An alive and dying avatar with spirits inside

An alive and dying avatar with spirits inside is a performative multiscreen installation. The piece proposes Butoh as an anti-thesis to futurist transhuman and avatar bodies to explore the ideal expression of the avatar body.

Butoh is a Japanese theatre dance form from the late 50’s / 60’s, founded by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno that demonstrates a radical dissociation from classical and western dance forms that typically glorify athleticism, precision and conformism. In essence Butoh strived to disrupt the socially conditioned response of the dancer to perform balance, strength and composure and instead resonate with the fragile. Butoh begins with the abandonment of self in order to explore ‘Ankoku’, the dark uneasiness that resides everywhere.

The transhumanist ideology is that through human-enhancement technologies we could improve human health and extend human life. If the avatar does not need to age and die and if the transhuman body could be upgraded and immortal, how will this affect the cyclical nature of being an alive and dying organism with spirits inside? If you take death out of life what is the consequence?

The Butoh avatar is an embodiment practice to observe our spirits that dwell in organic matter and question how they increasingly manifest in synthetic matter.