language to speak critically of ritual, power and technology.

For more info on Marco Donnarumma check: https://marcodonnarumma.com

Program 2022

  • Performances

    Conflux festival offers a variety of innovative experimental music, live audio visual performances and performance art. Experience a cross-section of internationally renowned artists hailing from the front lines of digital culture and adventurous music.

    The program invites the audience to enter abstract and digital worlds through numerous screen setups and analogue light spaces. By presenting genre-defying performances the artists within this program will put our senses to the test and explore the relation between live audio visual composition and the festival theme: 'Exit Human'.

    Artists
    Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void + Pedro Maia
    Helm
    (visuals by Tatsuya Fujimoto)
    Flora Yin Wong
    Mark Fell & Will Guthrie
    Animistic Beliefs & Jeisson Drenth
    CACHE/SPIRIT
    Lichun Tseng & Robert Kroos
    Ebb and Flow
    Dadub & FAX
    Hypersynchronous
    Marco Donnarumma
    Corpus Nil
    Dylan Cote & Pierre Lafanechère
    Earthsatz
    Nikki Hock
    ISSIZ
    BJ Nilsen
    Acidic Male
    Pinar Demirdag and Sofia Crespo
    Panspermia
  • Exhibitions

    The exhibitions show artworks and installations that emerge at the intersection between science, art and technology. In some of the works, technology is being used to give us a dark glance on how our future could evolve. Other works experiment with new forms of sensory perception and strive to activate the imagination that arises when encountering abstract fields of light and sound. These installations explore the limits of our senses by using fast rotating mechanisms, stroboscopic light and multichannel speaker setups.

    Opening times exhibitions at V2_, UBIK and Slash Gallery:
    Thursday 19:00h - 22:00h, Friday till Sunday 14:00h - 21:00h

    Opening times exhibition at Plein 1940:
    Friday till Sunday 22:00h - 00:00h

    Artists
    Carla Chan
    Drifting Towards the Unknown
    Joanie Lemercier
    View From the Moon
    Marnix de Nijs
    AOR-200 Autonomous Oil Reserve
    Cocky Eek
    Void
    Macular
    Cylinders
    Mariska de Groot
    Hidden Patterns
    Marco Broeders
    The Open Loop
  • Club Nights

    In a time in which our societal freedom is heavily under discussion, a space for escapism becomes more and more important. Since the dawn of time humans felt the need to immerse into dance rituals where sound and the human body interact. Club culture caters for this need and provides a space where escapism, trance and full body immersion in sound and light relate to technology.

    Conflux explores the current state of electronic dance music by inviting a few of the most innovative electronic and techno-driven musicians and local talents who experiment with the boundaries of club culture and dance floor rituals. With these nights Conflux strives to push the limits of the sonic pallet, combining the worlds of nocturnal sound with mind-bending visual experiments.

    Artists
    Pessimist
    Umwelt
    Samuel Kerridge
    Unit Moebius
    Mad Miran
    Genyten
    RAFF
    Marsman
    Das Ding
    Rita Maomenos
    Zohar
    Slick Chick
    Ruwedata
    Inge K
    Blondewednesday
    Acidic Male
  • Conference

    Thinkers, artists and performers reflect on the festival theme: 'Exit Human'. Through lectures, talks, and discussions the conference will focus on the transformation of nature and society by reflecting on current social developments within art, technology, and science.

    We are slowly but surely moving towards the post-Anthropocene. How will humans adapt to the constant changing world around us? What changes will we see on both a global level and on a biological level?

    Artists
    Stefan Sorgner
    Lisanne Buik
    Matthew Fuller
    Geocinema Network
    Visual Methodologies Collective
    Roel Dobbe
    Marco Donnarumma
    Klara Lewis & Nik Colk Void + Pedro Maia
    Dylan Cote and Pierre Lafanechère
    Cocky Eek
    Pinar Demirdag
    Jeisson Drenth
    Lawrence Lek's Sinofuturism
    Lawrence Lek's Geomancer
    Lawrence Lek's AIDOL
    Eric Parren
    Holly Dicker
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