choreographies
choreography 1
PerformanceDuration: 1h (18:18-19:18)
Performed 23.05.2025
Phones
Screens
Projection
NDI
Cables
Humans
This choreographic performance presents a minimalist tableau of stillness, repetition, and passivity. A small group—comprised of both children and adults—sits or stands in a delineated area, fully absorbed in their smartphones. There is no apparent beginning or end. The performers do not interact with the audience or with each other IRL. They are immersed, scrolled-in, lulled by the glow of their screens.
The method is durational, observational performance using non-verbal, non-dramatic action to expose the behavioral patterns choreogrpahed by persuasive design. The stillness and repetition serve as a form of score—gestures like unlocking a screen, scrolling, switching between apps, zoning out, checking notifications. This somatic script is choreographed not by me as artist, but by the phone itself and the persuasive designers. This performance stages a real-time human-device interaction, where the choreography is authored by invisible forces—algorithms, dopamine loops, muscle memory.
Performance Score:
Each participant holds a phone
Duration: open (60 minutes)
Instructions for performers: behave exactly as you would when lost in your phone at home, on the tram, before bed. No exaggeration. The authenticity of passivity is the point.
The performance is filmed and projected and the gestures and are amplifies on the big 'screen'.
You are welcome to participate.
choreography 2
PerformanceDuration: Ongoing throughout the Slumber Party 18-
Participants: All guests
Performed 24.05.2025
Phones
Chargers
Humans
A quiet ritual for digital disarmament and collective re-attunement
PRELUDE – Entering the Commons of Disconnection
Upon entering the space, participants are invited to:
Bring their personal phone and charger to the designated room.
Place their phone on charge
Leave the sound on. Let notifications echo softly in the room.
The act of placing your phone becomes a gesture of mutual agreement—a tiny contract to rest, to disconnect, to reclaim presence.
THE ROOM – A Living Installation
A Projection installation runs continuously: blinking, watching, tracking.
Sound showers triggered by movement murmur a composition of notification sounds—pings, buzzes, alerts, layered into ambient pulses.
No phone use outside this space.
This is a space where phones rest.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
You may only use your phone in this room.
You are always being watched, by your phone and by the system it serves.
Your notification sounds belong to the room now.
You are invited to be present—alone, or together.
AFTERMATH – Leaving the Room
When you return to your phone:
Ask yourself: Did it miss you? Did you miss it?
Reflect: What does it mean to put down something so personal, next to others doing the same?
What would it mean to design a digital commons around sleep, slowness, and non-engagement?
What if the most radical gesture is to do nothing—for a while—together?