Motus

La crociata contro la teoria del gender inizia nel 1995 come una guerra contro i cinque sessi. Ma i difensori dell'ordine veteropatriarcale non hanno capito che a chi contesta binarismo sessuale ed eterosessualità obbligatoria cinque sessi non bastano! Lo spettacolo MDSLX dei Motus è una magnifica occasione per spiegare perché.

According to “material engagement theory” (Malafouris, 2013), technological media could be seen as a constituent tool for the co- etermination of mind and things. In fact, media-based experiences such as moviegoing or gaming, involve humans in the complex processes of mind extension, distribution, and sensory recalibration. In this regard, the concept of “presence”, defined as the neuropsychological state whose goal is the control of agency, is a key term in understanding this epistemological framework. Moreover, by modulating “fields of presence” (Gatti, 2019), technical media contribute in performing perception-action-affection-reasoning routines among bodies, minds, and environments.

With a media archaeological approach towards enactive theory, the paper will analyze different media-based experiences that orient, recalibrate, extend and augment the human state of presence. In doing so I will introduce the notion of “presence media” (an ensemble of devices whose design goal is the mediation of presence). Concepts like “transparent/opaque experience” (Clark, 2003), “self-presence” (Lombard, Biocca, 2015) and “narrative simulations” (Herman, 2013) will be discussed by analyzing Chroma Keys (2019), an in intermedial performance by Italian theatre company Motus. By employing an innovative live green screen technique, the intersexual performer Silvia Calderoni intervenes into a hallucinated journey-trip with an apocalyptic climate which reflects the sense of going and discovering a “world to come”.

In doing so the paper aims to shed new light on the study of mediated experience by challenging the notions of subjectivity, representation, and identification with that of presence, emulation, and enaction.

The Italian company Motus has developped a project named Syrma Antigones for two years. In this project, Motus didn't intend to offer a new version of the Greek tragedy but aimed to search traces left behind by the rebellious protagonist in the contemporary world, to investigate through experimental performances about her possible survival. This paper analyses the chosen performative modes in this archeological experiment, from the fragmentary structure to the confrontation between theatre and political reality, and exploration of a queer dramaturgy based on fraternity, against State violence and the law of kinship.