Spindle

KWP production

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