People Are Talking: UMS presents Ryoji Ikeda’s...
Posted: 10/31/14
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PERFORMANCES & EVENTS
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All comments by Merin
People Are Talking: UMS presents Ryoji Ikeda’s superposition at Power Center:
I agree about the balcony positioning. While I still enjoyed the performance, the balcony seats were definitely a pain. Several projectors obscured your view of the main large screen, which was intended to be very immersive. It was definitely harder to fully immerse yourself in the experience with the limited view, and it was difficult to read some of the text on the smaller screens.
Ikeda’s “Superposition” was pure sensory overload to the point that it was actually an assault on the visual and auditory systems. Although, I assume that this effect was intentional and that Ikeda designed the performance to make the audience feel sensually uncomfortable and disoriented.
"I have some general criticisms on the way that the show was produced and how it was staged at the Power Center. I don’t think that seats should have been sold for the balcony. The two smaller rows of screens were impossible to see from that height. Additionally, the auxiliary speakers and the projectors hanging from the ceiling blocked the view of the larger screens and ultimately disrupted my viewing experience.
The use of morse code was not well executed. Since the morse code messages were only use of words in the show, this was only opportunity to get a direct verbal message across to the audience. However, since there was no spaces included in the complex and long winded sentences, it was difficult to understand. The confusion was augmented by the fact that each performer was spelling out different things and the audience was expected to decode both at the same time.
Ultimately, I was very disappointed with the performance of “Superposition”.
by Robyn
People Are Talking: UMS presents Ryoji Ikeda’s superposition at Power Center:
Ryoji Ikeda’s work was overwhelming, disorienting, even at times anxiety-producing. This probably turned off many viewers. But what better way to represent mass data and modern technology and science? The modern world is disorienting to say the least, particularly when it comes to the ever-expanding tech world. To Superposition’s detractors, I can only say that every emotion I felt during the performance, every confused thought or feeling of bafflement, was only a heightened version of those experienced when confronted with the bewildering, awe-inspiring world of contemporary science.
And yet there was structure to Ikeda’s chaos. He did not create the hectic, mind-boggling moments of the performance to reflect modern science without comment. The more “peaceful” intervals of the piece served to illustrate the connections and overlaps between man and big data. While Superposition begins and ends with the all-consuming presence of data—the screens filled with numbers and images incomprehensible to the average viewer, waves of impersonal tech sound coming at the audience from all directions—but the human element is essential to the show, and made a huge impact on my experience. Ikeda is not placing man and machine (or data) on opposite poles, struggling against each other. The human “performers” are placed in the midst of the levels of technological visual representation, playing with various ways of manipulating the technology that surrounds them. Neither man nor machine is supposed to win, that’s beside the point. The human presence, at least for me, made sense of the staggering crush of information and representation that the show contained.
Superposition brought up dozens of fledgling thoughts lodged in the back of my mind, and articulated them in more engaging, challenging way than I would have thought possible. This wasn’t a performance intended to be easy to understand, or perhaps even to like (many reacted strongly to strobe-type lighting and the technological, often ear-splitting noise). But for me, it was one of the most unique, revelatory, and genuinely enthralling events I’ve ever experienced.