Random Acts of Memory

Dolly

Random Acts of Memory

An asynchronous interplay of unreasonable facsimiles and unfaithful self-portraits.

Random Acts of Memory juxtaposes the live and the mediated in an exploration of the co-evolutionary process of the memory of the body and the memory of the machine. The performance presents an asynchronous interplay of unreasonable facsimiles and unfaithful self-portraits rendered via circuits and synapses as it investigates the relationship between digital and synaptic memory, between replication and interpretation and between a famous Country Western singer and a rather unusual sheep.

Random Acts of Memory, Curious, 1997 (still)
Random Acts of Memory, Curious, 1997 (still)
Random Acts of Memory, Curious, 1997 (still)

“What are the factors in combining live performance with integrated media that challenge our assumptions about reality? Is it possible to invent relationships between live and synthetic personifications to create a third dimension of the performance experience? RAM featured live action in one moment; a parallel mediated version in the next, and/or ‘clones’ of the actors as synthetic characters sharing the performance space together. Personal life stories were laced with large doses of intellectual ‘wisdom’ and physical action that assaulted the audience in visceral terms, inducing multiple levels of meaning.”

Richard Loveless, The Routledge Reader in Politics and Performance

Random Acts of Memory was commissioned by the Institute for Studies in the Arts, Arizona and supported by a research and development grant from Arts Council England (1998).