Verena Vuori

 

Collaboration with Sarah Hermanutz (motion tracking technology) and Emily Zuckerman (areal rope). This collaboration started, like Breath (un)seen from making breathing visible through various media. We also played with presence and absence of technology and technology vs physicality.

 

I made a series of videos which document the process of breathing in experimental ways, i.e. by filming light fall through a cup with water on my chest as I breath (see still above). One video was projected on the torso of a performer on the stairs as the audience entered. There were three parts to the performance. The first had my other videos projected on the back wall, outlining my silouette (with water filled cups on my chest). A rope was strung across the space, with Emily lying on it, and moving it with her breath. As she started to move more I went into an elastic band on the wall, swaying in it on my breathing. The second part consisted of Emily wearing motion tracking technology which responded to her breathing while moving on the rope. The technology was home made and took a while to install on Emily’s body. The third part started in the dark where Emily and I moved to Sarah’s breath sounds. When the light came back on, we moved faster, speeding up till we had to stop.  Out of breath we then went into a game where one of us talks about whatever comes to their mind while the other holds their breath. When the other needs to inhale, the first one stops speaking (and is in still positions among the audience).