Spindle
Residencies
- 18.04 > 29.04.2022
- 20.09 > 01.10.2021
An omniscient Spider and an emerging Artificial Intelligence are tied together in a dialogue surrounding the human history of weaving and information technology. As they spin their twisting tales they reveal a web of connections and perspectives.
More and more we project our hopes, fears, desires and trust in the future on to the digital sphere. Each aspect of our lives is being transferred into data. But what does this ocean of information mean to us when the technology that generates it becomes ever more incomprehensible and complex — or when it is in hands of a few so-called tech-geniuses?
With Spindle Oona Libens calls for a new narrative about our digital (future) — one that is in symbiosis with nature and humanity.
The starting point for Spindle is the link between two seemingly disparate domains: digital technology and weaving. This link is found in the punched card, an invention that made industrial weaving in the 1800s more efficient and complex. The punched card later formed the inspiration for the first programmable computer — designed partly by the mathematician Ada Lovelace, being the first female computer programmer. So weaving can be considered the earliest binary technology. As a thread goes either up or down, it carries zero’s and one’s just as the digital language.
In Spindle the archetypal weaver — a Spider — converses with an Artificial Intelligence. They speak about the history and future of technology, about the importance of mystery versus information, about the lost traces of textile history — and with it of women’s work… And all the while the Spider weaves her web and the AI tries to imitate and to intimidate her.
All this is visualised in an intricate universe made up of a giant loom — or is it a primitive computer? — threads, knots, spools and other contraptions reminiscent of the textile field.
As in earlier work Oona Libens uses several kinds of projection techniques, shadows and light effects to create an ephemeral yet tactile, audiovisual experience — as fleeting as the data flows around us.
Concept en uitvoering: Oona Libens | Performance: Amanda Lebert/Meri Ekola, Oona Libens | Techniek: Amanda Lebert/Meri Ekola | Sound Design: Vica Pacheco, Jürgen De Blonde | Dramaturgie & eindregie: Renée Goethijn | Script: Oona Libens | Software & electronica: Jakob Jennerholm Hammar, Marcel Samyn | Robot sturing: Francis Brady | Sound technician: | Productieassistent: Ambre Andriamanana | Productie: Kunstenwerkplaats KWP | Co-producenten: Vooruit, STUK, Inkonst (Malmö) | Dank aan: Gouvernement Gent, Inter Arts Center Malmö (SE), HAUT (DK), Industriemuseum, Buda Kortrijk, Kris Verdonck, Christina Amelia Candea, Simon Halsberghe, Nina de Vroome, Christina Claesson, Eva Renfalk, Daniel Libens, Thom Kiraly, Mattias Hållsten, Anna Rheingans | Met de steun van: Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Swedish Arts Grants Committee (Konstnärsnämnden), Region Skåne, Helge Ax:son Johnson Stiftelse