WORK
CURRENT PROJECT
ANTROPO|SYNTHESIS
IMMERSIVE CONNECTIONS
With composer Kenji Tanaka, cinematographer Mohamad El Hadidi, and the performers Erikookie Filia, Miriam Budzàkovà, Simone Lorenzo Benini, and Ofer Dayani, Birke van Maartens collectively creates a performance work that blurs the line between reality and audiovisual screen performance. In collaboration the seven artists reflect on models of coexistence, ecology, and explore how we can think the Anthropocene to delineate future paths in a body-based, choreographic and performative way.
[COSMIC PARANOIA]
Entropy on Elysian Fields
PREMIERE:
JUNE 17TH 2022
JOSEF ECKART THEATRE, SALZBURG, AUSTRIA
FURTHER DATES:
JULY 9TH 2022
LUST AM RISIKO FESTIVAL, UNCANNY VALLEY
[COSMIC PARANOIA] Entropy on Elysian Fields
A surreal cyber-topia beyond current states and its ephemeral mechanization.
Welcome to an alternate reality, a modified world that is made of bits and bytes: A world in which human consciousness is transferred to digital memory and death gets abolished at the push of a button. While lives pass into the hands of computing systems, humanity attains a new form of existence in which advanced culture dies to enter eternity in virtual reality. With the new digital (I)deal familiar things seem alien, feelings seem false, and collective memory seems to have been undermined while an AI takes over cognitive action.
With humor and imaginative power, the future of humankind and artificial intelligence is pondered, questioned, and speculated upon. The absurd dramedy leads to a single question: What's left of us after all?
Artistic Concept by Birke van Maartens
Choreography in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Elena Rebeccato, Jacob Börlin, Katarzyna Niznik, Mira Huszar, Nele Vonckx, Victor Bolzman and Birke van Maartens (A.R.A)
Sound Design: Kenji Tanaka & Birke van Maartens [Akkordverdächtig]
Production Assistance: Erika Filia, Miriam Budzáková, Deborah Sanchez
Outside Eye: Erika Filia
Pictures by Clement Hamilton
Supported by: Stadt Salzburg, Land Salzburg, Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_a215732e9dd549d1beb0192e3d7e4f05~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,fp_0.67_0.36,q_90/0bb168_a215732e9dd549d1beb0192e3d7e4f05~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_d5877869f84940f59ef5b3e8bbb8ae47~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1670,h_1251,q_90/0bb168_d5877869f84940f59ef5b3e8bbb8ae47~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_d4badafbc13d4eb0b8cd5e363e15b3e3~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,fp_0.36_0.4,q_90/0bb168_d4badafbc13d4eb0b8cd5e363e15b3e3~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_b628de1980054db1887fb5f6c173fa14~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,fp_0.63_0.23,q_90/0bb168_b628de1980054db1887fb5f6c173fa14~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_4d549bf28a3c42a799f7737995339bbd~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,q_90/0bb168_4d549bf28a3c42a799f7737995339bbd~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_ee10f34d9b7548d48a81d742f784cc27~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,q_90/0bb168_ee10f34d9b7548d48a81d742f784cc27~mv2.webp)
![[COSMIC PARANOIA]
ENTROPY ON ELYSIAN FIELDS
Picture by Clement Hamilton](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0bb168_ad9d9698898842e29f379aa079af8c07~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1560,h_1169,fp_0.44_0.16,q_90/0bb168_ad9d9698898842e29f379aa079af8c07~mv2.webp)
AI FOREST, 2021
SEP 8th - 12th 2021
ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 21, LINZ, AUSTRIA
Artist Residency at LIT Robopsychology Lab [Linz Institute of Technology] & Narrative Space at Ars Electronica Festival 2021, AT
'AI FOREST'
[Immersive art installation/ narrative space and research environment]
The artistic and innovative research environment – an 80sqm artificial indoor forest – was created to investigate questions about decision-making in teamwork with AI [Artificial Intelligence] and about explanatory strategies of machine learning systems. 'AI FOREST' was created in collaboration with the LIT Robopsychology Lab (Linz Institute of Technology) and showcased at the Ars Electronica Festival 2021 as part of the exhibition 'Demystify AI'.
Artistic Concept: Birke van Maartens
Project Lead: Martina Mara, Nives Meloni
Sound Design / Sound Installation: Kenji Tanaka
Scenery Design: Birke van Maartens
Scenery Construction: Leonie Haasler, Gabriel Vitel
App Development & Game Design: JKU Visual Data Science Lab
[ Moritz Heckmann, Andreas Hinterreiter, Christina Humer, Marc Streit ]
Research Design: Benedikt Leichtmann
Special Thanks to: Mykologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft am Biologiezentrum Linz (Otto Stoik & Team)
AI Forest emerged from the research project HOXAI – Hands-on Explainable AI, in which the LIT
Robopsychology Lab and the Visual Data Science Lab at JKU Linz collaborate as project partners.
Funded by: The State of Upper Austria and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research via the LIT – Linz Institute of Technology
https://ars.electronica.art/newdigitaldeal/en/ai-forest/
RECENT WORKS
PREVIOUS WORKS
ILI.FAME, 2021
PREMIERE:
AUG - 20th 2021
TANZRAUM WEDDING, BERLIN, GERMANY
ILI.FAME _ Motherless Child
Human development is a lifelong process. It is defined as the process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live. Although there seems to be a distance between generations, regardless of individual external influences, the same patterns of behavior can be observed over many generations.
The ability of an organism, determined by genes to develop certain characteristics may play a significant role in this process. ILI.FAME is a search for freedom and individuality in a world full of patterns and existing structures.
Choreography: Birke van Maartens
Performance: Erik Cataldo, Friederike Schulz, Maria Rossa, Nadine Marshi, Olivia Das, Patricia Patell, Sarah Al Faouri, Tony Schwadtke
Costume and Scenery / Light Design: Birke van Maartens
WHITE FLAG
[sorry not sorry],
2021
PREMIERE:
APR 4th 2021
BERLIN, GERMANY
Videopremiere
WHITE FLAG [sorry not sorry]
The choreographic work portrays the injustice toward freedom of love. Sorry, not sorry is a way of acknowledging that someone might not like whatever you're saying or doing, but going for it anyway. In conventional vexillology, a white flag is linked to surrender, a dogmatic reference to the Biblical description of non-violence and surrender to God's will. But what do freedom and non-violence vs. surrender mean, especially in societies that fear the concept of individuality?
Choreography: Birke van Maartens and Sarah Al Faouri
Performance: Sarah Al Faouri & Birke van Maartens
Sound Production/ Songwriting: Gabriel Vitel
Videography: Jan Philip Roza
Light Design: Bewegtbild Ben
RAINY DAYS
The Obstacle Dissolved, 2020
PREMIERE:
AUG 17th 2020
Säälchen, Holzmarkt
Berlin, Germany
Videostream
RAINY DAYS
The Obstacle Dissolved
Each of us is confronted with the loss of a person in the course of our lives. In our current times, the topics of death and dying are omnipresent but almost never addressed.
The choreographic work is a very personal active confrontation with death although it deals with the repression of grief and conscious mourning.
Choreography: Birke van Maartens
Performance: Paula Hennigsen & Birke van Maartens
Sound Design: Birke van Maartens
Light Design: Kenji Tanaka
Video: Units Digital Production
Directed by: Peter Schings
Videographer: Tobias König
Co-Produced by MEOW, Holzmarkt 25 Berlin