Feed / Kurt Hentschläger

Multidisciplinay Creation
February 13th, 22h – February 14th, 17h and 23h  – February 15th, 23h / studio d’Essai
Length: 60 minutes
Warning: 18 years of age and more

Feed is a spellbinding reassessment of our senses.  This immersive and disconcerting performance takes a look at the troubled relationship between the human being and its technological double, putting each in opposition within an environment that will be transformed into a total sensory experience.

Genderless 3D figures are first staged in a suspended world, their motions and convulsions in synchronization like one being in a strangely organic ballet. Generated by a video-game graphic engine, the floating humanoids gradually generate sound an electronic symphony through their movements, to suddenly shut down after reaching an apotheosis. The audience is utterly drawn in as stroboscopic light and pulse stimulates the human brain, inducing a complete loss of orientation.  A dense fog completely floods the room reducing visibility so that one cannot even see ones neighbor. The loss of space and perception strikes at the very core of the spectator. An absolutely immersive and destabilizing experience!

From its conception at the Biennale de Venise in 2005, Feed has continued to stir both the public and critics for its technical features and powerful sensory experience.  Its creator endeavors to trigger a true state of contemplation and grabs the audience at its most fundamental connection with the outside world.

WARNING:  Intense sensory experience.  A waiver of responsibility must be signed at the entrance!

Please read the warnings on the festival website: www.moismulti.org

About Kurt Hentschläger
(Chicago, United States)

FEED © Kurt Hentschläger
Max and Unreal programmation : Michael Ferrero
3D model and conception of the characters: Francisco Narango

Austrian born artist Kurt Hentshläger has for many years explored the relation between humans and their machine extensions, as expressed in Feed, created in 2005.  His latest solo performances poetically explore the idea of the sublime and of technological force, using sound and visual composition and their interaction to produce works that are immersive in nature.

Having begun his career as a sculptor in 1983, after studying architecture at the University of Applied Arts at Vienna, the artist manipulates space in a cunning and structural fashion. He created KARMA/cell in 2006, an installation that comes alive via suspended humanoid 3D figures, oscillating between moments of torment and meditative peace. He also produced work in situ for urban locations, Lichtwerk and nature04

Kurt Hentschläger is also known as a member of the duo Granular Synthesis which he founded with Ulf Langheinrich in 1991 and that represented Austria at the 2001 Venice Biennial.

The artist would like to thank Claudia Hart & Friedrich Kirschner.

With the support of :
Bundeskanzleramt : Kunst / Federal Chancellery Austria 
Land Oberoesterreich - Kultur / Cultural Dept. State of Upper Austria   

FEED is a command of the Venice Biennale 200

Kurt Hentschläger
FEED - introduction by the artist:

I am writing this introduction to explain why you are asked to sign a waiver attending FEED

FEED, in its second half, features intense stroboscopic light in combination with thick artificial fog, resulting in a loss of spatial orientation and ultimately no depth of field and 3D vision. The absence of normal spatial orientation makes the flickering mass seem to glue one to the spot. It can make some people feel claustrophobic. .A synchronized sound-scape and sub-low bass (sine waves 25h-50Hz) augments this impression, creating a physical experience for a total duration of approximately 15 minutes.

It is important to know that if, during the performance, you start sensing any feeling of unease, nausea or panic, the best and fasted way to protect yourself from any possibility of a photosensitive reaction, is to cover your eyes with your hands (or light proof material, like clothing), in order to instantly shut the strobe flicker out. Then ask somebody to call a security person, which will help you, if necessary, to leave the venue. Several security person will be around in the performance venue in order to assist anyone experiencing distress or simply preferring to leave.

Please read carefully the following warnings, so that you can judge yourself whether or not you should expose yourself to FEED.

“To attend FEED is under no circumstances appropriate and can actually be dangerous for anybody with a personal history or even a family history of so called photosensitive epilepsy.

>Due to the immersive nature of Feed, which makes stroboscopic flicker fill one’s entire view field, known phenomena linked to photosensitivity like a feeling of seasickness or motion sickness, fainting and short term memory blackouts can be experienced in various degrees.

The degree of photosensitivity differs from person to person; non-epileptic people, without any history of epilepsy, have been found to experience photosensitive seizures or fainting in dance clubs or events using stroboscopic lights. You could be susceptible without knowing you are. So ask yourself if you ever felt nauseous or dizzy when exposed to strobe light? If your answer is even vaguely yes, you cannot see Feed.

Apart from photosensitivity, anybody suffering from asthma, breathing and heart problems, abnormal (high or low) blood pressure, migraine & headaches, all kinds of eye & ear diseases cannot see the show.

People suffering from claustrophobia or anxiety, even people who temporarily don’t feel well, should not attend.
Pregnant women are also strongly advised to refrain from attending.“

FEED has triggered physical reactions in the past, which although of an ephemeral and benign nature, still are experienced as disturbing and upsetting when they occur.

The artificial fog being used is proven, even in extreme intensities, not to be of any health risk, the stroboscopes used in the show are standard theatrical units, the loudness of the PA, finally does not exceed limits set either by common sense or the law.

Having said that, for all of you who still want to check it out, welcome to the show.