ΣXHALE is a 9-hour immersive performance by Fronte Vacuo that exposes algorithmic violence by questioning the responsibilities of both artificial intelligence systems and human collectivities. The structure of algorithmic violence is both visible and invisible, involving carbon-based beings (humans, animals, plants) and silicon-based entities (AI algorithms). Humans dictate instructions, algorithms repeat them, living things suffer, capital increases — an intricate net of relations where everyone has a responsibility.

The piece asks: How do you know what you know? Your knowledge derives from your viewpoint, but your viewpoint is by definition subjective. What you see can never be the whole story. Audience members sit in derelict greenhouses and discover a labyrinth of perspectives, of half-seen events, and of unseen reactions.

Here, humans are not the only actors: seedlings, fungi and the custom-made AI named are co-creators too. orchestrates rhythm, music and lights in response to the actions of the other performers. Through infinite loops, this human-nature-machine entanglement becomes a cathartic ritual, a symbiogenesis. Every evening anew, the people, living things and machines create ever new realities — a multiverse of possibilities where the narration reaches a different ending each time.

Media

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Collaborators

• Creative Technologist — Meredith Thomas
• Direction, Choreography, AI Music System — Marco Donnarumma
• Choreography, Symbionts — Margherita Pevere
• Interactive Light and Video Design, Technical Direction — Fax Andrea Familari
• Set Design, Costumes — Anna Cingi
• AI and Machine Learning Research — Baptiste Caramiaux
• Performance — Steffi Wieser
• Performance — Will Lopes

Institutions

Fronte Vacuo, Volkstheater Wien, CTM Festival, tanzhaus nrw, Radialsystem Berlin