Pandemic Encounters ::: being[together] in the deep third space
A Networked Performance Installation
LEONARDO/ISAST and the Third Space Network announce the first Global LASER: Pandemic Encounters ::: being [together] in the deep third space on Saturday, May 23, 12-1:30pm EDT. This online performance installation is a creation of pioneering telematic artist Paul Sermon in collaboration with Randall Packer, Gregory Kuhn and the action-performers.
Pandemic Encounters is a networked performance installation inhabited by the live chroma-figure of Paul Sermon. Participants are invited to enter into the deep third space to engage & perform a ritual action as a reflection on the Covid-19 state of being[together] remotely. Each action has its own form: an artistic expression, a scientific analysis, a poetic rendering, a political manifesto, a social critique, a dystopic cry of distress, a subtle movement, a moment of catharsis, or a call in the night from some distant corner of the world. Pandemic Encounters is a collective/creative response to a global pandemic that has triggered an unfolding metamorphosis of the human condition.
action-performers:
Annie Abrahams (France) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22458
Tania Fraga (Brazil) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/1253
Roberta Buiani (Canada) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/15407
Andrew Denton (New Zealand) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22471
Daniel Pinheiro (Portugal) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22456
Marilene Oliver (Canada) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/1736
Toni Sant (United Kingdom) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/11808
Atau Tanaka (United Kingdom) - http://ataut.net/
Olga Remneva (Russia) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22465
Ng Wen Lei & Serena Pang (Singapore)
Birgitta Hosea (United Kingdom) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22586
Clarissa Ribeiro (Brazil) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/1978
Charles Lane (Los Angeles) - https://www.leonardo.info/led/22473
World Times and Date:
San Francisco: May 23, 2020, 9:00–10:30 a.m.
New York: May 23, 2020, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
London: May 23, 2020, 5:00–6:30 p.m.
Sao Paulo: May 23, 2020, 1:00–2:30 p.m.
Hong Kong: May 24, 2020, 12:00–1:30 a.m.
In this perilous time, we are witnessing the global phenomenon of a migration into the third space with unknown existential ramifications. We find ourselves, en masse, in a strange new world, a new medial landscape, like a hall of mirrors, gazing at reflections of ourselves + others through the lens of the ubiquitous Webcam. We have been forced into this telematic world to remove and isolate ourselves from the hellish outside reality of the pandemic. The third space has become for many a safe haven from a world turned upside down, a safety net, or a buffer zone to salvage and resurrect human contact – virtually – while remaining separated by distance & geography.
Pandemic Encounters is intended to collectively explore the implications of this migratory transition into the third space. Even when we return to the so-called normal, we will be changed, when social interaction & human engagement will have undergone a radical transformation. Who knows what this new world will look like, and who knows to what degree our social behaviors, interactions, intimacies, and creative actions will have been forever altered & reconfigured.
The Deep Third Space Virtual Research Platform is a creation of the Third Space Network for networked experimentation, a place to rethink online social interactions, to explore virtual touch, remote intimacies, networked presence, telematic histories, and the distributed gaze. The deep third space is a place that more than anything resembles lucid dreaming, free from the constraints of the physical laws of the known world.
Paul Sermon was born in Oxford, England, 1966. He was Awarded the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, in the category of interactive art, for the hyper media installation 'Think about the People now' in Linz, Austria, September 1991. Find out more
Since the 1980s, multimedia artist, composer, writer and educator Randall Packer has worked at the intersection of interactive media, live performance, and networked art. He has received critical acclaim for his socially and politically infused critique of media culture, and has performed and exhibited at museums, theaters, and festivals internationally. Find out more
Third Space Network
The Third Space Network is an artist-driven Internet platform for staging creative dialogue, live performance and uncategorizable activisms: social empowerment through the act of becoming our own broadcast media. A project of Creative Director Randall Packer, the Third Space Network explores the Internet as a theater of the future, a place for live artistic experimentation and new forms of social interaction.
LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) is Leonardo/ISAST's international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together to provide the general public with a snapshot of the cultural environment of a region and to foster interdisciplinary networking. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website.