A mixed media performance event that explores internet surveillance, data collection, codependency culture and our very real relationships to our mobile devices. How do our emotional vulnerabilities make us perfect subjects of internet surveillance and personal data collection? This experimental musical explores the complicated, scary, and error-filled relationships we have with our (increasingly capable) digital assistants, as well as the corporate and government data servers lurking behind them. Using multi-channel sound, original music, live projections and the seemingly innocuous techno surveillance tools we all carry everywhere, the ensemble transform their own personal search data, speech-to-text transcriptions, spamboxes, “accidental” google recordings and more into an evening length exploration of digital codependency and consensual (or complacent?) surveillance. Creepy, funny, and relatable, OK GURGLE is a meditation on what it means to continually ‘agree to continue’ in a digitally dependent world. Written and performed by Alexis Powell and Candace Thompson.
Bio
Hearsay & Hyperbole is an interdisciplinary performance ensemble founded in 2011 by Alexis Powell. The ensemble utilizes arts-based methods to analyze and respond to a research question or deep curiosity about human connection and communication. They are the recipient of the 2013 Danish Visiting Artist Residency and a 2015 Brooklyn Arts Council grant for “An Invitation to Sleep”, as well as a 2019 Brooklyn Arts Council grant for “OK GURGLE”