»Inferno« is a participative robotic performance inspired by the concept of control and the representation of hell as described in Dante’s »Inferno« (the first part of the »Divine Comedy«) and in the Singaporean Haw Par Villa’s »Ten Courts of Hell« (which is based on a Chinese Buddhist representation). In Inferno, »the circles of hell« concept is a framework, a theme under which the different parts of the performance are regrouped.

The specificity of this performance resides in the fact that the different machines involved in the performance are retrofitted on the body of raptured audience members who become performers. A selected group of the audience therefore becomes an active part of the performance, giving a radical instance of immersive and participative experiences. Shifting the exoskeleton’s command from the authors, to the computer, to the audience and to the performers, Inferno questions the nature of control – either mechanic or human, either coerced or voluntary – where either utopian or dystopian futures radiate, both real and fictional.

A total of up to 36 persons can actively participate. They can slip in »robot cases« and be controlled by the machines.

Credits

• Louis-Philippe Demers (Concept)
• Bill Vorn (Concept)

Organization / Institution

ZKM | Karlsruhe