How much do we remember of the time before the internet? How much of ourselves will we leave behind because of the internet, and how much of this do we imagine we can control? Today, the digital is everyday territory – we live within its invitation, its multiple platforms, its possibilities of existence – and yet, we are only still learning a practice of being within this space. We are still scribes unknown, emerging in a conscious articulation of who we are online, how we know, and what traces of ourselves we must contend with, before we are ready to accept their own aliveness.
Intended as a multi-layered dialogue with the online space, its consciousness and evolving practice, Floating Space Theatre Co. presents ‘rite | now’ – a site-responsive sound installation. ‘rite | now’ is designed as a durational immersive experience that evolves over a two-day period. The work is open to the public this weekend on December 2 and 3 from 11am-6pm at Trace Expert City, Maradana, and is presented in conjunction with the Global Voices Summit 2017 in Sri Lanka.
This iteration of the Global Voices Summit is shaped through the intention to analyze the “challenges to the open internet, looking at questions of open architecture and conditions for safe and free expression in an environment of increasing threats to both.” The two-day programme of public conversations and workshops will “explore how key ideas in the architecture of the internet and of discourse can rewire societies for resilience, reflection and deep research” (globalvoices.org). Collaborating artists for ‘rite | now’ – Jake Oorloff, Ruhanie Perera and Ranil Goonewardene – will work with the material evolving out of the Global Voices community and event to explore new conversations and reflections on the place of the human as it contends with the digital space and practice. The installation will be constructed outside the main auditorium at the venue, and will be connected to the conference programme; at the same time, it will also offer a reflective space – meditative in mood – that enables an independent experience for the audience/participant, while staying within the discourse and energy generated at the Global Voices Summit.
‘rite | now’ is a solitary experience, as well as a performance that evolves through the act of participation. Over the real-time lifespan of this durational work, ‘rite | now’ will grow through the engagement and contributions to it that take place in the moment of encounter. These encounters, it is hoped, will affect the installation – as it is commented on, and disrupted – almost as if were an installation in progress. The invitation to participate then is not simply in the experience of hearing/listening. It is also extended in the desire to elicit a response that will stand as acts of expression and witness. It is also extended in the awareness that to participate is always only a choice.
Read more about the production on the Floating Space website.
