DATA OCEAN THEATRE (OUT OF THE BLUE); A Discipline-Fluid Postdoctoral Artistic Research Project Exposition

vincent roumagnac

Data Ocean Theatre (D.O.T.) is a four-year artistic research project that explores the intersection of myths, Western theatre memory, new media, digital animism, climate emergency, sea and ocean transformations, queer subcultures, and technological mutations in relation to aspects of “submersion” as a contemporary living condition. Expanding on the claimed unsustainability of Western theatre’s anthropocentric foundations, D.O.T. examines how the notion and practice of the stage transform amidst climate urgency, technological hypergrowth, and discipline-fluid hybridization. It seeks to generate experiments on a new temporal ecology of the stage, examining how theatre-making infrastructures might transition within a multi-agential dynamic of emergence. D.O.T. appears, disappears, and reappears through a series of polymorphic artworks and research affordances based on the ecodramaturgical consideration of the simultaneous phenomenon of 1. the rising sea and ocean levels, 2. the exponential growth of big data in our informational age, and 3. the emotional overload caused by the latter two happening, projection, and prophecy. D.O.T. explores inherited sea-and-ocean-oriented myths and revisits theatre plays with a marine backdrop, looking simultaneously into contemporary nautical vocabulary and sea imagery used as metaphors for computational realities. D.O.T. proposes to re-mythologise Western theatre foundations by forming an alternative pantheon for a queer, hydrofeminist, and technoanimist reset of the “tragic,” at the interplay between a syncretic marine mythology and the ambiguities of “technology-as-monster” narratives. In D.O.T. project, the forces and fragilities of transforming marine ecosystems intersect with algorithmic-conditioned life and crossbreeding of diverse art disciplines and research fields based on collaborations, generating imaginary prototypes for future societal constructions in the floods. D.O.T. is structured around several key components: the prologue Simultaneous Environments, featuring a series of experimental works; the central project Tragedy and the Goddexxes, which culminates in three public exhibitions; and a series of workshops, residencies, and a final publication in the form of an exposition on the Research Catalogue. This final publication of the DATA OCEAN THEATRE postdoctoral artistic research project (2021–2024) titled 'DATA OCEAN THEATRE (OUT OF THE BLUE); A Discipline-Fluid Postdoctoral Artistic Research Project Exposition' performs on the Research Catalogue as both an aesthetico-epistemic object in its own right and as an a posteriori account, or catalogue raisonné, of the project. It also acts as a supplement to the author's doctoral publication, Reacclimating the Stage (Skenomorphoses), completing the latter to form a diptych on the Research Catalogue. Similar to the doctoral publication, the non-linear, non-hierarchical, and non-chronological reading, or hyper-reading, of Data Ocean Theatre (Out of the Blue) invites its visitors to navigate freely and compose their own fluid, archipelagic, and tidal experience to make sense of the project as a whole.

Seaformance & Artistic Research (Workshop)

Day-1 morning task

(Date of the day)

(City)

Hi, (Name).

Welcome to the sea-attentive performance (seaformance)/artistic research workshop.

Let's begin with an exercise, alright? No stress, just a gentle invitation, a stroll with unexpected encounters and fleeting thoughts, perhaps even daydreams.

For the next two hours, let's focus entirely on our working site: the sea.

You can choose a spot by the sea, stroll along the (pier, beach...), or even observe the sea from a distance (physically – offsite, or digitally – online sea(s)...); The only requirement is to keep your attention on and to the sea, engaging all your senses in this (re-)encounter.

Take your time to wander before deciding on your preferred position in relation to the sea.

You might opt for one spatial relationship or explore several.

Please do the exercise alone, avoiding direct interaction with others.

Throughout the exercise, you can take notes, capture traces (photographs, sounds, drawings, online information...), or simply immerse yourself in the experience as much as possible.

Choose to watch, listen, touch, taste, and/or smell the sea.

Explore its various intensities, materialities, rhythms, cycles, energies ...

What attracts or repels you? Do you prefer to stay with attractions or repulsions?

Recall moments of your life involving this sea, other seas, or seas in general, including oceans. Maybe you remember texts, artworks, songs... related to the sea.

You may examine your affective and emotional connection with the sea.

You can also try to imagine what it hides, its depths and the species that live therein, or have lived therein and are extinct to this day... You may also try to imagine the massive circulation of scientific and military data via submarine cables or geolocation satellites... and what about projecting it into ancient times or towards times to come in a near or far future?...

Relate the waters to your own bodily fluids, flows, tides, cellular, planetary, and interplanetary scales... Embrace all fluidities and matters, whether macro or micro, within and outside the body...

You can even talk to the sea if it comes.

Lastly, after engaging with the sea and exploring these diverse relational aspects, ponder this simple question: "How can the sensory and conceptual experience of the sea meet my artistic practice? If the sea were my primary partner, inspiration, actor, language, and stage, how would my practice respond? Considering 'seaformance' as a performance by, with, for, on, in, and/or under the sea, what would I like to try, how would I like to seaform?"

This is meant to be serene. Take your time. However, feel free to accelerate if needed. Find your own way.

At (time) , let's convene (place) and head back to the black box. Or not.

Enjoy.

So far the workshops have been held with students from the Theatre Academy of Helsinki and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. I want to warmly thank all the participants for the inspiring dialogue.

Tip

Tip