Mystery 91 Magnetic Dance

Project Mystery 91 Magnetic Dance, explores the relationship between technology and culture through a unique digital performance which premieres in Greece on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October at the X-Bowling Art Center, in collaboration with artists from Greece, Japan and France. Βased on well-known Greek and Japanese myths, the myth of Echo and Narcissus, from the poetic circle “Metamorphoses” by the Roman poet Ovid, and the myth of “Izutsu” (Well-Cradle) from the work of the same name by the Japanese playwright Zeami, these two works explore themes of gender and identity in the broader context of the transition between the immediately perceivable world and the hidden worlds of Fantasy and Transcendence. 

Dancers Jun Takahashi, Asagio Hisai, Natali Mandila, and Justine Goussot use sensors to create live sound and music through their movements in works by composers Iannis Zannos, Haruka Hirayama, and Hideaki Isobe. The performance also features remote participation from Japan by Yoshimitsu Yoshiya and 3ducksDADA, a group of young artists based in Tokyo, in an innovative technological setting of live collaboration over the internet. In addition to conventional teleconferencing methods, the work utilises original technologies that translate the body movements of the artists into data for the production of sound and imagery using open-source software. 

The technology for the project was developed within the framework of the HAL research project of the Department of Audovisual Arts at the Ionian University and is presented here for the first time in autonomous, large-scale works.  Last, the city of Eleusis hosts the audiowalk “Feygousa” with soundscapes of the city and sounds of the Mystery91_Magnetic Dance performance. The audiowalk is geo-located by the Akoo.o team (Nikos Bubaris, Dana Papachristou, Yorgos Samantas and Sofia Grigoriadou). The audiowalk will be available through the Echoes.xyz app throughout the event.

The premiere of the work will take place at X-Bowling Art Center on Saturday 21 October and Sunday 22 October at 19:30. On Sunday, October 22nd at 12:00, at the Old Municipality of Elefsina, the project presents a collaborative work with live video, sound, and data interaction between Tokyo and Elefsina, with 3ducksDADA, a group of Japanese and Chinese artists organising an event in the Sanya neighbourhood of Tokyo, aiming to bridge the working-class neighbourhoods of Sanya and Eleusis.  This will be followed by a panel discussion between the artists and media theorists and digital arts specialists from Greece, Japan and internationally.

Τhe production of the work is coordinated by To Aesthate Research Center.