Sandrine Deumier: [Play;]

Title:

[Play;]

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):

Sandrine Deumier

Symposium:

ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art
More artworks from ISEA2020:

Creation Year:

2014

Medium:

Digital poetry

Artist Statement:

Using the textual matter and metaphors of Homer’s Odyssey, [Play;] proposes a contemporary reinterpretation of the epic as a mode of online navigation and discovery. Divided into eleven chapters or songs, the titles of which refer to episodes from the famous epic (Penelope, The Cyclops, Calypso, The Sirens), [Play;] asks the spectator/player to wander with their cursor through various disjointed fragments that cross the pantheon of Greek heroes with contemporary web mythologies (dating sites, chat rooms, downloads, geolocalization). Deumier rethinks the distance that separates users from networks and the relational and phantasmatic modes associated with the world of the query by modelling them on the wandering tale of Odysseus (Ulysses), the hero of the Odyssey.

This digital occurence is part of a larger project, since [Play;] is also a video and stage performance in which the artist, wearing equipment reminiscent of virtual reality paraphernalia and resembling a digital avatar, recites some of the excerpts found on the work’s website. Deumier appears in pairs with a musician who accompanies her voice and a strange electric lyre designed for the occasion. The performance seems to put into perspective the role of the aède (lyric poet) in our contemporary societies.