During my first Residency at Studio 88, Gender Fluid in May/June 2024, my workshops with Golf (Invocation) became a space for contemplating how a young person, unsure of their gender and sexual identity, would interact with others as a way of exploring who and what they are. We used AR people; we wanted to embrace the increasingly hybrid nature of our existence between real/digital.
In parallel, Golf was rehearsing his main production called The Overlapping. This was a series of reflections on his own identity and how all of us overlap with everyone else in some way. The Overlapping consisted of two main elements: live dance performances, and video projections. The latter contained recorded interviews with a number of people and then included some of the footage from our collaborative workshops Invocation. It was clear there was much overlap in terms of theme and media between Invocation and The Overlapping.
The Overlapping was first shown in Bangkok and then in Chiang Mai in July 2024. For the extended version we replaced the footage from Invocation with a live Augmented Reality set whereby I took the iPad/camera on stage to explore how “Roy” was interacting with Sade.
For me, the challenge of getting the tech to work and then be consistent in low light with the black background of the theatre environment was slightly greater than overcoming the demons of being on-stage. Overall though, it was a very unique opportunity to push the boundaries of live performance and digital art- how they may combine, compliment and sometimes opposed one another.
This video shows behind the scenes footage as well as snippets of the live performance of The Overlapping, at TCDC Chiang Mai on 6th September, 2024. Many thanks to Jakkrapan Sriwichai for video documentation.
