The Artist is (all but) Present
The piece is an AR (augmented reality) performance in which the “spectactor” meets and collaborates with Leron Miszek - an avatar (live 3D scan) of Miron Białoszewski to create his/her own piece of ephemeral, playful word poetry.
The piece is co-created by celebrated Polish theatre director Krzysztof Garbaczewski and Wooster Group member and experimental filmmaker Zbigniew Bzymek.
The piece is performed using Microsoft hololens glasses which the “spectactor” wears while communicating with Leron Miszek thru an intercom set-up. The performer playing the avatar Leron Miszek communicates in a way that suggests he might be AI.
Leron Miszek reads a series of poems selected from the work of Miron Białoszewski that exhibit prescience of the Virtual Realm.
The “spectactor” is repeatedly given the choice to listen or to collaborate - and is made to believe that Leron Miszek responds to voice commands.
When the “spectactor” selects “collaborate” - he is given a series of visual provocations that encourage descriptive and abstract verbal thinking - the words are captured and written as an animation of bubblegum letters through a speech recognition program - or the “spectactor” can use the paper and markers provided.