yaGrid

A few lines are all it takes to draw a stick figure, that fundamental symbol of the human form since prehistoric times – a rod-like torso with protruding limbs. In this piece by Irini Kalaitzidi, a good few such abstract figures are brought in, as post-human beings, to dance with humans.

The video conference call environment here becomes a liminal space between the real and the imaginary, perfectly playing host to human and post-human beings in motion. Despite its grid-like structure, this digital platform with virtual windows blurs the boundaries between the participants. Where does one end and the other begin? How distinct are human beings from stick figures when they co-exist inside the same flat visual field?

As beings of unparalleled neutrality and digital simplicity, the stick figures drain the body of excess information, thus sparking the imaginations of those watching, inviting them to invent or discover things in this direction. What percentage of it is actual matter? What percentage is a wave or an idea, sound or pixels?

Irini is herself inside the grid. She verbally guides the participants through a movement improvisation, in a tone that borders on the meditative. The emerging ecosystem of dancing beings is left to exist inside a chronological and spatial continuum, one with no beginning and no end, no polar extremes, and no layers. What does exist is horizontal and elastic, slightly absurd and somewhat familiar. The viewer is present, themselves set inside a window. These stick figure interactions seek to trigger greater sensitivity and less fear towards all that is non-human – be it artificial intelligence, or a gardenia plant, or a shoe.