FORGERY
forgery
Australasian Dance Collective
Program Note
This work is an experiment in redesigning how dance performance can be generated, placing a computer between myself and the dancers as live mediator of choreographic ideas, where it is empowered with decision making and authorship. Through relinquishing my control of the show, I am investigating the ways in which dancers can be prompted, influenced and instructed through computer-generated spoken text. This work is, at its core, an improvisational toolset that has been developed in close collaboration with the cast, who have created strategies, techniques, and material to adapt, and apply as they navigate their way through each unpredictable incarnation of the performance. Forgery is responding to the reality that computers analyse billions of human queries and communications a day as a means to predict, influence and replicate human behaviour. At a time when, for various reasons, we are communicating through computers more than ever, it is a meditation on contemporary agency and the dynamics of human computer relations.
-Alisdair Macindoe
Media
“This is improvisation on steroids It utilises not only imagination, but also disinhibition, curiosity and trust, in conjunction with fine motor control and spatial awareness.” … ”Forgery certainly has nailed a brilliant concept with maximum intrigue appeal for audiences, tapping into the zeitgeist.”
“To be given the rare opportunity to see chance choreography not just done, but done well, is thrilling in and of itself, but the work also brings with it an integral depth in its lead towards contemplations around creative agency and consideration of what is meant by choreography.”
- Blue Curtains, Meredith Walker
“This show is unique, unusual and overall incredibly well curated.”
- Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane, Saskia Sassen
“It is a very successful melding of art and coding.”
“Viewed as an experiment in how dance performance can be generated when a computer has control of the decision-making, Forgery must surely be viewed a success, informing Macindoe’s creative practice and energising the dancers in the process.”
- Dance Australia, Denise Richardson
“Forgery is a brave production that demonstrates the adaptability of Australasian Dance Collective’s dancers and the big ideas of its directors and producers. The show is short and intense (only 45 minutes without an interval), but also funny and inquisitive. It is worth every single minute.”
Concept, creation, coding, choreography & sound composition - Alisdair Macindoe
Software Development - Josh Mu
Lighting Design - Ben Hughes
Company Artists & Performers - Chase Clegg-Robinson, Tyrel Dulvarie, Lonii Garnons-Williams, Jack Lister, Jag Popham, Josephine Weise
Image Credit - David Kelly
