Visiting Artist | Feb 4 - 18, 2019
Escapes & Reversals
Chicago-based artist Ginger Krebs came with her ensemble to MANCC to develop Escapes & Reversals, a performance that looks at relationships between digital movement constructed for screens and exertion by live, gravity-bound bodies. The project continues to investigate power differentials across technological divides, especially the way one party's invisibility seems to require the exposure of another. It asks how technology might reinforce assumptions about socio-economic class. Escapes & Reversals delves into illusions perpetuated by social hierarchies in late capitalist society. It marvels at human resourcefulness at a time when we may feel disempowered by our political, economic, and environmental circumstances. In the midst of rampant corporate manipulation and recklessness, Escapes & Reversals recognizes human efforts to speak back to systems of power as nothing less than revolutionary.
Escapes & Reversals features percussive movement inspired by defense maneuvers, including prey animal survival strategies, training drills, and personal coping routines. These actions seem utterly life-or-death one moment, and oddly cartoon-like the next. Other movement for the project originated from the dancers’ personal reflections about how and when they protect or make themselves available to others. Krebs continues to want to understand behaviors that function to negotiate visibility and access, especially in the face of increasing surveillance, targeted advertising, drone warfare, identity theft, and self-branding through social media.
At MANCC, Krebs and her collaborators worked to integrate the substantial range of material they had already generated, while experimenting with compositional strategies like rear screen projection, voice over, and video that integrated aerial perspectives into the live performance.
During their time at MANCC, they made many connections at FSU to research drone-assisted disaster recovery, web-based marketing algorithms, and perception in virtual reality environments. Krebs began her residency with a trip to FSU’s innovation hub, where she experienced the possibilities of virtual reality. She furthered these explorations by meeting with Professor of Communication, Dr. Andrew Opel, and working with two of his students to shoot 360 degree footage and experience virtual reality through an oculus rift headset. Further, with drone operator Rillan Desalla, Krebs shot drone footage that was later projected during the informal showing that she and her collaborators hosted at the FSU School of Dance. To further inform her work, Krebs also met with Professor Charles Hofacker in the School of Business and David Merrick in the Emergency Management Program.
Escapes & Reversals premiered as part of the In>Time Performance Festival on March 7-9, 2019 at Unity Lutheran Church in Chicago.
Collaborators in Residence: Maddie Kodat, Naoki Nakatani, Zach Nicol, and Harlan Rosen [Dancers], Joseph Kramer [Sound Artist], Christine Shallenberg [Lighting Designer]
Maggie Allesee
