Keywords: tanztheater, body art, sound art, artificial intelligence, bioart
World Premiere: 4-5 October 2018, Romaeuropa Festival, Rome
What does it mean to create a truly autonomous machine, independent from human control? And what happens when organs live outside of a body? Perhaps the human body’s only real power is to take on ever changing forms and identities.
Eingeweide is the staging of a ritual of coalescence. Inhabiting a desolated, surreal landscape, two human bodies become violently entangled with an artificially intelligent (AI) prosthesis, out-of-body organs, relics from computer server farms and animal remains.
The prosthesis uses AI algorithms to learn in real time how to move, exist and perform on stage. The organs pulsate, leak and crawl on the floor, bearing traces of the microbial cultures which created them. Sounds from the performers’ muscular activity are amplified and transformed by AI algorithms into a powerful and visceral auditive experience, submerging the spectators.
The performers’ bodies become, thus, one and multiple, at times asserting, at times misplaced. They are the means of a drastic form of bodily experimentation, where alternate identities emerge from the convergence of human, machine and micro-organisms. In such a configuration, each element drastically affects the other. Physicality and psyche are meshed up, shaken and probed.
A far cry from trans-humanist ideals or techno-phobic claims, Eingeweide creates its own vocabulary of symbolic meaning, manifesting the relationship between humans, technology and living-others as a harsh, poetic and humbling form of intimacy.
Eingeweide is part of the 7 Configurations cycle (2014-2019), a series on the conflicts surrounding the human body in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).
Reviews
“So beautiful and deeply disturbing, a true manifest for the adventures of creation and a massive stimulation for our curiosity as we should always remember, there are no borders, neither for our body nor for our mind.”
Thomas Venker, Kaput Mag
“Profoundly moving, at the same time unsettling, in any case intense and marrow-shaking.”
Katharina Seidler, Radio FM4, ORF
“Worth seeing because it’s hard to look at.”
Amira Ben Saoud, Der Standard Kultur
“Two naked bodies, sound cuffs on the thighs. They are knotted together, is it copulation or a single being? A tentacle grows out, it’s surreal, one’s own senses are meaningless. Fantastic, a spectacle.”
Christian Pichler, Volksblatt
“An all-encompassing enveloping experience, powerful, visceral and therefore, also disquieting.”
Francesca Bernabini, Danzaeffebi
Award
2018, Romaeuropa Festival (IT)
Digital Award (Best performance in category)
Shows
- Meta.Morph Biennale
K.U.K., Trondheim, NO, 2024 - Fronte Vacuo presents: Eingeweide
Acker Stadt Palast, Berlin, DE, 2023 - Volkstheater Wien / CIVA Festival
Volkstheater Main Stage, Vienna, AT, 2022 - Kapelica Gallery | European ARTificial Intelligence Lab
Starna Elektrarna, Ljubljana, SL, 2021 - Donaufestival
Triple bill, Krems an der Donau, AT, 2021 - Art + Science Meetings | Beyond Borders
Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk, PL, 2019 - Nemo Biennale + HeK Basel
Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, FR, 2019 - Politik der Algoritmen
Muenchner Kammerspiele, Munich, DE, 2019 - Arte Anarchia
MACRO Asilo, Rome, IT, 2019 - Meta Marathon
NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf, DE, 2019 - Frankenstein Symposium
Natlab, Eindhoven, NL, 2018 - World Premiere, Romaeuropa Festival
Pelanda Theater, Rome, IT, 2018 - Excerpt, Ars Electronica
Postcity, Linz, AT, 2018 - Public preview, CTM Festival “Turmoil”
HAU2, Berlin, DE, 2018
Format
Evening-length piece for two performers, machine and biomaterials.
Duration: 40 minutes
Media: Artificially intelligent facial prosthesis, adaptive neural networks, biosensors, biomaterials, LED light, computer-processed sound, multi-channel sound diffusion, black paint
Credits
Eingeweide – performance
Concept: Marco Donnarumma
Artistic direction: Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere
Dramaturgy, choreography: Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere
Performers: Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere
Music composition, interaction programming: Marco Donnarumma
Stage design: Marco Donnarumma, Margherita Pevere
Light design: Andrea Familari
Performer’s biofilm mask: Margherita Pevere
Physiological computing software and hardware: Marco Donnarumma
Artwork’s description texts: Marco Donnarumma
Photography: Manuel Vason
Live photography: Giovanni De Angelis, Nada Zgank | Kapelica
Video trailer: Marco Donnarumma
Production management: Kotryna Slapsinskaite (2022-present), Rene Dombrowski (2019-2020), Claudia Dorfmueller (2018-2019)
Re-I – robotic prosthesis
Concept: Marco Donnarumma
Design, morphology, engineering, fabrication: Marco Donnarumma
Programming, AI software: Marco Donnarumma
Neurorobotics scientific advice, behavioural design framework: Prof. Manfred Hild
Scientific support: Neurorobotics Research Lab, Beuth Hochschule, Berlin
Mentoring: Alberto de Campo
Biofilm skin: Margherita Pevere
3D modelling, 3D printing, engineering support: Christian Schmidts
External shell design: Ana Rajcevic
The performance Eingeweide and the robot Re-I are artworks and productions by Marco Donnarumma realised during, and funded by, his Fellowship at the Graduiertenschule, Berlin University of the Arts. Eingeweide and Re-I are part of the 7 Configurations cycle, ideated and produced by Donnarumma. Eingeweide is co-directed with Margherita Pevere, and commissioned by CTM Festival (DE).