BAPTISM/DIGITAL TRANCE

Director: Friendred

Performer: Beatrice Perini | Yerin Lee | Sasha Mattock

Music producer: John Xie | Joy Lee

Baptism is a performance that explores shamanic practices of rituals, divination and healing. It presents a digital interpretation of the shamanic process of contacting the spiritual world while in an altered state of consciousness. Staged in a spiritual dimension and with a focus on the practice of exorcism, Baptism represents three different stages of the Shaman’s journey; ecstasy/trance, travelling and healing.

The first stage depicts the process of entering into a trance like state in order to reach the other world. The Shaman (Angakkoq) must be careful, if he loses control, he risks losing his soul. The second stage represents travel. Whilst still in a deep trance, the Shaman must journey to meet the “Mother of the Sea” and her spirit helpers. The shaman and their spirit helpers are the only ones who can approach the “Mother of the Sea” during the ritual. The third stage symbolizes the retrieval of a patient's lost soul from another world during a healing ritual.

Wearable technologies assist the performers in embodying the idea of transformation. High voltage, dimmable LEDs are controlled with IMU data (Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Magnetometer) collected from the performers movements. Commanding body language is used to direct beams of lights and create the sense of a feedback loop between the physical world and the spiritual world, using DMX (protocol) and a Kinect. These techniques, combined, create an immersive depiction of a new age ritual. The aesthetics and scenography of Baptism are outlandish, grotesque and vaporwave, creating a feeling of synesthesia within performers and spectators.