KRAKEN is an interdisciplinary performance created and performed by a collective of six artists from different disciplines. The work explores the limits of the human body in interaction with technological devices, through a staging that articulates four central elements: body, light, sound, and space.
The proposal is structured around an apparently simple but physically demanding action: a game of paddle against fronton. According to the staging, between two and four performers participate on stage, who sustain this action in a space technologically intervened with sensors, microphones, and real-time processing software. Each stroke of the ball and each body movement are translated into sound and light variables, generating an immersive atmosphere where the human body is strained by the logic of the machines that surround and amplify it.
Inspired by the Scandinavian mythological figure of the Kraken—a symbol of the imminent, of that which devours from the depths—the work reflects on the sensory and physical overload of contemporary bodies, subjected to the dizzying pace of technology. As Agamben argues, “the only experience our age provides is not having experience”: in KRAKEN, this idea is embodied in a theatrical game that becomes progressively unsustainable, to the point of exhaustion.
