Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Salford
Ulrike and Eamon Compliant by Blast Theory - Performer
Ulrike and Eamon Compliant was commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion for the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and winner of Best Real World Game, International Mobile Gaming Awards 2010
The role of the performer was to ‘trigger’ phone calls for this single participant, ambulatory experience and keep watch over participants as they made their way through the streets of Venice. The primary role of the participant was to firstly select and then ‘become’ either of the two subjects, Ulrike or Eamon. Once the subject had been selected, the participant, from here on in addressed to as either Ulrike or Eamon, would be guided on a 30-minute tour through the city while receiving the triggered phone calls. The experience culminates with a live interview in a hidden room somewhere in a city. This experience is (mostly) pre programmed; “hang up if you don’t want to continue” – (performer trigger call H), or “go to the room where questions are asked” (performer trigger call J). With a simple interface on a PDA, the performers can virtually follow the participant’s choices and guide them through this walk, unseen and unheard. To use Gabriella Giannachi’s term, I operated less as a performer and more as an ‘orchestrator’ in this event. The performance role here (and often in other mediated works by Blast Theory) puts the performer(s) or orchestrator(s) in the shadows, often nameless and character-less figures blending into the everyday, ‘performing’ behind the scenes or doing a job to ensure a seamless experience for the ‘subject’.
