Relive the Virtual: An Analysis of Unplugged Performance-Installations

Abstract

Can retro media make us relive the virtual from digital media? Following McLuhan’s thesis that the proper characteristics of a medium are revealed through remediation, it could well be that retro media re-enacting digital media can make explicit what the concept ‘virtual’ entails. Therefore, two recent works are analysed that take as their starting point antique theatrical techniques (the ballet pulley, the panorama) to evoke optical illusions , not to stage another illusion but rather to do something else with it. Both works include a non-narrative interplay with antiquated technological installations that nonetheless generate a challenging experience for a contemporary spectator living in a digital era. The performance-installation I/II/III/IIII by Kris Verdonck stages a repetition in time in which the viewer gets trapped. By reviving virtual features into real ones and presenting them in replay- mode, the viewer discovers how a variation of sameness can evoke significant differences, or how identity arises due to a repetition in time. The installation Location (6) of Hans Op De Beeck displays an all-round view in a real but generic space which induces the spectator’s performative power: like an avatar, the spectator can dwell in the virtuality of personal imagination.