performance
Eingeweide
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) by Marco Donnarumma, a series on the conflicts surrounding the human body in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). More info: https://marcodonnarumma.com/works/eingeweide/
Award
2018, Digital Award (best performance in category) awarded to Marco Donnarumma and Margherita Pevere
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 text on this page: Marco Donnarumma
Photography: Manuel Vason
Live photography: Giovanni De Angelis
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: Prof. 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). The photos on this page are copyright of Marco Donnarumma and Manuel Vason, any use of these photos is forbidden without his consent.