Culture
Atom-r to Bring Theater of Augmented Reality to Athens
< < Back toThe Ohio University School of Interdisciplinary Arts will present the Anatomical Theatres of Mixed Reality (Atom-r), a Chicago-based group with a unique blend of technological performance, at ARTS/West on Monday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m.
Founded by choreographer Mark Jeffery and techno-whiz Judd Morrissey, Atom-r is a boundary-pushing “provisional collective” exploring forensics, anatomy, and 21st century embodiment through performance, language and emerging technologies.
The performance, titled Kjell Theory: Prologue, is a mixed-reality production that blurs the boundaries between the binaries of physical and virtual space, past and future, male and female genders, and expressions of both human and machine.
The event juxtaposes the historical narrative of gay computing pioneer Alan Turing’s forced chemical castration with mutations of a play written by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who coined the term “surrealism.”
Found amongst Turing’s love letters to a male Norwegian love interest, written during the last two years of his life, are descriptions of his shifted focus from computing to a biological theory of morphogenesis, the autonomous generation of flowers and other natural forms.
During the interactive performance, temporary tattoos on the bodies of the performers are scanned to reveal virtual layers including texts, 3D objects and historical film clips.
The Chicago Tribune called their performance style a “brilliant jumble of old and new technologies intended to access the bodies mysteries.”
ATOM-r began in 2012, as artists-in-residence at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Chicago. The group has performed recently at Perform Chinatown (Los Angeles), Eyebeam (NYC), Anatomy Theatre and Museum (London, UK) and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago).
This event is presented by the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and made possible through the support of Ohio University LGBT Center, Campus Involvement Center, Sensory Ethnography Group and Arts for Ohio. The event is free and open to the public. ARTS/West is located at 132 West State Street in Athens.